Iconic Purple Directional Signs Being Replaced

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Right. I get all of that. But there is still a huge gap between what WDW presents most of its resort hotels as and "tacky".

The All-Star Resorts, Pop Century, and Art of Animation resorts are "tacky", but they're intentionally tacky for the fun factor. Calling all of WDW tacky is like suggesting that all of WDW looks like these resorts.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
Right. I get all of that. But there is still a huge gap between what WDW presents most of its resort hotels as and "tacky".

The All-Star Resorts, Pop Century, and Art of Animation resorts are "tacky", but they're intentionally tacky for the fun factor. Calling all of WDW tacky is like suggesting that all of WDW looks like these resorts.
I’m really digging you more on this than it appears…so forgive me

the point of the themes at all star was never “tacky”…at least not totally…it was to provide a different appeal to different travelers. Yes…some of it was to show what you paid for…but it was also for high school trips, sports teams, family reunions across varied means…it’s not as evil as it seems.

the problem? It’s Tacky at $200 a night…same as the moderates at $300…or the deluxe at $600 (which they haven’t really been able to book up for years)
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Right. I get all of that. But there is still a huge gap between what WDW presents most of its resort hotels as and "tacky".

The All-Star Resorts, Pop Century, and Art of Animation resorts are "tacky", but they're intentionally tacky for the fun factor. Calling all of WDW tacky is like suggesting that all of WDW looks like these resorts.
You misunderstand me. I love Disney and I love theme parks. I think Disney is a (desecrated) artistic masterpiece. I’d much rather go to Orlando then Fashion Week.

But by the standards of the kind of trend setters you’d find at Fashion Week, the overlords of haute couture, the kind of people very concerned with what colors are in or out, Disney is tacky. Or the European Postmodernists like Eco, who look at the worlds fair reproductions of old world architecture and high art in World Showcase and see in it the epitome of the tackiness at the heart of American culture. Or turn to almost any arbiter of the traditional cultural hierarchy, like the ones who told Eisner that no matter how great the newly-opened GF was, no theme park hotel would ever get five stars.

And you can see their point. Disney features a lot of artistry directed at something rather silly. Minutely detailed reproductions of filmic landscapes that never were. Idealized depictions of a turn-of-the-century middle-American small town populated by talking mice and goofy dogs. A worlds fair 60 years after the worlds fair had any cultural relevance.

And it’s glorious. Wonderful. Tacky isn’t bad. It’s fun, freeing, relaxing, exhilarating! So yeah, if you want to say some element of WDW is tacky - great! That’s the point! And done well, it’s as great as the greatest of high art!
 

JAB

Well-Known Member
I'm sort of somewhere in the middle on this. The signs were definitely very '90s and dated, and needed to be updated, but the new signs are just sort of "okay" and could've just at least a splash of color somewhere or something else to make them stand out.

As an "Epcot purist," I get the appeal of nostalgia, but they can't leave everything unchanged, so there has to be a line somewhere and road signs don't seem like something that needs to be reverently preserved.

In the end, to me anyway, they're just road signs. 🤷‍♂️
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
1643341599291.png

New Colors with old font from @disneyglimpses

The font is probably the most confusing change. Even with the new colors, it still stands out with the old font. I’m quite confused why they changed to the smaller, generic font. By all accounts, it’s a change that seems to make the signs less functional at what they are supposed to do.
 

zapple

Well-Known Member
Forgive me if I missed it, but are they replacing ALL the purple signs, or just the big ones that go over roadways?
 

scoobygirl39541

Well-Known Member
and I miss Disney being Disney. It was fun, different, colorful, cartoony, Disney - an escape from the modern, sleek, business, calm, cool, collected world. It helped me feel more "like a kid" when WDW looked like a kid's world. I don't wanna sit at the adult's table with the cool kids. I liked it when it looked like a family-fun place and not a serious business destination. It makes you wonder - who are they trying to impress? Who are they trying to attract?
I immediately didn't like these and I couldn't put my finger on why, but this is why! Disney is where you're supposed to feel like a kid again and like you've stepped into a silly cartoon with no worries. The "wacky/tacky" signs were part of that immersion. These are too straightlaced for me as well. They could have added pixie dust or something to it.. I don't know.
 

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
You misunderstand me. I love Disney and I love theme parks. I think Disney is a (desecrated) artistic masterpiece. I’d much rather go to Orlando then Fashion Week.

But by the standards of the kind of trend setters you’d find at Fashion Week, the overlords of haute couture, the kind of people very concerned with what colors are in or out, Disney is tacky. Or the European Postmodernists like Eco, who look at the worlds fair reproductions of old world architecture and high art in World Showcase and see in it the epitome of the tackiness at the heart of American culture. Or turn to almost any arbiter of the traditional cultural hierarchy, like the ones who told Eisner that no matter how great the newly-opened GF was, no theme park hotel would ever get five stars.

And you can see their point. Disney features a lot of artistry directed at something rather silly. Minutely detailed reproductions of filmic landscapes that never were. Idealized depictions of a turn-of-the-century middle-American small town populated by talking mice and goofy dogs. A worlds fair 60 years after the worlds fair had any cultural relevance.

And it’s glorious. Wonderful. Tacky isn’t bad. It’s fun, freeing, relaxing, exhilarating! So yeah, if you want to say some element of WDW is tacky - great! That’s the point! And done well, it’s as great as the greatest of high art!
I get and agree with a good deal of what you're saying, but I don't really understand how this translates to keeping the style of infrastructural roadway signage firmly entrenched in the 80s and 90s. Unlike your other examples, the wayfinding system wasn't a facsimile of anything. It was designed using colors and conventions that were popular 30 years ago to appeal to people 30 years ago.
 

Centauri Space Station

Well-Known Member
So to sum up:

Anti-disney crowd: "it's kind of hard to read, and the purple meant something to me, but whatever."

Pixie dusters: "i cant believe you guys are hating this. You guys are just outraged at everything."
Don’t forget the: “This sign sucks! Another reason Disney is terrible! I will never return again!” Folks
 

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