Design concepts are an essential part of our business. We create well over a hundred concepts each year. These drawings are used to convey our unique ideas to our customers. Some are merely exploratory ideas, used in developing a project story. These ideas go through several iterations with more drawings produced each time. We often over-design, with more ideas presented than needed in the short term. Creating concepts, sometimes years in advance, allows our customers to implement a multi-year plan and stay consistent with the story throughout the project. Ideas not used are never discarded but are filed away for reference in the future. Good ideas never go bad.
Thankful
We sometimes give private tours of our shop to people who express an interest in what we do. During the tours, we often hear these folks wish they could do something similar. We hear this a lot. My honest reply is to ask why not?
I believe there has never been a better time to be in business. But it can’t be a half-hearted try. It has got to be the absolute best we can do. It also can’t be a business that offers what everyone else is creating, unless you want a business that is based simply on the lowest price. You are better off thinking of something unique - a niche market. Modern technology allows us to spread the word and get out there like never before. The internet has allowed us to connect to the world, to show our wares to a massive market in the best possible light. Our work, spread out far and wide, has brought us repeat and new business as well. We purposely keep things small and manageable. We are not seeking to grow our business in a traditional way, but rather focus it towards better and better work over time. Modern tools and materials allow us to do things we could previously only imagine.
Most who visit our studio are amazed we are so far from the city - “out in the middle of nowhere”. We carefully chose our location after exhaustive research and much planning. Here, our costs are relatively low, and more importantly, we can live on our own small acreage, surrounded by farmland, and still in the center of a small town. Better yet, we are close to family and have gorgeous views that surround us. And we also live far from the chaos and rush of the big city. The land is big enough to have our studio and shop out back. With our house on the same property, we waste no time commuting.
This kind of business follows a gradual process begun more than four decades ago. Those who want to have such a business need to start small and grow as their skills and customer base allow. I liken it to throwing a pebble in a pond. The splash is small, but the rings spread quickly. And as we all know, if you pick the perfect rock and throw it just right, the rock will skip, bouncing many times as it flies over the water. Instead of one set of rings, there will be many. We are looking for those nice flat, smooth, perfectly balanced skipper stones. Carefully planned, highly imaginative projects are the ones we are seeking out, taking on and promoting vigorously. The projects we tackle don’t have to be large, but rather the right fit for us. It is extremely exciting - especially as we look ahead to the projects of 2026. We are thankful for all we have and are looking forward to the coming year and the wonderful things we will get to do.
West Edmonton Mall
It seems like ancient history now, but we incorporated as the Imagination Corporation in 1991 so we could tackle much larger and more complex projects. In the next years, it was a time of tremendous learning as we rapidly gathered better tools and methods and trained an expanding crew. An unbelievable opportunity presented itself in 1995 to completely re-theme the five-acre indoor theme park, Galaxyland (formerly Fantasyland) at West Edmonton Mall in Alberta. Our mandate was challenging and started with a single small project - adding a kids’ play area in the center of the five-acre indoor amusement park. The owners loved this first phase, and we were awarded the ‘contract’ to redo the entire project, one attraction at a time.
We relocated to Edmonton with a small but eager crew. There was never a master plan to guide us. The operations manager would talk with me about a particular area, and I’d then go back to my temporary studio to work up some concept drawings, which we would present to the owners and settle on a contract. Then we would begin work. We started early each day (6:00 am) and worked four hours behind locked gates and then another four hours while the park was open. We were considered to be part of the show. Each time we neared completion of our current project, I would go for another walk with the operations manager to pick out another attraction. I’d do more concept drawings and then again present them to the owners for consideration.
This cycle would repeat continuously for almost five years as we worked our way through the theme park and eventually out into the mall to put a new face on other attractions. We weren’t permitted to shut down an attraction for more than one day, so we had to plan our time efficiently. It was a challenging and exciting time as I learned to transfer my skills and ideas to a young and talented crew. Our mandate was to build every piece as if it came from one mind and hand. All through this time, our crew, our selection of tools and our ability to tackle ever more complex projects were continually expanding. At the peak of this project, our crew numbered twenty-one people. Although I still tried my utmost to be hands-on, the reality was that I was now in management and the bulk of my time was spent enabling our crew, planning projects and dealing with clients.
We had indeed jumped to light speed and continue to fly to this day!
