Creating the Jetson's Atomic Funhouse

 ( An aspiring product designer's strange journey into the world of themed environmental design.)

by Alan Mudd

Students in the sixth semester product design class at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena were recently given the rare opportunity to design themed restaurant/retail environments for a project sponsored by MCA Recreation Services, the parent company of Universal Film and Television. This project was to be designed in such a way as to exploit one or several Universal film or television properties.

The person responsible for bringing these projects to Art Center was Phil Hettema, Senior Vice President of Attraction Development at MCA. At our project "kickoff", held at Universal Studios, Phil informed us that Universal had just been bought by The Seagram Company, LTD., the multi-national purveyor of distilled spirits, and had been charged with the formidable task of expanding their theme-park facilities worldwide by a factor of ten over the next ten years.

Themed restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, and Rain Forest Cafe have become big business in the past decade, and Universal has begun to explore concepts for restaurant properties of their own. Normally, a themed restaurant would be the type of project that would have been done by the environmental design department at Art Center, but Universal was interested in exploring a different path.

Most themed restaurants give their patrons "stuff in glass", that is, items pertaining to the theme of the environment that are displayed as in a museum. Patrons can see one of Eric Clapton's guitars at the Hard Rock or see a full-size Terminator figure at Planet Hollywood. Universal, however, wanted us to explore restaurant/retail ideas with a high degree of
interactivity, where the guest could drive his or her own experience, and therefore it was decided to give the project to product designers, people used to working with ergonomic factors in products such as sports equipment, computers and machine interfaces.

My teammate, Nasahn Sheppard, and I were immediately drawn to the idea of doing a facility aimed at the pre-adolescent children's market, and finally settled on the idea of merging the Jetsons, upon which Universal had based a 1987 feature film, with the concept of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, a teaching museum where kids are introduced to scientific principles in an engaging, interactive way.

Our early research told us that most of the themed restaurants in existence today
generate the majority of their income not from the sale of food, but from the sale of associated merchandise like T-shirts, baseball caps, and jackets. This led us to the decision to de-emphasized the restaurant in favor of more retail space and interactivity sites.

The Design

The building as seen from the outside was designed to provide a powerful indication of the fantastic, futuristic environment within. The Jetsons animation provided much of the form and color language from which we derived both our interior and exterior designs, and the rocket that encloses the entrance to the building is an over-the -top emphasis of the cartoony roots of our project. On the right, as seen in our Alias rendering of the building facade, there is a fast-food take-out counter that serves foot traffic on the sidewalk outside. The main entrance to the building is beneath the rocket on the left, and taking our cue from the Dive! restaurant in Las Vegas, steam emitted from the bottom of the rocket is accompanied by a rumbling blast-off soundtrack to help lure the curious into the building. They enter, of course, on a people mover, an important Jetsons feature. At this point, the guest gives his or her name to an automated receptionist, which then dispenses to the guest a personalized access card. This card is an integral part of the Funhouse experience, because it is "swiped" through a card reader at each of the interactivity sites in the facility, and then becomes a souvenir after they have left. Our research tells us that children enjoy doing things that make them feel like adults; the cards are part of this strategy.

Once inside the Funhouse, we wanted the guest to be barraged by a stimulating, noisy, colorful cartoon world. As seen in the sketch of the main interior view, what is seen upon entering is Judy's Garden, a psychedelic, walk-through forest of gigantic, otherworldly plant life.
 

The garden surrounds Jet Screamer's Music Room, which is full of sequencer-style synthesizers and rhythm generators that are activated by the guests' cards. These are designed with interfaces that make them easy for kids to produce recognizable music, which they can then record and keep, and the music that is made animates the plants in Judy's Garden, which acts as yet another draw to the activities within.

The activity areas are all named after Jetsons characters; on opposing sides of the ground floor, Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs are full of exaggerated machines that allow kids to generate noise and special effects, and on the second floor, Elroy's Room has computer toys like the Alien-ator, a device which lets a person record their own image and manipulate it into an alien's face, which they can then download into a hard-copy souvenir.
 

Throughout the facility are placed cartoony "security cameras" which actually contain a speaker and microphone and are animated by security personnel behind the scenes to follow a patron through an area of the store. The guest hears a playful voice emanating from the device which asks them what they are doing and whether they are having a good time. This accomplishes the twofold benefit of maintaining security while increasing the guest's impression that they are in the presence of advanced technology.

The most important interactive devices are three Nerf Cannons, which are perched on piers that extend out of Elroy's Room, and which allow the user to fire harmless Nerf Balls at the passengers in the ride called Astro's Escape as it snakes its way past the garden at the second floor level. The ride passengers have their own air-operated guns, which allow them to fire back at a target which disables the Nerf Cannon. The Nerf Cannon is the "Holy Grail" of the Funhouse, as guests have to "win" the opportunity to play on it by hitting a particular series of interactive sites with their access cards. This heats up the play level in the Funhouse, as the Nerf Cannons are by far the most popular site in the facility.

Retail shelving is interspersed with the activity sites throughout the Funhouse, and is stocked with merchandise derived from the toys and technology found inside.

The restaurant area has seating for 140 people and features a fast-food-style menu, as turnover is critical to maintaining a healthy profit level. The food ordering process features a playful computer terminal for ordering, but the food is delivered by people dressed in Jetsons-style costumes, as our research tells us that customers need a human being present to make sure that their needs are being met.

Universal was thrilled with our design; to quote their representatives at the final presentation, they felt that we had really "nailed the concept", which was great for two dyed-in-the-wool product designers to hear. We have both since reconsidered the discipline of "entertainment" design as a viable option for both of us, as solving a problem creatively is the ultimate rush, whether you're designing a toaster or a themed restaurant.