Wonderland

Haunt Maze Design & Management

Overview

Wonderland was a haunt maze that I produced with the TEA at UC San Diego in partnership with the UCSD University Events Office for their Fall 2021 event series. As student Producer and Event Director, I oversaw the design, fabrication, and operation of the maze alongside two other student producers and the Creative Director. I directly supervised the work of the Graphics, Finance, Marketing, and Operations committee leads and collaborated with UEO to coordinate budgeting and purchasing, advertising, and event logistics. 

Role

Student Producer

Event Director

Tools & Skills

  • Project Management
  • Experience Design
  • Production Design

Duration

2 years

November 2019 – November 2021

Team Members

Matthias Baker

Sarah Litto

Sol Markarian

Xochilt Khoury

Jared Walker

Brandon Chaing

Tyler Felipe

Alex Gruenenfelder

Sidney Chan

Yukta Chidanandan

Jacob Brickman

Aimee Aviles 

Janette Melendez

Cynthia Zhan

Cole Takayama

Aaron Nhan 

This was by far the biggest, most challenging, and most rewarding project I took on during my time at school. The annual haunt maze is an event that students look forward to every Fall, and going into our third year of partnership with the University Events Office, our team was eager to take the experience to a new level.

One of our most challenging tasks took place before we had even started the design phase. Before we onboarded our committees, I worked with the three others on the producing team to build a team structure and organization from scratch. Our aim was to restructure the leadership and design process from the previous iterations of the maze project. I worked to set up our project timeline, meeting structure, document filing system, tracking spreadsheets, and communication channels that were used for a team of about 60 students.

The Team (most of us).

Project profile by the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering.

Once the design phase began, I worked extensively on the concept development and story for the experience. When our original plans for a traditional maze were shut down due to the pandemic, we pivoted to creating a digital version that would place guests in a virtual experience to interact with a live actor who would be streaming from an escape room-like space. 

The experience changed once again when UCSD re-welcomed students back to campus and we had three months to convert our virtual experience back into an in-person (lower capacity) maze walkthrough. We modified our story, fabricated and changed props, and figured out how to make the experience safe while still providing good scares. Installation into Mandeville Auditorium took place over two weeks, and the event finally ran on November 12, 2021.

A concept poster I designed and illustrated for the virtual experience. 

Watch the full walkthrough

Poster design by Natasha Hadimulia.