Although Marc Davis held the title of chief art director for the attraction, it was Mary Blair who left her artistic imprint on the ride. At Walt's suggestion, Blair was brought onto the project. Eventually she was charged with the attraction's backgrounds, children, and color schemes <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Other contributors to the attraction included: Claude Coats who did the art directing the layout of the attraction), Rolly Crump who created the toys for the attraction <ref name= "Korkis", Alice Davis who created the costumes for the dolls, and Blaine Gibson who sculpted the dolls <Ref> http://blogs.disney.com/insider/2015/07/10/in-remembrance-blaine-gibson-1939-2015/#Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-ride </ref>.
When Walt originally pitched his boat ride attraction, he titled it "The Children of the World" and he hoped that all of the different children could sing their own national anthem <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>. Although this idea was originally tried, it was eventually deemed infeasible. In order to come up with a song that could continuously play on the attraction, Walt turned to the Sherman Brothers<ref> http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/a_conversation_with_richard_m._sherman </ref>, asking them to write a song that could be sung as a round like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>. According to Imagineer Harriet Burns When explaining to the songwriting duo the kind of song that he wanted Walt used the phrase "it’s a small world after all". Although not intended as a lyric for the song, the Sherman brothers used the phrase as the basis for their song <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Although "it's a small world" was the first song that the Shermans wrote for the attraction, they were afraid that the song had come together too quickly. Subsequently, two more songs were written, although they were deemed inferior. With time running out, the Sherman Brothers presented "it's a small world" to Walt, who was said to comment "That will work" (Disney employees knew that this meant Walt liked the song) <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Although he approved the song, Walt did have one suggestion for the Sherman Brothers. Initially, the brothers had written the song as a slow ballad, and after hearing it Walt told the duo to "speed it up" <ref> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-small-world-20140804-story.html </ref>. Besides just becoming the attraction’s theme song, “it’s a small world” also would give the ride its namesake.
[[Image:worldfair.jpg|thumb|250px|'''"it's a small world" as it appeared at the 1964 World's Fair.''']]
To draw guests into the Pepsi pavilion, Rolly Crump designed the 120-foot high Tower of the Four Winds. The tower featured a total of 52 different mobiles which “represented the constant energy of the young". In order to create the attraction on time for the fair, construction crews worked seven days a week. Although Pepsi was not a fan of the attraction Disney had created, the pavilion proved to be extremely popular. Over its two year run, an estimated 10 million people rode "it's a small world", making it one of the post popular attractions at the World's Fair. One of the factors that made the ride so popular was the high capacity that it had. By using multiple boats every hour to get guests on the attraction, there was almost never a wait. This ride system would later be used in other Disney attractions including [[Pirates of the Caribbean]].