The Story of Designer Steve Tatham, Imagineer and Dream Maker

30 years as an Imagineer and theme park designer for Universal Creative have been a dream come true for Steve Tatham. He’s now taking all that he has learned over his storied career and sharing it with the next generation of dream-makers.

Since the age of nine, when he saw the flash flood roaring toward his tram while a guest on the Universal Studios tour, Steve wanted to be a theme park designer. “Somebody had to make this up. It was someone’s job to create this from nothing. That would be the coolest job in the world,” he thought as he wandered through the park that day with his family. And it turns out, IT IS the coolest job in the world. After college jobs working as both a Jungle Cruise Skipper at Disneyland and a Tour Guide at Universal Studios Hollywood, he’s been happily making magic designing theme parks for Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Studios Creative for more than thirty years.

And now, for the first time ever, he is sharing what he’s learned with you! You can now benefit from his 30-plus years entertainment industry experience in writing, producing, directing, designing and leading creative efforts in the online, interactive and theme park realms. His successful track record is grounded in vision, innovative ideas, team leadership and ability to pitch ideas that get sold, developed and built, from low-budget to multi-billion-dollar projects.

And he’s figured out how this magical alchemy that leads to the surprise and delight of millions of guests each year works and how it can be translated into other endeavors that are not theme parks but still need and must connect emotionally to people. You will discover things changing when you, as a leader, are clear about two things: your voice and your vision. And while his message is simple and clear there is a lot more to it. Bringing great ideas to life is his passion and he’d love to work with you to bring out your best creative self.

The Creative Inspiration Talks

For more than ten years, Steve has been holding weekly closed-door sessions for his design teams. In these exclusive chats, he shares what he’s learned in his career. He also interviews creative people about their process and their ideas about creativity. He has interviewed well-known talent, as well as his own team members to talk about their personal creative projects. These have evolved over the years to become master classes in creativity. Yui, an art director on Steve’s team in Osaka, said, “ I love coming to work on Thursdays because I know it’s time for Creative Inspiration. It’s like getting paid to go to a graduate school-level education in design and creativity.” These Creative Inspiration seminars have become the basis for the talks he’s now taking public. He’s combining what he’s learned in his own practice as well as what great talents, including many Disney Legends, have shared with him.