Zeitgeist Design & Production, the creator of UX-IRL: User eXperiences In Real Life, and its team of former Disney Imagineers has completed a successful five-year creative development retainer with Chimelong Group, China’s leading owner/operator of entertainment resorts.
Since July 2019, Chimelong has relied on the creative minds at Zeitgeist to conceive, design, masterplan, illustrate, write, model, estimate, and present ground-breaking new concepts for the company’s ever-expanding collection of successful theme parks, water parks, circuses, resorts, and restaurants in both Guangzhou and Zhuhai, China.
Working closely with Chimelong’s chairman and 2024 TEA Buzz Price Lifetime Achievement recipient Su Zhigang, Zeitgeist called upon each team member’s 35+ years of experience and some $12bn in successfully built projects around the globe to develop dozens of location-based entertainment concepts for existing and future Chimelong-owned theme parks and resorts.
Bespoke experiences
Zeitgeist’s inaugural assignment in late 2018 was to conceptualize a second-gate outdoor theme park for Chimelong’s Ocean Kingdom resort in Zhuhai. Su Zhigang was so impressed by what the team delivered after a week of work that he immediately assigned a handful of new projects, including a flying theatre ride, a next-generation animatronics show, and an observation tower for his hilltop property that overlooks Macau.
Months later, just minutes after presenting its latest round of designs, the Zeitgeist team was shuffled onto a golf cart and driven to the chairman’s private estate, which sits meters from the stunt show at the company’s Paradise theme park.
Between explosions, echoing Mandarin dialogue, and canned music, Su Zhigang offered Zeitgeist leaders Ryan Harmon and Joe Lanzisero a five-year retainer that insisted on exclusivity in the region, in-person visits every ten weeks, and a first right of refusal to creative direct and produce their designs through opening day.
The industry vets immediately expanded their team, opened a new time travel-themed studio in Old Town Pasadena, and began focusing daily on a never-ending list of assignments from Su Zhigang.
“Chimelong is one of the only owner/operators today that does not license IP,” says Lanzisero. “It was so refreshing for us to return to our days of starting with a blank sheet of paper and designing bespoke experiences based on original characters, stories and human aspirations like we used to do at Disney.”
Innovative concept packages
When COVID-19 shut the world down in March 2020, Chimelong continued to feed Zeitgeist new projects each month.
Working remotely, the company designed two themed lands for the hilltop property, story-rich indoor and outdoor rollercoasters, an interactive ride-through shooting gallery using real projectiles, another state-of-the-art animatronics show, robot-themed playgrounds, new themed lands for Chimelong Paradise, a walk-thru attraction refurbishment, imaginary cities for a new Chimelong animated web series, and a colourful water dark ride with pop culture artist Shag.
“When Mr. Su asked us to develop a dark ride about animals around the world for Chimelong Safari Park, we immediately thought of Mary Blair’s stylistic contribution to ‘It’s a Small World,'” says Harmon. “We asked ourselves, ‘who is the modern day Mary Blair?’ and realized it was Shag! So I reached out to Josh Agle (Shag’s real name) and together we designed one of the most original and whimsical dark rides of our careers!”
Some 2.5 years went by that the Zeitgeist team did not see their Chimelong colleagues in person. For much of that time, China was in lockdown, the parks were closed, and a 2-week quarantine in a local hotel was mandatory for those able to find a flight. Still, Harmon and Lanzisero, along with studio director and project coordinator Beckie Kiefer, kept their cadre of artists, architects, planners, 3D modellers, writers, and character designers busy creating clever design packages intended to exceed the chairman’s high expectations.
With Halloween becoming increasingly popular in China, the team was also asked to focus on developing spooky dark rides and walk-thru attractions for Chimelong Paradise, just as it had done so successfully for Hersheypark — where its three signature mazes are currently in their third year of fear.
See also: Emotion is key: Zeitgeist Design & Production on successful experiences
When the Chimelong Spaceship debuted in the fall of 2023, Zeitgeist was asked to create a cast of adorable alien characters who might inhabit the intergalactic aquarium. The team finally returned to China to develop a space overlay for the existing undersea-themed indoor carnival, a new masterplan for Chimelong Paradise —which lost numerous attractions due to a recent land sale, and multiple dark rides, including a ride-through video game on a moving conveyer belt!
“After Covid, Mr. Su’s attention became solely focused on enhancing the Spaceship,” says Lanzisero. “Chimelong’s other parks hadn’t received a new attraction in nearly a decade, and we had so many great concepts ready to move into schematic design to increase attendance, but the company’s priority was to create more experiences inside the Spaceship to make it the success it deserves to be.”
Unfortunately, park closures during the global pandemic, combined with financial resources being spent to enhance the Spaceship, meant that Chimelong did not green light anything new during Zeitgeist’s retainment. In July of this year, the award-winning creative team wrapped up an incredible five-year collaboration with dozens of innovative concept packages, hundreds of spectacular renderings, and a newfound respect for Su Zhigang and all that he’s accomplished.
“Mr. Su is a wise, friendly, and incredibly enthusiastic visionary,” says Harmon. “I just loved watching him stand up, wave his arms around, and mimic the sounds of an approving audience every time he described a new idea in Mandarin. We had no clue what he was saying — ever, but we knew it was going to be amazing!”
Re-entering the Chinese market
Today, Zeitgeist is preparing to re-enter the Chinese market after spending five years solely focused on Chimelong. Harmon, Lanzisero and the team are also enjoying some respite following over 60 months of juggling multiple designs on truncated schedules, frequent 18-hour flights, high-pressure presentations, and the challenges of working for a Chinese firm that operates very differently from Western owner/operators.
“Working for Mr. Su was an adventure, to say the least!” says Lanzisero. “And we loved every minute of it!”
“Now we’re just waiting for Mr. Su to greenlight one of our attractions, ” adds Harmon. “When we’re in our element, creative directing and producing an awesome new ride or show that significantly increases park attendance, that’s when he’ll recognize what the world’s most accomplished creative team is capable of!”
Located in the epicentre of location-based entertainment, in the historic creative triangle of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, California, Zeitgeist Design & Production is a team of veteran industry icons – mostly former executive-level Disney Imagineers – who have conceived, designed, produced, written, creative directed, and art directed over $12 billion in incredibly successful theme parks, lands, attractions, rides, shows, cruise ships, museums, restaurants, retail, nightclubs, resorts, and events around the world.
The company excels at transforming intellectual properties, histories, cultural tales, and original stories into groundbreaking world-class immersive and emotionally rich experiences using both state-of-the-art technologies and classic theatricality.
Zeitgeist also produces the beloved The Spirit of the Time Zoomcast — a live monthly video time travel adventure where industry leaders climb aboard a time machine with Harmon and Lanzisero to share their past, present, and future, as well as answer the eternal question, ‘what makes a guest experience timely, yet timeless?’ Nearly 40 entertaining and informative journeys are now available for free on the company’s website, YouTube channel, and all podcast outlets.
Last year, Harmon and Lanzisero boarded the time machine to take a look into the future of the themed entertainment industry. Harmon said: “2024 is going to be an exciting year for our industry. The big guys are going to continue to blow our minds with new tech and massive scale while the little guys are going to continue to take risks and establish new paradigms. Both strategies push our world forward and create even more compelling experiences for us all to enjoy!”
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