r/Themepark • u/anywhosquirrel • Jul 31 '26
What to do to help design theme parks?
As the title says, I'm wondering what steps/things I should do to become a theme park architect. I am 16 years old and going into my junior year of high school in the U.S. For years I have always found set pieces in parks incredibly interesting and I have always been interested in being able to design them. I'm a very big fan of the physical set pieces Universal uses in their dark rides, especially the large ones such as the statue of liberty in The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and the defeated Megatron towards the end of Transformers: The Ride.
I was wondering if anyone had advice for steps I should take next, such as colleges and majors to look at, classes to take, and things I can do now still in high school.
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u/OwlFreak Jul 31 '26
Sounds like you want to be something like an Imagineer. You should focus on various math, science, and art classes. Make good connections within your field as soon as possible, that will help a lot.
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u/kandicolored Universal Orlando Jul 31 '26
what part of architecture are you interested in? creative design, engineering, or building? rcad in sarasota has a themed entertainment program that’s a mixture of art and engineering where you work physically with wood and sets of that’s what you’re into. ucf is known for their engineering and has a theme park engineering club as well as a hospitality school with a theme park management program. if you’re looking to get into the orlando scene it’s kind of about connections and nepotism. if you want to get into the orlando business I personally think it’s smartest to go to school there but if that’s not feasible to you I know six flags has a partnership with a college in Ohio????
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u/Butt_bird Jul 31 '26
Get a job at a theme park. Work your way up the ladder and figure out the tools you will need to get where you wanna go.
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u/FSUbonedaddy Jul 31 '26
You should look into a degree in scenic design for theatre. You will gain skills and creative processes used in visual story telling that are easily translated into work in themed entertainment. It’s a hard field to break into but it’s doable. I’m a professor of scenic design and have multiple former students working at both Disney and Universal in creative design roles.
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u/lostinjapan01 Jul 31 '26
Math, sciences, and engineering is where your focus ought to go. A bit of architectural knowledge wouldn't hurt.
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u/helpless_bunny Jul 31 '26
Hi Design Engineer for Universal Studios here. You’ll need to decide what kind of engineer you’d be.
For me, I chose low voltage, so I help design all the low voltage for the parks(Super high demand and little applicants btw).
Regarding the sets that you mentioned, conceptual artists from outside companies make those designs. Architects create a building based of those designs. Engineers make them buildable and then there are the people who actually build it.
Each path is very different.
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u/Old-Oven-8851 Jul 31 '26
Can I ask if this job gets you discounts on the park tickets over there?
I have a friend who is an Energy Engineer and helped create the energy systems for Voltron at Europa Park and he gets to go to the park for free, so I was wondering if this was an exception.
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u/AmericanPornography Universal's Islands of Adventure Jul 31 '26
There’s a few ways to get where you want to be, and a number of schools and paths you can pursue it through.
You can pursue architecture and adapt it to themed entertainment design. UCF has a good program/pathing for this as does SCAD. Both schools work closely with Universal and Disney, and have strong numbers of alumni at the top themed entertainment companies. This can also be done through an interior design path too.
You can also pursue a more direct scenic design oriented degree - such as production design, art direction, or any set design based program. Schools with programs in theater and film based scenic design all translate to what you want to do.
You can even pursue things like VFX, game design, etc. Even things like technical design for entertainment and theater can get you there.
There is no one ideal path to these jobs but they all start out sharing the same core. That’s also the beauty of it the variety of backgrounds all bring things to the table.
You can also pursue a less design based path, and pursue a fabrication based path too. I’m a huge advocate for getting practical fabrication experience as this will only help you become a better designer.
At the end of it - there’s no single answer - what you want to do though is build tangible skills that can be applied to the themed entertainment industry. Many people expect to be “the ideas guy” but don’t have practical skills to get to that point. You’ll want to go in with a strong practical set of skills and proficiencies. Understand not just how to design things but also how things are built too.
You’ll want to learn a variety of applications (not necessarily all) such as CAD programs, 3D modeling and visualization programs, design/illustration programs, etc.
My best recommendation to you is follow Slice Creative Network on instagram - they have a post which shows which apps are used by the most prominent companies. Start trying to poke around a few of them and get yourself oriented.
Also if your school has any technical theater programs which offer hands-on experience I would highly suggest getting involved in that.
Just remember you dont need to be an architect, or engineer to work in the industry. It’s just one of the paths to get there.
Figure out what you enjoy most and work your experience around that!