DisLove Podcast with Vanessa and Kris

DisLove E115 Rick from Prints Charming Company and Art Around Walt Disney World

• Vanessa Ferguson and Kris Johns with guest Rick Herbert • Season 4 • Episode 115

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In this episode, Kris and Vanessa are joined by Rick from Prints Charming Company.   Its a full service printing company for theme park & pop culture inspired small shops.  He is also the owner of Ace High Printing company. 

Earlier in the show, they discuss all the cool places you can see art at Walt Disney World from the resorts to the theme parks.



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Vanessa Ferguson  0:05  
Welcome to the DisLove podcast with Vanessa and Kris. I'm Vanessa Ferguson. 

Kris Johns  0:06  
And I'm Kris Johns.

Vanessa Ferguson  0:06  
I would like to welcome you to show number 115. And for any listeners joining us for the first time, our show features things we love it Disney and in each episode, we have a guest who creates Disney magic for our listeners at home or on their Disney vacations. From vacation planners to product producers, our guests can bring Disney magic into your life. And as a reminder to our listeners, we appreciate if you can take time to leave us a review on Apple podcasts or any other platform where you listen that helps new listeners find us and of course helps the show grow and crisp. Before we get started. We have a message from our friends over at Orlandovacation.com 

Kris Johns  0:06  
Yes, and the message is save money. The great thing about going to Florida is that you know it's one of the things we had to plan out the whole trip. And unless you have family, they probably don't want you to stay with them anyways. So you need to find a place to stay in the great thing is Orlando vacation.com has awesome properties all over Central Florida. Whether it be if you want to be near the ocean, if you want to be near the theme parks or if you just want to be somewhere unique. Orlandovacation.com has a place for you use the code dis love di s L O V E to say 5% of your next booking of three nights or more. The great thing is is that for most people, they're gonna spend probably at least a week there. So you're gonna save a week's worth of money when you book through our lane of vacation.com and use that promo code dislove. And the great thing is, whether it be just your family, a family reunion or meeting up with friends from across the country Orlando vacation that calm is a place that will be perfect for your party.

Vanessa Ferguson  1:40  
Great. Thank you, Kris. And on today's show, we are going to be joined by Rick from Prince Charming Company. It's a full service printing company for theme park and pop culture inspired small shops. He's also the owner of Ace high printing company. And he's got some really cool things to talk about with his business. And so we're looking forward to sharing his story. And for the first part of the show, we were talking with Rick about the great things that aren't that he prints and things that small shops make that go on shirts and stickers and different things. So it got me thinking about art. So in the first part of the show, we are going to look at all the places on property where you could see what would be categorized as pieces of art. And you might be thinking, I'm going to Disney to ride rides. I'm not really thinking about art. But these are some cool places that are great backdrops for photos, just interesting pieces to learn more about. And of course, if you have anyone who is who really enjoys art, they will really enjoy seeing these pieces. So we're going to talk about at the parks, as well as at some of the resorts. And to get started, I would think we're going to talk about one that most people if you were like, oh, where's a piece of art, you would think of this, and that's the Cinderella Castle mosaic. And so when you're walking through Cinderella's castle if you're coming from Main Street going into Fantasyland, there's those beautiful mosaics on the wall. And it's super cool to see these and most of the time you might be rushing to go to a ride or something. But they're just beautiful murals, and they are 15 feet high and 10 feet wide. And the murals basically go through the story of Cinderella. And it retails that fairy tale. It's all hand cut Italian glass. And listen to this Chris it has silver and 14 karat gold. Wow. And we got some pictures when we got married we had they call it up like we had an in park shoe at the Magic Kingdom. So we had some photos taken in front of this mural and I'll make sure to share some of those. It's so beautiful. And if you have a chance to slow down and take some photos, there's five murals and these were designed by Disney Imagineer Dorthea, Redman, and they were then assembled by an artist who had six craftsmen who worked with him to do all the hand cut pieces. And you wouldn't think of a theme park having something that has 14 karat gold and silver and all this Italian glass, but it really is a beautiful overlay. And it has over 500 colors. And one thing that I thought was kind of cool when you learn more about the history there. Disney always has some sort of little hidden thing. Every time. Yes, so it's not a hidden Mickey. They actually have in the scene where Cinderella is trying on the slipper with a footman. The footman is made to look like these are made to look like two Disney icons Herb Ryman. And then the Archduke is made to look like John Hench. In these were both individuals who started as animators and they ended up going on to become some of Walt Disney's main Imagineers so it's just so cool to see the things that they built into just something as simple as a piece of art. So if you have a chance Next time you're walking to Fantasyland, slow down, take some cool pictures with your family, get some cool pictures for Instagram in front of them the mosaic, it just gives you a great backdrop. And especially if you're celebrating a special occasion, like when we were able to get some photos from our wedding. Just super cool to be able to see those. Now, Kris, we always try to get you stumped to the trivia but what building where we married in the American experience? Close American adventure Rotunda. Oh, I thought Rotunda was something Yeah. So this is another place in Epcot. So moving over to Epcot, this is another place where you can see some art. In the main rotunda off to the right, if as you're coming in, there is going to be what's called the American Oh, here we go. It has a long name for the exhibit, which changes but it's been this way for a while. It's creating tradition, innovation and change in American Indian art. And it has all kinds of native artifacts in beautiful American Indian art and some really cool they have some of the full dresses and outfits. And one of the things that super neat is that it's divided by geographic regions across the country. So in the gallery, you can see the different art that represents the different American Indians across the country. And it really shows the diversity of that. So they have artists things on display, from different designers, as well as

just some really nice handmade pieces. And the collection comes from this is pretty cool. Because again, thinking of a theme park, you would think of stuff coming from a museum. And this comes the collection comes from a mix of things from the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, you like Santa Fe a lot. Yes, I do. Yes. And then the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, so some really cool pieces there. Now, in the main rotunda itself, there's also some artwork, and we got some photos by some of these on our wedding shoot. Going back to there's a theme here apparently, in the main rotunda, there are some paintings that are on the walls. And each painting covers what's theme related to they call it from it ranges from westward hoe by Jack Martin Smith that looks at the expansion into the American West, all the way to like a American family sitting down for a Thanksgiving meal, which is by Sam McKim. And so he was actually a Disney legend who did a lot of the Disneyland maps and concept sketches. So it's cool when you're waiting for the show to go into the American adventure. You can walk around the rotunda and see the different paintings. Um, they don't really consider it. There's also a new exhibit on jazz and it has Louis Armstrong's trumpet. That's not really art. But there is a cool exhibit about American music and jazz as well there. So when you're waiting for a show, or you maybe just want some get in the AC for a little bit, check out the American adventure Rotunda look in the rotunda as well as that small gallery off to the right uses some great things to be able to see. Now we have one more piece that we are going to look at that's also in a park before we head over to the resorts. And this is kind of a silly name. It's the party Oh saurus sculpture in Dinosaur Land. You've probably seen it and when you're walking through Dinoland, it's near the Hester and Chester's Dinorama. I'm thinking that as they are redoing things in the area and might get moved. But it's kind of it's a very interesting design. It's made by an American folk artist, who goes by the name Mr. Imagination, but it's Gregory Warmack. And the sculpture is made with it's a cartoon like dyno, so it kind of look goes with that area of the park. And it's right near the main gift shop there. And when you look at it, it's made from all kinds of pieces of different materials. And there's also another hidden thing in there. What's a typical hidden thing that we look for at the parks? The hidden Mickey? Yes, so there is a hidden Mickey, and it's one of the smallest hidden Mickey's in the park, and it's actually a cast member name tag. And if you haven't gotten a chance to look for it on there, I found it a couple of times when I've been there looking, it's fun to look for, especially because it's so small, and the sculpture is pretty big. It's, I don't know, probably four or five feet tall. So it's fun to look at. And that's a fun piece of folk art. In Thailand, you wouldn't really think of folk art in dental land. So it's kind of a fun thing to look for. So that kind of rounds out the main pieces of art that we're going to talk about at the parks. We're now going to move over to the resource and we're going to look at three pieces of art at the different resorts and one I am sad to say that we stayed at this resort in May. Yes, we did. Do you know what resort there was? No.

The Art of Animation? Oh, yes, yes. And one thing that we totally missed and they always say that you should look up and I miss out looking up in the lobby, there is a storyboard chandelier. And it got his name because it has storyboards from the four films that are featured in like the throughout the resort, so Little Mermaid, Lion King Finding Nemo and cars. And in it, they have where they invite Disney artists, animators and legends to sign panels related to films that they've worked on. So over the years, they've actually added additional panels from some of the new is new films have came out. And you have one from that had that signed by the voice of Ursula and she just passed away. This past week, we're recording this, um, Jodi Benson, who's the voice of Ariel, the producer from Lion King. So it's really cool. This chandelier is made out of all of these different storyboards and they're signed, and it's actually off, it's in the main lobby, but when you look, it's off to the area where they have the one wall with all of the animation cells. So it's super cool to see, that's a good place to check out. So make sure when you're at Art of Animation, make sure you look up. And that's something that is a cool piece of art, I think kids would enjoy and not sure how well you can see, you probably can't see the signatures that well from the ground. But it's a good chance to be able to see a little just a little bit about the the different movies. And if you're a fan, I think it's just super cool to be able to check that out as well. Now moving over to Animal Kingdom Lodge, and I don't think you've stayed there yet. Have you stayed with my family? I have not. So over at Animal Kingdom Lodge, I'm going to do my best to get this correct. There's a Igbo Ijele mask, which is in the lobby of Animal Kingdom Lodge. And there's a wide variety of African art throughout the lodge. But in the lobby, there's some really this is what probably one of the most unique pieces. It's a large scale mask, it's found near the back of the lobby as you're walking towards to be able to look out at the savannas. The mask was created by the Igbo people of Nigeria, and it's 16 feet tall and eight feet wide. And the interesting thing about this is that in Nigeria, young man would wear this mask. Wow. Yeah. So in when we were in it kind of reminds me We went on a tour when we were on a Disney cruise in the Bahamas. And we went to the one museum with a carnival festival in the large pieces that they were there. So this mask has a lot of intricate designs. It's very colorful, and it shows in exhibits different parts of the life and culture. And one of the things that's interesting is that this particular mask was created exclusively for the lodge. And it gives a a wide variety of information about the culture in terms of when you look at the designs and the artwork built into it. So it's super neat. If you have a chance, make sure that if you're there staying or if you're there dining, check out the mask because you will not be disappointed. It is super interesting to see.

Now last but not least, I would say is probably Well, besides the Cinderella mosaic is another one of the older pieces of art at Walt Disney World. And this is the Pueblo village mural at Disney's contemporary resort. Even if you're not staying there, it's super easy to jump off the monorail and see this. And it's really fascinating. It's designed by Mary Blair. So it was there when the park opened and when the contemporary opened in 1971. And if you're familiar with Mary Blair, Christie, you know what famous ride that Mary Blair did the design for Oh, small world. Yes, yes. So she designed all of the costumes for the dolls, and it's a small world. So she also designed this mural. So she's known for a little bit of an eclectic style and design. And so this mural is 90 feet tall from floor to ceiling. And it's so big, because it's actually hiding the resorts, elevator shaft. So it's kind of a distraction. So you're not seeing just this big wall. And these are, this includes 18,000 hand painted tiles that were used to create this design. It's inspired by Navajo ceremonial art to look at the American Southwest, and so it has little fun touches, so it has a five legged goat. And that was made intentionally that was a mistake on purpose. And one of the reasons why she did that is there's a Navajo belief that only the Great Spirit is capable of perfection in that man or men or not. able to do that. So she added that in, which was very interesting. It's fun to see if you're stopping to go to eat. It's right in that Grand Canyon concourse. So if you have a chance to stop and eat, they usually had Christmas time, they sometimes will have a one of the gingerbread displays right in front of it, which is cool. And no, we've stopped and looked at those in years past to great photo opportunity, it's just neat to kind of look up in be really close to it and look up and see them the design of the mural. So that kind of rounds out the different art pieces at the parks. And at the resorts. There are many, many more pieces across. But these are some of those iconic ones. I'll include some links with some information about more detail about them. And then of course, we'll share lots of pictures that you can check them out, and hopefully check them out on your next trip. So now we are on to our interview with Rick. We'd like to welcome Rick to the show his shop, the Prince Charming company offers a lot of fun, unique vinyl stickers. They also have buttons and some apparel. And so we're really looking forward to hearing more about his business. They are he has a full service printing company that works with a lot of small shops as well. So we'll hear about that. But we're here to hear about the Prince Charming company, which is a big passion project for Rick. So we're looking forward to hearing more. Welcome to the show. Hey, guys,

Rick Herbert  16:23  
thanks for having me.

Vanessa Ferguson  16:25  
Now, we always start off asking people a little bit about what they enjoy at Disney. And right now we've been asking people what is your favorite Disney theme park? And why?

Rick Herbert  16:37  
Wow, that is a tough question. For for a big reason. You know, I was born and raised here in Florida, not very far from the parks at all. So I spent a lot of time growing up in the Magic Kingdom. Okay, then, you know, as a little kid, I didn't really understand Epcot. And I didn't really care about what used to be MGM Hollywood Studios. But as I grew up, as I got, you know, into adulthood, I really really liked Hollywood Studios. You know, that whole Old School Sunset Boulevard vibe and all that. But if I had to pick one, just for nostalgia sake, Magic Kingdom,

Vanessa Ferguson  17:08  
for sure. Yeah, I can totally understand. Do you have a favorite attraction there? Then?

Rick Herbert  17:14  
I'll see. Here you go. I'm always torn between Big Thunder and the Haunted Mansion.

Vanessa Ferguson  17:20  
Oh, those are two good choices.

Rick Herbert  17:23  
Right? Again, if I had to, I'm going out of matching.

Vanessa Ferguson  17:26  
Okay. Yeah, that's definitely a classic for sure. Now, we, of course, have you here to tell us about your business, and what are the products you offer connected to Disney.

Rick Herbert  17:38  
So I run a company called the Prince Charming company, you can find us on Instagram under the Prince Charming company. What we specialize in is creating custom vinyl stickers, banners, buttons, apparel, anything the Disney small shop community but like to sell to their clients. There are so many amazing creators and makers doers out here in the design community. And they have just a fantastic array of artwork, instead of going through your larger print companies, the big corporations. I don't want to name names, but you know what we're talking about? Online. Yes. Instead of doing that, I've created a company that you can come to me as a person that has a themed business that specializes in creating these items for you to further your business.

Vanessa Ferguson  18:28  
With that, you know, you're talking about the awesome work that you do to help promote, you know, small businesses what led you to create your own small business?

Rick Herbert  18:36  
Well, it all started 18 years ago, we're gonna go way back here. In addition to Prince Charming company, I own a larger print company called ace high printing. We are a worldwide printing company and we print for everyone, you know, near and far, big and small. And we're talking about large corporations are way down to garage bands and small shops. About four years ago, I decided, again, we're real close to the parks, I can make it to the park from my shop and an hour. Wow, I want to do Yeah, right. And I have so much fun memories being there. And I enjoy going there just in the middle of the week because I can sometimes you know, being a Passholder and all that, that I wanted to find a way to connect with the small shop community. I tried to do it with my main company, ace high printing. And it just wasn't picking up. It wasn't taken, I guess as seriously as it could be if it were really geared toward that particular market. So four years ago, it kind of lightning bolt out of the sky hit me created Disney brand company, or a theme park company, a pop culture company. And it took me Handelman six months to come up with a name. And then one day just again, boom, there it was. And we basically took the same business model we use at ASI to create top quality custom products and sell it to the people that need the most and kind of circumvent that big business thing. You know, everybody's looking for a decent price for the not going to get ripped off, you want something high quality, that's not going to fail on you and have your customers getting mad at you? Well, that's where we come in, you know, you're dealing with real people, you're not dealing with automated services, and we take care of people. At this point, we've got about 133 active clients in the business law shop community.

Vanessa Ferguson  20:21  
Now, if I were a small shop, or maybe if I were wanting to get something off the ground, and I had an idea and a concept that I wanted to work with you to have created, what is the timeline for that sort of from start to finish, if we were to reach out,

Rick Herbert  20:36  
you know, it kind of depends on the products and services that you're going to need, I'd say 95% of our business is just stickers. And if you have your artwork prepared and ready to go, I can have them done and shipped out to you in three, four days. If it's something that has to be designed, or if it's something, say it's an apparel piece, well shirts and things like that take longer takes longer to get the blanks in is longer to screen print them, you know, shipping is a little different for those. So that can be a two week process. So it kind of varies.

Vanessa Ferguson  21:07  
Now, if you are looking at is there a threshold of how much that like cuz I know we've dealt with some people who they have a really they're just getting off the ground or others that have been around for a while? Is there a threshold for your clients? Or are you open? Can anybody reached out

Rick Herbert  21:24  
anyone and everyone can reach out, even though there are some priceless on our website, Prince Charming co.com We are more than willing to create custom packages and custom orders and knock money off, we have to just anything we can do to help the smaller shops, get off the ground get going. Because it's not easy to do, especially in today's market.

Kris Johns  21:45  
You'd mentioned you know, let's say I have an idea, but I'm not a graphic designer. Do you have connections where you could help a small brand put their ideas to life?

Rick Herbert  21:54  
Absolutely. I do have designers on staff that we can consult and I can put you in contact with them. You guys create the ideas. And then once that's finished, we have any print ready files already in house to go.

Vanessa Ferguson  22:05  
Now, you've already touched on this a little bit with some of your answers. But we always like to ask, How do you think your service adds Disney magic to the clients you work with?

Rick Herbert  22:15  
I think we provide a unique service, you know, we're not just one of those, send us your files and we'll print them we don't care what it is. I think quality plays a huge role in it, I will take a 10 piece sticker order, I will take a $10,000 piece order, they will sit here and treat each job the same. Make sure each job has like specialized service. And they're getting a top quality where their clients.

Vanessa Ferguson  22:38  
Now if I'm just a regular listener, and maybe I'm interested in seeing some of the shops that you work with on like your Instagram, and that do you have, like some of the pictures of some of the products in that that you have created.

Rick Herbert  22:51  
We have over 600 photos on our Instagram print streaming company that you can browse through and take a look at it, you'll see shirts, you'll see buttons, you'll see all kinds of stickers from from shops all over the place, you'll be blown away by some of the stuff these guys are coming up with.

Kris Johns  23:06  
You mentioned where people can go to see your designs, can you just let them know again where they can find you and all the socials and your website?

Rick Herbert  23:12  
Absolutely, there's two great places to look at the first designer kind of full portfolio will be our Instagram at Prince Charming company. The second place would be our website, Prince Charming co.com. There, you'll see some photos and things we've done, you'll find in price list. There's also contact forms, you can reach out to me directly, and we can discuss what your shopping needs.

Vanessa Ferguson  23:34  
Now, thank you so much for joining us today. Because I know a lot of our listeners are some of the other small shops and they can definitely benefit from your services. And I think a lot of our regular listeners would love just to see some of the different companies you've worked with. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Rick Herbert  23:51  
Absolutely. Thanks for having me guys. And just to let your listeners know, they don't have to have a shop or be affiliated with any sort of business if they want personal stickers or something like that. We're always open to any kind of job. So we're here for everybody.

Vanessa Ferguson  24:05  
Thank you again to Rick for joining us today.

And now we are on to our Two Minute trivia and our wisdom from Wall quote. And Chris, you are up with trivia.

Kris Johns  24:14  
Perfect. So we didn't know discuss the mural in the contemporary that Mary Blair had put together. She worked with Disney, you know, often on an over a number of projects. And during the FDR administration in 1941. She traveled with Walt and Lillian Disney throughout South American countries. Okay. This is according to Wikipedia. Okay, her watercolors impress Disney, who appointed her as an art supervisor for the animated feature films. Would you say which one? Like there's kind of one. And this was in 1919 41. So, which Disney animated film was she the art director for? And again, she went on a tour of South America with Walt and Lillian Disney. And it's one of the early We're animated shelves.

Vanessa Ferguson  25:02  
I'm gonna get this wrong, but I know because I'm not great with Disney films. I'm better with Disney park knowledge around that time. See the movie that comes to mind doesn't seem like one for Mary Blair, but I'm just gonna go with it. Dumbo.

Kris Johns  25:18  
You actually she did participate in DUMBO, Texas for the Three Caballeros Oh, wow,

Vanessa Ferguson  25:23  
that makes sense. Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. Well, that was interesting. And I didn't realize that she worked on films I, I was thinking just the parks. But that's interesting to know.

Kris Johns  25:33  
And here's another interesting piece, thanks to Wikipedia, her husband, who is also an artist won a gold medal, a Gold Medal for his artwork in the night. Teen 32 I'm gonna get the date wrong Olympics, because in the very early Olympics art, wow, was an Olympic game.

Vanessa Ferguson  25:51  
I wonder how they did that as a game that'd be interesting to look up.

Kris Johns  25:54  
That was part of the issue was that they said, you know, who was an amateur artist, right? And then people picking because again, things were very subjective. But that said, very interesting.

Vanessa Ferguson  26:05  
Very interesting. And we are now going to kind of round things out. I thought what was interesting is that we've talked a lot about hearing about Disney small shops and the creations they make and looking at artwork. And one of the things that I thought this was kind of a fun quote, because it talks about when you make a mistake or something, looking to be able to find people who can help you provide the information that will help you to move forward. So this is that quote, all you've got to do is own up to your ignorance, honestly. And you'll find people who are eager to fill your head with information. And Kris always says, you know, just if something happens, you just say, I was wrong in a minute. And

Kris Johns  26:48  
that's I've gotten out of a lot of jams in life by doing that. Yep. So

Vanessa Ferguson  26:51  
that's a quote from Walt that goes right along those lines. So thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the desert pockets with Vanessa and Kris. I'm Vanessa

Kris Johns  27:00  
and I'm Kris.

This podcast is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or its holdings and it is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai