Disney Wish

Through the art consultancy Artlink, I was asked to create a series of four digital artworks for the crew areas aboard Disney Wish, the new ship of Disney Cruise Line. The brief asked for one shared composition in four versions, each with its own colour palette and its own hidden elements, printed in several sizes for offices throughout the ship.

Instead of four separate artworks, I built one botanical world and let the time of day change it. Dawn, Noon, Twilight and Dusk share the same twisting tree and foliage, while the sky, the light and the colour palette shift from one to the next. Side by side they read as one day passing.

Woven into the branches are topiaries shaped like Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Together with Artlink we set a clear hierarchy: Mickey and Minnie largest and equal in size, Donald and Goofy second, Pluto third. Minnie got her bow so the two stand apart, and Donald found his place on top of a branch. The topiaries stay close to one colour, so they reveal themselves slowly instead of all at once.

The first sketches had a centred tree with too much empty space around it. Twisting the trunk made the composition more organic and whimsical. Smaller branches and a faded tree in the foreground fill the lower part, and a hint of background foliage and sky adds depth. Birds such as a red fody, a hornbill and blue birds bring colour and life, and the clouds were softened so they never read as rain.

Artlink takes care of printing and framing, so the final artworks were delivered as high resolution files at 300 dpi. Each of the four works comes in three square sizes: an image of 462, 762 or 962 mm, framed at 500, 800 or 1000 mm. Test prints checked colour and detail on paper before the files went out.