Ex-Disney Imagineer Eddie Sotto, President of Sotto Studios, has created immersive experiences for some of the world’s most prestigious brands, including Ferrari, Porsche, Aston-Martin, Microsoft, Google and Universal.
The pandemic has given him fresh food for thought, however. Sotto has set up a think tank to address the challenges posed to the experiential industries by Covid-19.
“At this moment in time, I think great shared experiences are an endangered species,” he told Blooloop. “If you’re at a theme park and you’re wearing masks, you’re distancing and disinfecting everything, it doesn’t exactly create a carefree world. A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Maybe we should apply that to this problem.”
Sotto set up his eponymous LA studio in 2004 after over 13 years with Walt Disney Imagineering and earlier roles at Landmark Entertainment and Knott’s Berry Farm. “Everyone that trained me came out of the film business,” he says. “I never went to college. Everything I do is more of a set than a piece of architecture. Every good set designer takes the script, which is emotion. You design feeling.”