Justin East is the global senior creative director of R&D at Merlin Entertainments, a role he has held since 2012. Previously to this, he served as group creative director at Merlin from 2007 – 2012. He also spent over a decade at the LEGO Group, starting as a show designer and moving through roles such as art director and design director, before ultimately becoming group creative director of LEGOLAND’s global family attractions in 2005.
East now works globally across all Merlin attractions, ranging from LEGOLAND to Madame Tussauds. During his career, he has been behind a raft of new product development including developing the LEGOLAND Discovery Centres, a rollercoaster bearing Derren’s Brown’s name at Thorpe Park, the relaunch of The London Dungeon, and the redesign of Cadbury World. He has extensive knowledge and experience in bringing new technology, such as VR and robotics, into attractions.
Talking to blooloop in 2022 about his current role in the R&D team, he said:
“We’re responsible for identifying businesses to buy, developing new products, and incubating them for deployment across the world. Our big focus is on new product development for LEGOLAND, which is a big brand for us. We do blue-sky thinking for Chessington World of Adventures, Alton Towers, Heide Park, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle and Gardaland, and for LEGOLAND too. We do a lot for Madame Tussauds, SEA LIFE, LEGOLAND Discovery Centre and the Dungeons.
“That’s our day-to-day work in terms of looking after the business. Then our strategy is looking forward to identify trends and new products that we can formulate into formats such as Midway, the new theme park immersive experiences; we find the propositions, and then put them into formats.”
In 2022, Merlin R&D and blooloop joined forces to hold a first-of-its-kind one-day online event, brainstorming the evolution of dark rides and inviting ideas from the next generation of innovators.