Water parks are becoming more than collections of slides and pools. As guest expectations evolve, operators are creating destinations that combine aquatic attractions with storytelling, theming and immersive experiences.
That shift is changing design's role in water park development. For Ectovox, the answer is to bring creative development and engineering together from the outset, combining narrative, visual design and planning with the technical expertise needed to deliver complex aquatic environments.
Based in Orlando, Ectovox grew out of Martin Aquatic’s concept studio and became its own experiential design division. It works across water parks, resort amenities, cruise and other location-based entertainment projects.
Ectovox’s multidisciplinary team includes storytellers, graphic artists, 3D modellers and interior designers alongside aquatic engineers and master planners.
Its projects range from cruise destinations and expansions to indoor water parks built around established brands, including Mattel and Hasbro. The goal is to develop aquatic destinations as complete experiences, considering the creative concept and physical environment together.
From Martin Aquatic to Ectovox
In 2019, Martin Aquatic’s in-house creative team led a corporate rebrand and created the Martin Aquatic identity. The work attracted attention from developers and others in the industry, who began asking who was behind it.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted development schedules across the industry, but it also let the company explore how its creative team could support clients beyond traditional aquatic design and engineering.
Chris Grap, VP of Ectovox at Martin Aquatic
As demand grew for branding, digital artwork, and marketing, the creative team became a more formal offering and eventually became Ectovox, a division focused on experiential design, storytelling, and master planning.
An early collaboration with themed entertainment specialist Chris Grap, now VP of Ectovox at Martin Aquatic, helped shape the direction. At the time, Grap was vice president of experiential development at Mall of America and was working with the team on Mystery Cove.
“Chris was both a client and a friend working with Mall of America at the time on Mystery Cove, and we got a really good flavour of our ability to work together,” says Josh Martin, president and creative director at Martin Aquatic.
Josh Martin, president and creative director at Martin Aquatic
“That led us to go, 'Hey, we'd like to do more of this work.' Now our focus has largely been on taking these destinations and creating the full experiential design. It really goes back to storytelling.”
Grap says the new division gave the work a clearer identity and allowed the team to pursue a wider range of projects.
"When you hear Martin Aquatic, that is broad, but it's limiting in the sense of when you start to think about experiential design and guest experience. The team had been doing this work but really wasn't getting credit or recognition for it.
“What I think Ectovox does is allow for a wider scope that branches a bit more outside what you would have expected from Martin Aquatic, and it's been interesting to see the opportunities that have come our way from it.”
Bringing creative design and engineering together
Ectovox brings market research, master planning and creative development together from the beginning of a project.
An in-house team of market researchers conducts competitor and feasibility benchmarking; Martin leads designers focused on master planning, spatial layout, and operational flow, while Grap focuses on thematic narrative and character development.
The team includes mechanical engineers, interior designers, former show-set construction specialists, graphic artists, 3D animators and computational fluid dynamics experts. This allows the team to consider creative ideas alongside commercial, operational, and technical requirements.
Specialists from across Martin Aquatic and Ectovox work closely throughout projects
Image courtesy of Martin Aquatic
Martin says: “We like to say internally we do constructable concepts. A client may have a really creative vision, and we want to help execute that. But we're also going, 'It doesn't fit your budget,' or 'It doesn't fit the ability to build this'.
“We spend that time telling that story, and we love doing it from a research lens with benchmarking, because a lot of clients will say, 'Oh, I want what this guy has.' Well, why do you want the same thing that he has?
"Let's come up with something more original, more creative, and now we're adding that level of story and theming and guest journey on top of it.”
Grap adds: “To me, this is one of the closest things to filmmaking, where all the disciplines come together, bringing the best in your field, and landing together on a project.”
An example of creative storytelling from the Ectovox team at Martin Aquatic
Image courtesy of Martin Aquatic
Engineering can also inform the creative experience. Martin gives the example of an aquatic attraction designed around changes in water speed and movement.
"Our creatives have access to our smartest engineers. We have a guy on our team who does computational fluid dynamics modelling, and he’s brilliant at it. Our designers have ideas like, 'Hey, I want to do this with an action river,' and he'll work out a solution or a simulation and say, 'This is how you do it.'
“One of our team members spent months simulating a river as part of a creative story to tell the guest journey, with slow-down moments, speed-up moments, and waves being introduced.
“That is how we make engineering very much a part of the creative journey.”
This integration can also identify construction, budget and regulatory issues before a concept progresses too far.
Grap says: "That's the concept working with engineering to truly make it a reality versus putting something in front of a guest that might look pretty on a page but can't be delivered. It's that type of resource in the toolbox that elevates the entire project.”
See also: Blue Mar Wellness from Martin Aquatic
Applying theme park thinking to water parks
Ectovox aims to bring theme park storytelling and environmental detail into water parks, creating different levels of engagement in the same space.
Grap says the approach starts with treating water park guests like theme park visitors.
"As a guest for years, I saw water parks not develop in tandem with theme parks; before working directly with Martin Aquatic, my approach was, 'I don't want to design a water park. I want to design a theme park with water-based attractions.'
“How do we make the space feel more lived in? How do we make it feel more active? Why can't we put this type of attraction in here just because it hasn't been done before? We really try to think of the environment as a whole, give it life and movement, and treat guests the same way you would a theme park guest."
Concept art for a Hasbro waterpark development
Image courtesy of Martin Aquatic“Some people just want the attractions; others want the story; and some want to know absolutely everything, and we want to satisfy all of them. We've said this for years: we're not designing for one visit; we're designing for your twentieth visit. The more we can add that enrichment and detail, the more enjoyable it's going to be across the board.
“Even if you're not paying attention to it, you're going to feel it.”
The philosophy is shaping Ectovox's work with Mattel, says Martin:
“With the work we're doing with Mattel right now, there are a lot of Easter eggs and hidden moments planned so that if you know the brands, we have something for you. When you look at it, we want to make sure we represent all those different moments, because guests notice different things.”
Concept art for Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterpark, featuring Hot Wheels themed attractionsImage courtesy of MattelThe team also uses visits to attractions and resorts as research, studying environmental detailing, show-set construction and guest movement. Martin calls these visits a ‘splash-about’:
"We look at some of the work we've done and orient new team members. When we say show set or dimensional flat, what do we actually mean? Looking at those items helps our team keep moving with that shared shorthand.
“What's great about our team across engineering and creative is that we have a bunch of really passionate people. We are very much bespoke creative every time.”
Creating an African oasis at Hattiesburg Zoo
One of Ectovox’s early projects was Serengeti Springs, a water park expansion at Hattiesburg Zoo in Mississippi.
Martin Aquatic initially handled master planning and engineering, but as the project progressed, the zoo identified another need: a name, brand, and story for the new attraction.
Located alongside the zoo’s African animal habitats, the water park offered an opportunity to connect the two experiences. Ectovox helped develop it as an African oasis, giving the attraction its own identity while linking it to the surrounding zoo.
Branding for Serengeti Springs water park at Hattiesburg Zoo
Image courtesy of Hattiesburg Zoo
Martin says the team became involved late in the process.
"Serengeti Springs was a project where we did the master plan and design, and we were almost through full engineered documents when the client said, 'We don't have a name. What are we going to do?' I was in a meeting in Hattiesburg and said, 'Well, we have this division called Ectovox.'
“I introduced them, and two of our designers flew up to Mississippi and went through the guest journey and experience with that client to create a great logo and backstory. They had a great asset in their zoo, and the water park was adjacent to their Africa expansion, where you could literally look into their giraffe barn.
“They didn’t have the largest budget in the world, but they had so much passion and really wanted to put that extra level of detail into it.”
Creative development extended beyond the name and logo. Ectovox worked with attraction supplier WhiteWater to adapt catalogue play structures to the theme.
Martin says: "The leadership in Hattiesburg told us, 'We want people to just forget that they're in Mississippi. How can I make Mississippi feel like an oasis where visitors can be completely transported?'
"Using that as a guide for the theme and name made it a really collaborative effort. What was great was how willing they were to take our concepts and run with them.”
Ectovox also produced a brand book and style guide, enabling the zoo to apply the identity across signage, merchandise and marketing.
Translating Mattel's brands into aquatic experiences
Ectovox’s work with Mattel brings its approach to narrative and creative development into a branded indoor water park concept.
Mattel Wonder is planned as a series of permanent aquatic destinations built around the toy company’s brand portfolio. The first location, in Bellevue, Nebraska, is scheduled to open at the end of 2027.
The project involves more than translating familiar characters and products into a physical setting. The team must balance established brand guidelines with the technical demands of permanent aquatic environments, including chlorine, humidity, safety and maintenance.
Concept art for an area based on Mattel's iconic brand Barbie, part of the announced plans for Mattel Wonder Indoor Waterpark coming to Bellevue, NE
Image courtesy of Mattel
Grap says the process involves helping established brands consider how their properties can work in a new environment.
"Working with a legacy brand that knows their brands one way, it's about helping them explore how these brands should and can exist in an entirely new environment. It's not as simple as a direct pull of just making that toy larger.
"It is about how guests want to engage with your brand versus how the brand may be perceived, and finding that middle ground.
“It's not just about scaling up; it's about the opportunity we can present. This isn't a temporary location that changes in a year; this is going to be here for decades, and we want to make sure we are delivering something that creates core memories for guests.”
Early years brand Fisher Price is an ideal choice for splash zones for younger guests
Image courtesy of Mattel
Martin says the project also involves explaining the practical requirements of aquatic environments to the brand owners.
“Mattel and Hasbro are fantastic at making toys, but neither of them are water park or theme park operators at this stage in their companies. There's been an element of teaching what the guest will see, pointing out elements high up in the sky, and explaining what can actually survive in an aquatic environment.
“We have chlorine, splashes, safety regulations, and ASTM standards that you don't want to get in the way of creativity, but you have to make them aware of those elements. When you do permanent installations, you realise you're not going to change the slide colour in year two.”
The Bellevue project is also establishing a model that can be adapted for future Mattel Wonder locations. While the brand portfolio provides a common thread, Ectovox plans to vary the attraction mix, character groupings and spatial layouts.
Martin explains: "If you go to Nebraska, you get one great experience, but if you go to Illinois, you're going to have a Mattel Wonder park with a different collection of rides and toys to play with.”
Developing original IP and new destinations
Licensed IP is only part of Ectovox's work. The studio also develops original characters and story worlds, offering an alternative when established IP doesn't fit a project's audience, location, or commercial strategy.
Martin says: "The team are so creative in what they're developing. Chris led a project to develop a full cast of original characters, and what they have created is so exciting.
“Too many people rely on licensing what they think crowds will flock to, when they could create an emotional attachment to something truly original and never before seen, or something local that represents a culture.
“Our team has that up its sleeve, speaking back to Chris's background with Mystery Cove, where there were original characters and storylines that guests could follow.”
Designs for Mystery Cove at Mall of America, designed with different layers of storytellingImage courtesy of Martin AquaticGrap adds that developing original IP offers a different kind of creative challenge:
"Mall of America was like an incubator in that sense because I got to work with a ton of IP in various ways, but there is passion for both things. I love working with Mattel and Hasbro, but man, do I love the 'what if' of having a space to develop an original idea.
“There are so many ideas that we cycle through, and that moment of quiet celebration the team feels when an original idea we generated clicks with a client feels so good, even before a guest gets to see it.”
Ectovox is also applying its approach to cruise ships and integrated resorts, where the team must account for different technical constraints, including vessel stability, wind loads and high guest volumes.
For cruise projects, the aquatic experience forms part of a wider day rather than an isolated attraction.
Martin says: "Cruise lines typically don't invest in licensed IP; they want to create it and own the journey. When we approach design, I approach it as someone who's going to be on that ship and experience it. We're planning for an integrated water park resort or cruise ship from eight a.m. to midnight. How do we plan that entire day?
“Our aquatics and story are a key part of their journey, and understanding passenger behaviour helps tell that guest story.”
Recent projects include Norwegian Cruise Line's Great Stirrup Cay water park expansion, Great Tides, where the aquatic development forms part of the wider destination experience.
Designing for long-term engagement
Ectovox is looking beyond traditional water parks, with work spanning dry theme parks, family entertainment centres, themed food and beverage, resort hotels and seasonal events.
The studio is developing original IP for resort environments, including room interiors, artwork, lobby storytelling and themed bar concepts. It is also exploring how attractions can accommodate different uses throughout the year.
Planning seasonal overlays and after-dark events from the outset lets operators incorporate lighting infrastructure, sound systems, and prop anchor points into the master plan, reducing the need for major retrofits.
Concept art from the Ectovox team
Image courtesy of Martin Aquatic
Grap argues that digital tools should support the physical experience rather than become the experience itself.
"There's too much reliance on trying to push tech into the park. I want people to forget their devices—make it optional to opt in, but not everything needs to go back to your cell phone.
“For years, water parks were concrete jungles with a bunch of columns and fibreglass where you didn't see much of what was happening. We're working hard to consider how guests approach certain things, giving them exciting engagement as early as possible to create a sense of life and a reason for everything.
“It's less reliance on tech, more reliance on what's happening in real life, and being intentional with it.”
For Ectovox, creative development extends beyond opening day to how destinations evolve.
Martin says:
"We want Ectovox to continue to expand beyond just the aquatic space into dry parks and facilities. Beyond that, it will be seasonal overlays and ongoing programming—what do you do with your water park after dark, or in the cold, or for Halloween and Christmas overlays? If you don't plan it on day one, it's hard to execute later.
“Our goal is to be involved with our clients for the long term, setting up that schedule, and helping them build lasting, story-driven destinations.”
