The Birthday - 25 Years of Katapult with Co-Founders Dawn & Phil
- Katapult Team
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
2026 marks the 25th year in business for Katapult and Co-Founders, Dawn Foote and Phil Higgins. Following their first interview exploring the inception of Katapult, this episode we follow their journey into themed entertainment.
Q: Before focussing on themed entertainment, what did Katapult do?
Dawn Foote: "We started working on projects for local cultural venues and attractions, so we did branding, marketing, visual signage and wayfinding around buildings. By 2008, we started working with a company back then called Picsolve, who did all the ride photography for theme parks around the world."
Dawn Foote: "Working with them, we got a snapshot into the themed entertainment industry, utilising our background in visual media, photography, marketing and the integration of the guest experience."
Q: What made you want to focus solely on this industry?
Phil Higgins: "At that point, we were doing other smaller bits within the industry, but we were also doing a lot of things to a lot of people in lots of different industries as a full-service design company. Picsolve was a great client that gave us an opportunity to really step into this world."
Phil Higgins: "It wasn't just design involved, we were thinking about the guest experience and the wider context of how these photo opportunities sat within iconic theme parks and attractions."
Q: When did you decide to fully focus on the themed entertainment industry?
Dawn Foote: "When on maternity leave I had a major incident happen in my personal life where my husband had a cardiac arrest and I became his carer for a period of time, which he amazingly recovered from. But it really shifted my lens. If I'm going to spend time at work away from my family and my new daughter, I have to love it. Taking that step back was pivotal to where we are today."
Phil Higgins: "We wanted to regain a business that we loved. Through growth and necessity working across many B2B and B2C sectors and industries, Katapult became a case of 'feeding the beast'. We decided to carve the B2B side of the business out and solely focus on themed entertainment. This could absolutely fly and it feels right and we love the industry... but if it doesn't work, it's bye-bye."
Q: What was that first project after pivoting the business, that made you realise you'd made the right choice?
Dawn Foote: "We worked with The LEGO® Group and Merlin Entertainments on a global project at their Discovery Centres. We also worked alongside Turner and Cartoon Network on an end-to-end refurbishment of a family entertainment centre which was great."
Dawn Foote: "These were big projects at the time which we could see through from the beginning, right the way through to opening. These were a couple of projects where we could say to the world, 'we did this'."
Creating experiences for Warner Bros Studio Tour
The team today and importance of culture
How becoming parents shaped their vision
Working with world-leading IPs
Over the summer, we will be publishing more updates from Dawn and Phil on the Katapult journey over the last 25 years. Stay tuned!
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