Horizons was a dark ride attraction at EPCOT Center (now Epcot) at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. It opened on October 1, 1983, as the first new addition to the park after its 1982 debut, and was sponsored by General Electric until 1993. The attraction closed permanently on January 9, 1999, and its pavilion was demolished in 2000 to make way for Mission: SPACE. [1]
Design and History
The Horizons logo was part of a unified set of circular symbols created for the original EPCOT Center pavilions. These logos were designed by Imagineer Norm Inouye, who was hired in 1979 and drew hundreds of variations before the designs were refined with input from Imagineers John Hench and Marty Sklar. [2] [3]
Inouye recalled that Horizons was one of the easier logos to execute, describing it as more abstract than some of the other pavilion marks. A sense of perspective was used to convey the idea of moving toward the horizon. [2]
The mark was used for the ride from 1983 to 1994. [4] After the attraction closed, the Horizons symbol could still be found in the queue of Mission: SPACE, including at the center of the gravity wheel, and in the space station scene. [2] [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Horizons symbol depicts the sun rising over the land, representing a new horizon. [4] The mark uses a thick half-circle line to suggest light and the concept of a bright future, with the viewer’s eye drawn toward the open space created by the horizon line. [5]
The Horizons logo was part of a broader family of EPCOT Center pavilion icons, all built around the circle shape. The mark mimics the Universe of Energy logo in its use of thin and thick lines to create movement. [5]
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