Made To Thrill- Q&A

This Q&A is with Made To Thrill, an awesome company which designs posters, apparel, and collectables inspired by the amusement industry! I have multiple items from them and they are all awesome! We thank Made To Thrill for answering our questions.

How did Made To Thrill begin? What's the history behind it?

It all kind of started back in the day when I was getting into Instagram. I regularly searched the #rollercoaster and #themepark hashtags just to see dozens of amazing coaster photos from all over the world. Perhaps the motivation was a bit selfish but I just wanted to have all of those photos brought together in a feed that I could follow, without all of the noise that came along with the clunky hashtag search. 

So I started a feed and called it, “Made to Thrill” a curated gallery of beautiful theme park photography on Instagram. It featured incredible work by talented photographers and passionate park enthusiasts, that captured unique detail and true joy of thrill rides and theme parks. To my surprise, others enjoyed it as much as I did and eventually, the feed grew to be more popular than I would’ve imagined.

Getting the opprotunity to see and “experience” a bunch of new parks and thrills through these photos and connect with other enthusiasts from all over the world, brought my fandom and nerdery to new heights. Now I wanted to do something more.

As a long-time lover and perpetual tourist of theme parks across the globe, I'll occasionally find myself perusing the gift shops looking for the perfect souvenir to mark my trip or tribute my favorite attractions.

However, more often than not, I've left empty handed after sifting through an otherwise less than desirable selection of apparel or collectibles marred with tacky designs. So I took it upon myself to create some high-quality theme park inspired items that had an understated, modern aesthetic for perhaps, the same selfish motivations I started the Instagram feed.

I started work on some initial designs that included a t-shirt, a few stickers and a poster in what would hopefully be part of an ever-growing gallery of designs that I honestly, just wanted for myself. A true, labor of love.

I was shocked and incredibly humbled when I saw the response I received over Instagram, that others wanted them too. Through the overwhelming continued support of our tight-knit theme park community, today, the Made to Thrill brand has grown to sell unique t-shirts, posters, patches, pins, and a few other one-of-a-kind items.

How do you choose an attraction when you begin new products?

​I typically​ choose an attraction or a park that I've personally experienced, or at least have had some type of connection with. That way I have a better sense of the defining traits that make the attraction unique and which details to bring out in the design. Not to sound trite, but I'm sure you've heard that saying, "It's all in the details" -- that really rings true for a lot of the designs I make. For example, if you've seen one Vekoma boomerang, you've generally seen them all. But if you look a little closer, most (not all) have unique thematic traits. Those are the details I look for and I love exploring different ways to celebrate those in a design.

Do you consider yourself a coaster enthusiast?

​Absolutely. I’ve always been a fan of theme parks and roller coasters. From taking family vacations to Disney World to being a season pass holder at my​ ​local​ Six Flags, roller coasters, thrill rides and the immersive thematic ​experiences that come along with them, have been the cornerstone of a lot of great inspiration in my life. It ultimately led me to life-long passion for the arts and design.

I think that's one of the things that makes Made to Thrill special. It's a designer lifestyle brand​ created by a coaster enthusiast, for coaster enthusiasts. Though it's also for general "theme park" enthusiasts as well :)

And as far as my favorite coasters, I have a soft spot for old Arrow coasters. Partially because of what they did for the amusement industry and partially because the ride is completely out of control. Demon, Shockwave (SFGAm) Viper (SFMM) are (and were) some of my favorites. And of course anything B&M is ​always at the tops for me​. Well, except their flying machines, those are pretty weird.​

What's your favorite project that you offer?

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My favorite project that I made was probably the McFly hat pin for both technical and nostalgic reasons. ​The nostalgia part of it was the McFly hat was the first souvenir I can remember wanting to purchase at a theme park in the very early 90's. I wore it all over Universal Studios, all the way back home and to school the next week. And yes, I still have it today, though I seldom wear it. But sometimes I still pretend I'm Marty McFly.

On the technical side, I felt that creating a design like this pushed my skills to a new area that I wasn't comfortable being in. I've never worked on a design that would ultimately be produced as a lenticular, so it was fun and challenging to learn about that.

Can you share any upcoming projects at this time?

​​I've always got a few projects in the works, but the one I'm most excited about is an App for both desktop and mobile devices. Without revealing too much, the app's functionality is something that I've been wanting as a coaster enthusiast, forever. But I think all theme park enthusiasts will enjoy it. While I can't give a delivery date on it yet, the developer and I are hoping to have an early Alpha test on it in the coming weeks. In an ideal world, it'd be released in the spring to coincide with theme park season.

Is there anything else that you'd like our readers to know about Made To Thrill?

I'm always visiting new parks and cooking up more ideas, so please join

​our club and follow us on Instagram​ for the latest update​s. You might see we're in a park when you're there, so please come find us and say hey! 

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Once again, a huge thanks to Made To Thrill. I highly recommend checking out their site!  

PC to Made To Thrill