Armchair Imagineering: Color Theory

If you've scrutinized a Disneyland map lately (and if you haven't, why not?), you've probably noticed that the themed lands are color-coded. Each land is assigned a different hue that is applied not only to the numbered circles that mark attraction locations, but the ground in the map image. Color-coding is one of those things that make me unreasonably happy, especially when it works out as neatly as this. I could not improve upon the Disneyland color map if I tried. Each assignment is eminently logical given the themes and motifs of the different areas, and none is repeated.

Here, this map is pretty current:

Main Street, USA is red, a color that brings to mind not only the American flag, but humble bricks, shiny fire engines, and the “red carpet treatment” that Disneyland promises to arriving guests.

Adventureland is green, for the lush jungle foliage.

New Orleans Square is purple, with all its complex associations. Purple is the color of luxury, of exoticism, of supernatural spookiness. It's also one of the principal colors of Mardi Gras.

Critter Country, an earthy sort of land, is an earthy brown—the color of tree bark and forest soil in addition to the fur of most critters.

Frontierland is the orange of raw copper, Southwestern sandstone, and those sunsets cowboys were always riding off into.

Fantasyland is pink, not just because it is arguably the girliest land (with all those Princesses and fairies), but because pink is a gentle, whimsical color. Sleeping Beauty Castle has been painted pink since well before the current onslaught of franchise branding.

Mickey's Tootown, on the other hand, is raucous, blaring yellow—the color of Mickey Mouse's shoes and taxicabs alike.

And finally, Tomorrowland is blue, a crisp, airy color that ranges from the pale tint of the sky through oceanic medium tones to the deepest navy of the outer atmosphere. It pairs well with utopian white and technological chrome.

It's all so spot on and tidy. I am giddy with delight. And it wouldn't work nearly as well without this exact roster of lands. Which leads me to the actual Armchair Imagineering portion of this post: So what about the ninth land? The one currently under construction and expected to open a couple years down the line?

That's right, readers...hold onto your jaws...I am about to speculate as to how to properly integrate the upcoming Star Wars area with the rest of the park...at least as far as the map design is concerned. Everyone loves to Armchair-Imagineer big-budget rides and elaborate shows, but somebody has to stand back here and look after the less glamorous aspects of updates to the park. You're welcome.

So in order to be suitable for this purpose, a new color must not only be readily associated with the Star Wars franchise, but be easily distinguishable from the other eight. I will never stop reminding people that Disneyland is primarily a locals' park...but it does still attract tourists from all over the globe, not all of whom speak English well or even at all. It's going to be vital that guests be able to decipher the map without difficulty, especially when it has just undergone a huge change.

But what's left? It seems like the eight existing lands have used up the entire basic box of crayons! We don't want guests to have to hold a degree in interior design just to describe the additions to the park, so we'd better stick with simple color names.

To get the obvious out of the way, I don't think black or white would work very well. They both have connections to the Star Wars aesthetic and mythos (Light Side vs. Dark Side, yadda yadda), but they'd look pretty bad as ground color...bad enough to be mistaken for printing errors.

All right then...what about gray? That's black and white mixed together, and it's easy to read as a metallic surface, hinting at the technological setting features of the Star Wars franchise. However, all else being equal, I think Disney would prefer a color with more...color.

Another interesting possibility is light blue or dark blue. Just as pink, a lighter version of red, is often treated as a separate color entirely, so light and dark blue are often treated separately in color-coding. The shade currently used on the map for Tomorrowland is middling in value, so one solution might be to make it lighter and use a dark blue for the Star Wars area. Or vice versa. As a side benefit, this option would indicate the kinship between Tomorrowland—the current home of the Star Wars attractions—and their new home.

But out of all the possibilities I have considered, the one I like best is tan. It's a distinct color with its own short, easy-to-pronounce name, and it is easy to associate with Star Wars, a franchise in which Step 1 of becoming the protagonist is: Grow up on a desert planet. It's not gray, but it's also not a very bright color, which suits Star Wars's relative seriousness and lack of whimsy (compared to most other IPs you'll see in the park).

So there we are—if I were in charge of Disneyland map design, the new Star Wars area would be indicated with tan circles and ground tinting.

But you know what? I'm not done with this yet! There's a whole 'nother park* to examine in terms of its color coding!

As it stands, California Adventure has its own separate maps, and mostly uses the same colors as the Disneyland map since there's no need to keep them distinct. The color assignments seem to follow the same logic as those for Disneyland:

Buena Vista Street, the equivalent of Main Street, gets red. Hollywood Land gets purple, “a bug's land” is green, Cars Land is brown (a lighter, rustier shade than Critter Country, interestingly enough), Golden State is yellow, and Paradise Pier is blue. Alternate versions of the map assign brown to Buena Vista Street and red to Cars Land, which I think works just as well.

But supposing we were to plot out a giant combined map of both parks? Then the California Adventure areas would need new colors, distinct from those in Disneyland and from each other, while still making sense with regard to their own themes. Here are my picks:

Buena Vista Street: Taupe. Since this area is supposed to represent a mythologized version of Los Angeles as Walt Disney experienced it when he first arrived in the 1920s, I assign it a color reminiscent of old tintype photos and sepia-toned films—not accurate to the world as it was then, but how we tend to view that era, 90 years on. The legend is more important than the reality.

Hollywood Land: Maroon. I figure it's purple on the current map because Hollywood Land is, more or less, California Adventure's answer to New Orleans Square—an urban area associated with the arts, and incidentally being where the park's “spooky” ride is located. Maroon is another “luxurious” color, a little more down-to-earth than purple, and it brings to mind those red carpet movie premieres. It's also, of course, the color of Tower of Terror bellhop uniforms. And say...isn't Maroon the name of an actual Disney character who works in Hollywood?

“a bug's land”: Yellow-green. If rich, dark green is the color of Adventureland's jungle, then a louder, yellower green is the color of the grass and clovers the bugs play in...as well as many of the bugs themselves!

Cars Land: Rust. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...and if it is broke, and it's car-related, it's probably rusty, yeah? This color also matches the landscaping in the area, and its close enough to red-orange to make people think of taillights, traffic lights, and Lightning McQueen.

Golden State: Goldenrod. What else? It's a legit color—ask any print shop.

Paradise Pier: Turquoise. It's an even more oceanic color than plain blue, especially when people think of beach “paradises” like Hawaii or the Caribbean...or Malibu.

If this is all beginning to sound lurid and unattractive, keep in mind that the color coding is limited to the attraction location markers, and the tint on the ground. All the buildings and other features are shown in their real colors.

I hope you've found this little side trip into the art of color-coding at least moderately interesting. It gave me an excuse to use colored text, so there's that. Please let me know if you have any ideas for the Star Wars area or a hypothetical re-vamping of the California Adventure map that run contrary to mine, and why!

* New Y...eh, never mind.