Tag: Disney

Joseph Yakovetic ~ Disney Panelist

Joseph YakoveticJoseph Yakovetic DISNEY RESUME

Title: Designer/artist/performer

Originally Joe was hired as a portrait/caricature artist for the Disneyland Hotel under the direction of Charles Boyer.  Later on, Mr. Boyer, famous for his many Disneyland lithographs, hired Joe to produce illustrations for Disneyland Magazine.  The first illustration was ‘How to Draw Clarabell Cow.’

 With the original Disney Stores, Joe began designing and fabricating award winning windows.  The first day, he painted a Roger Rabbit standee, without knowing who the character was!

After the Disney Stores, Joe went to work with Disney Books By Mail, art directing and illustrating the most successful book series to their division credit.  “The Little Mermaid Treasure Chest” was a 24 book series complete with a treasure chest box with which to keep the books, a poster and removable stickers  from each book to add to the poster.  Another book series Joe developed was, 101 Dalmatians recreating the original art style of the film.

As an Art Director and Illustrator, Joe was called in to rescue 8 of an 18 book series, entitled ”Disney’s Storytime Treasures Library.”  He not only brought the series in on time but met Disney’s high standards.

As a frequent illustrator for Disney’s Golden Books, Joe’s first coloring book assignment was “The Lion King.” Still in production, he successfully created the coloring book pages with only a few rough storyboards and some model sheets to work from.

Discovering Joe’s background in costuming, Golden Books dubbed Joe the Paper Doll King as he designed and redesigned many Disney’s Paper Dolls.

Due to his publishing background, Joe as asked to lend his talents to the Disneyland Clock shop on Main street, by designing ‘one of a kind Art Watches.”  Joe introduced painted illustrations instead of pencil drawn creations, boosting sales and elevating the quality of the custom art watches.

With the success of his books and watches, Joe was asked to join a promotional tour for the feature film, Pocahontas.

 Christopher Radko recruited Joe to design over 50 unique Disney ornaments.

As a designer, Joe was asked to design the railing around the new ‘Partners’ statue in the Disneyland Hub.  Joe submitted the requested image but added various Disney characters on colonnades surrounding Walt and Mickey.  His idea was accepted and is seen today at the Castle fore court.

Entertainment Art, another division of Disneyland, asked Joe to design other aspects of the park.  Working with set designer Tom Butch, Joe took Tom’s rough pencil sketches for the Snow White set and transformed them into the color and style of Maxfield Parrish.  These renderings were used for the final set.

An award winning costume, set and prop designer, Yakovetic’s designs have included costumes for “Disney’s The Little Mermaid on Ice” and “The Disney Faire.”

Back at Disneyland, Joe was brought in to design various venues for  Innoventions: the video game kiosks for “Finding Nemo” and the Haunted Mansion and redesign the Tivo set.  During Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary, Joe was the sole designer of the theater and set for  Innoventions’ new show, “Say ‘Hello’ to Honda’s ASIMO!”  This job included designing the graphics that wrap the theatre and dressing the set and art directing all the video clips used in the show.  The show has had over 1,000 performances and continues to be a guest favorite.

Halloween is a special season for Joe as he performs as a pumpkin carver for Disneyland guests.  Disney Home Entertainment brought his carving skills to Access Hollywood, Telemundo, Univision and You Tube to promote Pirates 4 and Monster University.

Starting in 2006, Joe became a featured artist at the Disneyland Gallery.  His paintings depicting still life reflections of Disney films are highly prized Disney collectibles. A limited edition sculpture of Belle is also at the Disneyana  Shoppe. In honor of Snow White’s 70th Anniversary, John Lassiter requested that Yakovetic create a commemorative painting for the special event.

 Joe represents the Walt Disney Company as a sketch artist, performing “live” sketches of Disney Characters for groups all over the world.  As a sketch artist for Disney Interactive, guests waiting up to five hours to receive a custom Disney sketch created by Yakovetic. His art continues to be in demand around the globe.

Todd Regan ~ Disney Panelist

Todd ReganTodd Regan, Executive Director, The Center for Early Childhood Creativity and Innovation at the Walt Disney Birthplace

Todd is a marketing and social networking leader and Executive Director of The Walt Disney Birthplace. A themed entertainment expert, Todd is a frequent speaker about Disney and the Theme Park Industry. 

Plans to preserve and protect Walt Disney’s historic birthplace in Chicago Illinois are well underway with an incredible dream team of architects, historians, artists and benefactors under the direction of Todd and his amazing team at the Center for Early Childhood Creativity.  When the Birthplace restoration is complete, it will serve as a point of inspiration for future generations of dreamers and doers.
Todd has shared his motivational messages with millions of readers and fans on his family entertainment website, MiceChat.com. Todd has served as Senior Vice President of Operations, Sales and Marketing for a variety of companies and on two continents over his successful 25 year business career.

Working to preserve the important history surrounding Walt Disney is a dream for Todd and a source of great pride and personal inspiration. 

Kaye Malins ~ Disney Panelist

Kaye MalinsKaye first met Walt and Roy Disney in 1956 when they stayed with her family, for the dedication of the Walt Disney Swimming Pool and Park. She was 6 years old.

At Walt’s invitation Kaye became a Disneyland Cast Member and served on the first crew when the Carousel of Progress opened at Disneyland.

Kaye is a founding board member of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum and has served as Director since it’s opening in 2001. Kaye is the co-founder of the Walt Disney Hometown Toonfest. A celebration which features well know cartoonist and animators during a two day event held annually the third Saturday of September. In 2015 Marceline will host the 19th annual Toonfest.

Kaye is a past Board Member of the Missouri Travel Council and is a founding board member of the Highway 36 (The way of American Genius) Alliance. She provides Marceline Disney heritage presentations several times each year to Cast Members at Disneyland and Disney World. She has been featured on American, British, Japanese, French, Canadian, and American TV. And recently completed a project with the BBC which will air in China the fall of 2015.

Kaye is honored to be participating in the 2015 Cherry Blossom festival in her home state of Missouri.