About

Arte Contreras

Arte Contreras has been creating compelling environments for the entertainment industry for decades. Throughout his 30+ year career he has worked in theater, video, television, film, animation, live and digital media.

Mentored by Eddie Martinez, who worked on several Academy Award winning films with Production Designer John Decuir Sr. Both Eddie and John were mentored by Herbie Ryman - the man responsible for designing Disneyland with Walt.

Arte’s holistic design approach help create four themed Hotel Casinos in Las Vegas and one in Macau. As an Imagineer he helped design two theme parks and the renovation of Anaheim Stadium. Later, as Creative Director, he would help design Universal Studios Japan and raise over $550 Million USD in partnership funds.

Over the next two decades he led design teams to create and build themed entertainment resorts in Japan, Korea, China, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In 2018, he received an International Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement and has raised over $1 Bill USD in partnership funds for various international projects.

Prior to returning to America to focus on film, Arte worked with Production Designer Stuart Craig for two years to help design a new Harry Potter area for Universal’s Beijing Resort.

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Where I’ve been. What I’m doing.

  • VARIOUS FILM PROJECTS - VIEW PORTFOLIO

  • NBC/UNIVERSAL | SR. ART/PRODUCTION DIRECTOR

    Universal Studios Beijing - (Beijing, China)

  • DUBAI PARKS AND RESORTS - (DPR) | SR. DIRECTOR, CREATIVE

    Motiongate, Bollywood, Legoland Theme Parks & Riverland (French Village) - Meraas (Dubai, UAE)

  • ESSENTIAL PRODUCTION, INC | PRESIDENT, CREATIVE DIRECTOR

    OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

  • UNIVERSAL STUDIOS RECREATION GROUP | CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF SPONSORSHIPS & CORPORATE BRANDING

    Universal Studios Japan - (Osaka, Japan)

  • WALT DISNEY ENTERTAINMENT AND IMAGINEERING | SR. SHOW DESIGNER

View Portfolio
Jeremy Railton

Mentors and Friends

  • Jeremy is a multiple Award winning Designer, that is well known and respected for the work that he has created all around the world in a myriad of venues Originally from Zibbabwe, South Africa, he has created themed environments for television, film, theater, music concerts, and live variety shows - including the Academy Awards, Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas and Entertainment Spectacular Events for the 1984 & 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2002 Opening and Closing Olympic Ceremonies. Over the years he has been recogized and won 5 Themed Entertainment Art (TEA) Awards and 4 Emmy Awards, including the Buzz Price Lifetime Achievement TEA Award in 2017. He has designed World Tour Concerts for Cher, Barbara Streisand, Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross,

    Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson and Julio Inglesias

Norman Elder

  • As with all of my mentors, we have become lifetime friends and have worked with each other over the decades on various projects. Norm Elder and I literally saw the world together and he became a close personal friend. Collectively we raised nearly $1 Billion USD in corporate sponsorship funds for various large scale theme park resorts in Japan, Beijing and Dubai. Originally from SoCal, he went to USC and began his career with WED while EPCOT was being designed and built. Later he would work on Tokyo Disneyland and EuroDisneyland and then would go to Universal Studios Creative and lead the Corporate Sponsorship team as the Executive Vice-President of International Marketing. His skills at Corporate Sponsorship are unsurpassed and he will be sorely missed.

“If you want to be a good designer, draw… draw everyday, read… not just the things you like, but read everything and remember.”

- Herbie Ryman

Norman Newberry

  • Norm's career in the Entertainment Industry has spanned more than half a century He began his career as a Set Designer on episodic television shows and later films as an Art Director and Production Designer. He would go on to become the Creative Director for Universal Studios Creative and oversee all design for many of its theme parks around the world, including Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, (USJ). After the Grand Opening of USJ, he returned to America and film where he

    worked on ground-breaking Motion-Capture (MoCap) films such as:

    'Polar Express', 'War of the Worlds' 'Beowulf"'A Christmas Story' and'Avatar. In 2010 he received the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for the movie 'Avatar' and was later honored with a Lifetime Achievement

    Award in 2018. He will be missed.

  • Stuart is the quintessential English gentleman and world renowned Motion Picture Production Designer. He has been nominated for 56 various Production Design and Art Direction awards and has won 17, including: 3 Academy Awards, 3 BAFTA Awards, 4 Art Directors Guild Awards and 2 Lifetime Achievement Awards - one in 2008 for the Art Directors Guild and one in 2018 for the British Film Designers Guild. I was introduced to Stuart by our mutual long-time friend Norm Newberry in 2016 and had the privilege to work with Stuart for two years as we designed a new Harry Potter land for Universal Beijing Resort in China. After working with him,

    I decided to focus the remainder of my career on film.

  • Eddie is a world renowned artist and designer that worked with WED, later to be renamed - Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) and was part of the team respondible for designing various attractions at EPCOT, including: 'The Mexico Pavilion' and 'Hall of Presidents'. While at Disney, he was mentored by his long time friend, the legendary artist, Herbert Dickens Ryman, (aka Herbie Ryman) - the man credited for designing Disneyland. Eddie is also the only artist to paint Walt Disney's

    portrait which hangs inside Disneyland's 'Hall of Presidents. Cinimatically, he worked with another mentor, multi-Academy Award winning Production Designer, John Decuir Sr., including:'The King and I' 'Cleopatra','

    Circus World' and 'Hello Dolly’