I think I'm in love ... About This Page:

[Ginns1]

... with Joe Rohde, one of the executive designers for Disney Imagineering.

I am checking the boards and watching the Animal Kingdom special that I taped from the travel channel for the umteenth time. Every time I see this guy I just smile. He seems like such a neat person! It's fun watching an imagineer's face light up when he talks about what he does to make WDW a fun place for all of us!

The other person who I find fasinating is Marty Sklar (I think that's his name).

[RobDVC]

[MrsM]

He does have quite an ...umm... interesting look!

[Belle*]

Admit it, it's the earlobe!

[bradk]

[POOH]

That looks so uncomfortable!

[Ginns1]

Come on .. he's pretty cool when he's on all those Disney Travel Channel shows! And Yes it looks painful but dern it ... he has nicer earrings than I do!

[FanOfMickey]

Joe Rohde is my fave Imagineer He is also chief Imaganeer for the Animal Kingdom, which of course is my fave park!!

A few years ago while eating at Jiko with Tina and her boys, Joe Rohde was sitting at the table diagnally from us, it was soo cool, I was soooooo excited !! I sooo wanted to go over and ask for his autograph, but he was eating and with some lady, so I didn't

You know your a Disney freak when you recognize Disney imaganeers lol.

[Ginns1]

Thanks for the photo, Brad!

[Wendyismyname]

Originally Posted by bradk

sigh, gives me the shivers everytime I see him.

Seriously, this is one guy I would love to meet!

[SouthernBelle]

Ditto, on meeting him, it would be so cool, I would have a ton of questions for him.

[waycoolmom]

We had lunch with an Imagineer on our Spring Break trip and DS SOOOOOOwanted our Imagineer to be Joe Rohde! Turns out, we got a very nice guy, but nothing like Mr. Rohde.

[Jookiba]

Every time I look at that ear stretched to smithereens, I just wince.....and hope he doesn't turn his head from side to side quickly......he could put an eye out with that thing!!

I would love to meet him though.....shake his hand.....buy him a beer.....and thank him personally for all the great things he's Imagined. Then pick his brain to see what's next!

[Dave Marx]

I agree, Joe is very cool. There's definitely no faulting his imagination and leadership. Along with Animal Kingdom, he also deserves credit for Pleasure Island (including the Adventurers Club), so he gets double points for that.

Beyond all the great work he's lead, there's another side to Joe that I've noted... He's one of the best creative pitchmen I've come across. It works great for public appearances, but it undoubtedly works well for him in the corridors of Disney power - he seems better than many at getting his projects approved. When you're trying to push "creative" it helps to look the part, of course, but he also has a very animated, eloquent way of describing future attractions that gets others excited (not unlike the reputation Walt had for his contributions to movie story meetings). He's also an advocate for the somewhat quirky, so appearing quirky himself probably helps, since his personal brand of quirkiness is clearly successful.

Naturally, he backs up his ability to pitch all these creative ideas with the ability to deliver on-time and on-budget, or he wouldn't have survived at Disney long enough for us to talk about him. Let's not confuse his appearance or manner with the stereotypical artist's inability to deal with the bottomline-oriented "real" world.

I won't come out and accuse him of using his trademarked earrings, moustache, etc. as a pose, but he seems nearly alone among Imagineers in wearing something other than the standard, clean-shaven, Disney buttondown Oxford shirt and khakis costume. I don't know enough about his history with the company to know whether he earned the right to deviate from Disney wardrobe norms over the years, or whether it was something he managed to carve out for himself from the very beginning. In many ways he reminds me more of a film production creative than today's typical Imagineer. And from what we've seen of the Imagineers of Walt's day, even then, most of those "converted" film production folks seem to have dressed to suit Walt's conservative tastes.

I'm kind of reminded of legendary animator Ward Kimball. Among Walt's inner circle, he seems to be the only "quirky creative" one of the lot (more, like Marc Davis and Herb Ryman were "cultured creative"). Look at the animation he did for Walt's TV shows, for example, or the way Walt showcased the Firehouse Five, or adopted Ward's interest in model railroading. Ward is also somewhat famous for his own wardrobe "style." I think that's part of what endeared him to Walt, but it's also likely that Ward earned that special position through his ability to deliver on his creative promises.

In a generally conservative organization like Disney, I think people like Rhode and Kimball function as the necessary "spice." They're few and far between, because there's such thing as having too much spice. It's hard to steer a huge enterprise of this sort when you've got too many people pulling in too many different directions.

[bradk]

i think as a rule, imagineers are excluded from that particular disney look. in fact, not complying with one might expect is probably considered an asset.

many of the disney companies are. i was quite close to working for disney theatrical which reports directly to walt disney studios so was in the office many times and there was definitely no real code in place in terms of dress. i saw thomas schumacher in jeans.