Joseph Yakovetic ~ Disney Panelist
Joseph 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.
