Founded by former President and CEO of Animax Designs Chuck Fawcett and Mousetrappe founder and CCO Daren Ulmer, Medici Experience Development (Medici XD) is a new production studio, aiming to intersect the latest technologies to provide physical, visual, interactive and live elements as one holistic development.
Fawcett also serves as the current International Board President of the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA)
Fawcett launched Animax during his senior year of college which grew over 30 years into a prominent studio for animatronics and puppet characters employing 165 designers and engineers. Having achieved his goals, he announced in January 2020 the sale of Animax to Cityneon and has been transitioning the company into their leadership since his last day at the helm on November 8.
Ulmer founded Mousetrappe over 16 years ago after a decade with Disney in live entertainment development. Ulmer’s vision for the future of themed experiences is to take guest connection to the next level, which puts the guest inside a convergence of platforms. To achieve this, physical must seamlessly join with visual and technical interactions, all elements must tie into one wholistic production, which stretches beyond the visual boundaries offered by Mousetrappe, hence co-founding Medici XD with Fawcett.
“We started considering, together, what is the difference between the most and least successful [attractions]? And concluded it centers on the believability of the experience, which depends on how the components come together,” says Fawcett.
“Essentially the owner/operator has to be the general contractor managing the integration of the elements of the experience there are trying to create, it’s not an easy task,” comments Ulmer.
According to the Medici XD founders, most suppliers come from one core area of expertise, some have expanded from this, but the additions generally are secondary elements, and so truly integrated development across both visual, physical and immersive factors is very rare. Changing this is what Fawcett and Ulmer have embarked upon by founding Medici XD together, inspired by a vision for the creation of experiences which is more wholistic, collaborative and centered on the guest from every sense.
