THE LION KING (1997) With the huge success of Beauty and the Beast, Disney Theatricals was now ready to transfer The Lion King from animated film to stage. An army of art directors and designers at Grey Entertainment dove into the project and the wealth of creative ideas was impressive indeed. My strong feeling from the start (and about the only thing I remembered from having seen the movie years before) was a simple, crude cave painting of Simba’s face. I based the graphic symbol on the power of that image. Of course, as is the case with any project that involves the production creative staff weighing in their opinions, I was asked to design what finally amounted to at least 50 other Simba heads until I was seeing them in my sleep. Producer Tom Schumacher then had a Disney animator distill my designs into what became the woodcut-like icon. The bold type design never changed and the bright taxicab yellow background remained as first presented. Because of the musical’s longevity and international fame, I’ve gotten to see my design applied to both the British and French productions as well!