Ectovox on the changing role of storytelling in water parks

Water parks are becoming more than collections of slides and pools. As guest expectations evolve, operators are creating destinations that combine aquatic attractions with storytelling, theming and immersive experiences.

That shift is changing design's role in water park development. For Ectovox, the answer is to bring creative development and engineering together from the outset, combining narrative, visual design and planning with the technical expertise needed to deliver complex aquatic environments.

Based in Orlando, Ectovox grew out of Martin Aquatic’s concept studio and became its own experiential design division. It works across water parks, resort amenities, cruise and other location-based entertainment projects.

Ectovox’s multidisciplinary team includes storytellers, graphic artists, 3D modellers and interior designers alongside aquatic engineers and master planners.

Its projects range from cruise destinations and expansions to indoor water parks built around established brands, including Mattel and Hasbro. The goal is to develop aquatic destinations as complete experiences, considering the creative concept and physical environment together.


From Martin Aquatic to Ectovox

In 2019, Martin Aquatic’s in-house creative team led a corporate rebrand and created the Martin Aquatic identity. The work attracted attention from developers and others in the industry, who began asking who was behind it. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 disrupted development schedules across the industry, but it also let the company explore how its creative team could support clients beyond traditional aquatic design and engineering.

As demand grew for branding, digital artwork, and marketing, the creative team became a more formal offering and eventually became Ectovox, a division focused on experiential design, storytelling, and master planning.

An early collaboration with themed entertainment specialist Chris Grap, now VP of Ectovox at Martin Aquatic, helped shape the direction. At the time, Grap was vice president of experiential development at Mall of America and was working with the team on Mystery Cove.

“Chris was both a client and a friend working with Mall of America at the time on Mystery Cove, and we got a really good flavour of our ability to work together,” says Josh Martin, president and creative director at Martin Aquatic.

Grap says the new division gave the work a clearer identity and allowed the team to pursue a wider range of projects.

"When you hear Martin Aquatic, that is broad, but it's limiting in the sense of when you start to think about experiential design and guest experience. The team had been doing this work but really wasn't getting credit or recognition for it.

“What I think Ectovox does is allow for a wider scope that branches a bit more outside what you would have expected from Martin Aquatic, and it's been interesting to see the opportunities that have come our way from it.”
Bringing creative design and engineering together

Ectovox brings market research, master planning and creative development together from the beginning of a project.

An in-house team of market researchers conducts competitor and feasibility benchmarking; Martin leads designers focused on master planning, spatial layout, and operational flow, while Grap focuses on thematic narrative and character development.

The team includes mechanical engineers, interior designers, former show-set construction specialists, graphic artists, 3D animators and computational fluid dynamics experts. This allows the team to consider creative ideas alongside commercial, operational, and technical requirements.

Martin says: “We like to say internally we do constructable concepts. A client may have a really creative vision, and we want to help execute that. But we're also going, 'It doesn't fit your budget,' or 'It doesn't fit the ability to build this'.

“We spend that time telling that story, and we love doing it from a research lens with benchmarking, because a lot of clients will say, 'Oh, I want what this guy has.' Well, why do you want the same thing that he has? Let's come up with something more original, more creative, and now we're adding that level of story and theming and guest journey on top of it.”

Grap adds: “To me, this is one of the closest things to filmmaking, where all the disciplines come together, bringing the best in your field, and landing together on a project.”

Engineering can also inform the creative experience. Martin gives the example of an aquatic attraction designed around changes in water speed and movement.

"Our creatives have access to our smartest engineers. We have a guy on our team who does computational fluid dynamics modelling, and he’s brilliant at it. Our designers have ideas like, 'Hey, I want to do this with an action river,' and he'll work out a solution or a simulation and say, 'This is how you do it.'

“One of our team members spent months simulating a river as part of a creative story to tell the guest journey, with slow-down moments, speed-up moments, and waves being introduced. That is how we make engineering very much a part of the creative journey.”

This integration can also identify construction, budget and regulatory issues before a concept progresses too far.

Grap says: "That's the concept working with engineering to truly make it a reality versus putting something in front of a guest that might look pretty on a page but can't be delivered. It's that type of resource in the toolbox that elevates the entire project.”

Ectovox aims to bring theme park storytelling and environmental detail into water parks, creating different levels of engagement in the same space.

Grap says the approach starts with treating water park guests like theme park visitors.

"As a guest for years, I saw water parks not develop in tandem with theme parks; before working directly with Martin Aquatic, my approach was, 'I don't want to design a water park. I want to design a theme park with water-based attractions.'

“How do we make the space feel more lived in? How do we make it feel more active? Why can't we put this type of attraction in here just because it hasn't been done before? We really try to think of the environment as a whole, give it life and movement, and treat guests the same way you would a theme park guest."

“Some people just want the attractions; others want the story; and some want to know absolutely everything, and we want to satisfy all of them. We've said this for years: we're not designing for one visit; we're designing for your twentieth visit. The more we can add that enrichment and detail, the more enjoyable it's going to be across the board.

“Even if you're not paying attention to it, you're going to feel it.”

The philosophy is shaping Ectovox's work with Mattel, says Martin:

“With the work we're doing with Mattel right now, there are a lot of Easter eggs and hidden moments planned so that if you know the brands, we have something for you. When you look at it, we want to make sure we represent all those different moments, because guests notice different things.”