XYZ Snags Entertainment Industry Veteran Joe Takai
New Managing Director of XYZ Los Angeles Has Decades of Business, Technology and Creative Management Experience
January 02, 2009
San Francisco, CA – XYZ Graphics, a leading creative services, image creation and post-production studio, today announced the appointment of entertainment industry veteran Joe Takai as Managing Director of XYZ’s Los Angeles creative studio. The latest addition to XYZ’s expanding executive team, Takai will drive the strategic vision of the studio and formulate partnerships with current and new clients: with an emphasis on integrating it’s conventional offerings with its newly formed Synthetic Visual Imaging group, which produces creative content using CG, motion graphics and visual effects technologies.
“XYZ has long been known for its creativity and resourcefulness, and a proud collaborator with many of the worlds most renowned advertising and communication firms, said Steve Waterloo, XYZ President. “With Joe Takai as Managing Director driving XYZ’s creative and business strategies we are on track to position ourselves as industry leaders.”
Joe Takai brings decades of experience working with such entertainment industry stalwarts as: Warner Bros., Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), and Digital Domain. At Warner Bros., Takai served as the Visual Effects Supervisor for The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions. While a Creative Director at ILM, Commercial Division, he worked with Fortune 500 clients including: AT&T, Safeway, and FedEx. As Director of Production Engineering at ILM Takai successfully ran the digital technology engineering and operation teams for feature films: Star Wars: Episode 1, Artificial Intelligence and Saving Private Ryan. And as the Senior Manager, Digital Technology for Digital Domain, he ran the technology group for Feature films including: Titanic, The Fifth Element and Dante’s Peak to name a few.
“This is an excellent time to be joining XYZ. I see a great opportunity to help the company expand its markets and accelerate the evolution of image creation and post-production.” Said Joe Takai. “The blurring of lines between the entertainment industry and traditional advertising will continue to be an exciting challenge as we partner with our clients in cutting-edge ways to communicate to their audience.”
Takai is the past chairman of SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival and Electronic Theater and an alumnus of California State University, Fullerton where he majored in Computer Science.
About XYZ:
XYZ is an image creation company that collaborates with visual communication leaders worldwide to enhance their brands using state of the art creative technologies. Founded in 2001 by Steve Waterloo and Sean McGlynn the company has become the go-to solution for those who believe the creative process doesn’t stop until their brand is in front of the public. The company has a client roster of award-winning advertising agencies and brands including: Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Draftfcb, BBDO West, Saatchi & Saatchi, Deutsch, Cisco, Williams Sonoma among others. XYZ has studios in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boulder, CO. Additional information can be found at www.xyzgraphics.com.