Kevin Whitaker

Hello!

Not Only . . .

I am a writer with extensive experience writing marketing copy, technical and training materials, concept and proposal documents, and scripting video, film, audio, interactive, and live presentations.

Clients have ranged from two-person product development teams to America's premiere not-for-profit health care provider to the biggest entertainment company on Earth (well, the biggest one that's headed by a cartoon mouse).

Storytelling has always been at the heart of my work . . . with words, illustrations, photographs, Websites, print media, video, audio, film, animation, immersive environments, museum exhibits, virtual reality realms, educational attractions, live performances being the channels for telling those stories.

Hello, II!

. . . But Also . . .

Work has run the gamut from creating "B2B" materials used to directly influence the purchase of health care services for nearly 9 million Californians, to technical specs for an innovative shopping cart wheel, to an explosive/iconic theme park stunt attraction. What else? Uh, well there is . . .

That captured enemy submarine I helped bury in Chicago
And the strangely formal debut of scary presidential teeth
And when I helped bring stale pizza scent to virtual reality
And the story of an Erie "almost island"
And that 500-foot-tall animated laser-beaver I helped bring to life

But all that's another story . . .

Marketing / Copywriting

Marketing and communications has been at the heart of most all my work over the last more-then quarter century . . .

Creative Development and Gallery

"Clear, concise, complete" writing defines my work in the development of themed entertainment experiences and museum exhibits . . .

Online Writing

Random samples of online foo-foo-rah:

Cellos: A Danger to Youth?

Cheap Amusement Park Thrills

Welle's War (of the Worlds)

Biography and Resumes

"Seems a Little Long for an Executive Summary� Biography (A note to readers: all 100% mostly true, in a way) . . .

Contact Me

Go ahead, I dare you:

KEVIN WHITAKER

Marketing / Copywriting

Marketing and communications—the creation in the conscious and subconscious minds of an intended audience—has been at the heart of most all my work over that last more-then quarter century.

Approaches to developing different types of marketing have been as far-ranging as have the clients, media, and audiences, but several elements of note are found throughout, such as:

Setting long-term creative marketing/branding vision and strategies to develop content experiences that exceed client goals;

Communicate with stakeholders and team leads to coordinate concept, copy, interface, graphic design, and navigational structure of marketing within evolving branding avenues;

Actively seek out and help define new creative possibilities for client engagements, from rich media ad units and social media programs, to original video scripts and digital signage;

Focus on developing compelling conventional and interactive messaging for print, email, and Web-based media.

Clients have included two-person product development teams to America's premiere not-for-profit health care provider to the biggest entertainment company on Earth (well, the biggest one that's headed by a cartoon mouse).

Marketing/B2B/Copywriting Samples

Creative Development

Creative development roles I have undertaken include being a concept and visitor experience designer; concept development producer; show, attraction, and exhibit concept and proposal developer; writer of finished museum/educational content; and script writer of film and video presentations, live shows, interactive educational media, and fully-immersive, first-person interactive, story-based, 2000+ guest-an-hour virtual reality attraction.

Creative development clients, attractions, shows, and museum venues have included:

The Aladdin Adventure virtual reality attraction, Disney VR Studio, Glendale, CA

Bob Weis Design Island and Associates, New Smyrna Beach, FL

BRC Imagination Arts, Glendale, CA

The Walt Disney Imagineering Labs attraction, Epcot Center, Orlando, FL

Dellmont Leisure Design, La Crescenta, CA

The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center, Mt. Vernon, VA

Evans and Sutherland, Salt Lake City, UT

The Fresh Water Museum, Milwaukee, WI

The Greenville / Upcountry Educational Center, Greenville, SC

The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Orlando, FL

The U-505 Experience, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL

Walt Disney Imagineering, Glendale, CA

Sony Development, Burbank, CA

Themed Entertainment Group, Jack Morton Co., Long Beach, CA

Paramount Parks, Charlotte, NC

The Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle, Erie, PA

Entertainment/Museum Concept Writing Samples

Online Samples

Radio Powerhouse of the Air:

"Twilight of the Cello, Midnight of the Celli"

DeScope - A Cranky Journal of Themed Design Development:

"The Resistible Rise of Mickey Mouse, Swampland Socialist"

DeScope - A Cranky Journal of Themed Design Development:

"The Firesign Theater's 'I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus . . ."

Radio Powerhouse of the Air:

"Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds!"

DeScope - A Cranky Journal of Themed Design Development:

"Theme Park Ballyhoo!"

DeScope - A Cranky Journal of Themed Design Development:

"Have you been out to Disneyland, When the moon is shinin' bright?"

BIOGRAPHY & RESUME

The Early Years
Born, raised, and educated in Southern California. Early love of reading, theater, movies, and history led me to the study of Broadcast Communications at Cal Poly, Pomona. While there I considered changing my major to some branch of education: language arts, media studies, something along those lines. I stayed with Communications but treated myself to many of the history, theater, and literature classes, too, because . . . why not?

My Boss is a Cartoon Mouse (Isn't Everybody's?)
During a period of astonishing growth in all areas of the Walt Disney Company, I joined Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in Glendale, CA, as a show writer working on attractions for Disney theme parks in California, Florida, Japan, and France. WDI further reinforced the value of creating complete, multisensory environments as a form of storytelling and provided an ideal platform for sharpening a variety of writing styles: long-form concept proposals, scripts of all sorts, marketing copy, technical documentation, and developing stories via storyborards and other types of visual scripting. These years were also a crash-course in the conception and development of experiences for a wide variety of audiences, personalities, and multiple-intelligence learners.

After WDI, I continued as a writer and concept designer with several themed entertainment groups and design entities large and small, each providing further opportunities to explore the use of setting and interactive storytelling in entertainment and education with the development and scripting of several CD-ROM-based edu-taiment games and the still-nacent online platforms.

From CA Theme Parks to MA Museums
While still working in themed entertainment, I branched out to museum exhibit design, eventually joinning a Boston design group as part of their exhibit and educational attraction development team. Working there presented opportunities to work closely with an ever-widening array of subject matter experts who included educational specialists, historians, land-use planners, historic restoration experts, industrial archeologists, and more.

The Whole Story . . . in 75 Words or Less
The prevailing wisdom in the museum world (right or wrong; possibly both . . .) is that the maximum word count for blocks of introductory text should be no more than 75 words and expository text shouldn't be much more than even twice that at most. Key story points of even the most involved stories needed to be pared down to their bare minimum, a sort of "exhibit haiku."

Meanwhile, Back in the Southland
I continued to work as an independent freelance museum exhibit designer and writer for several years after leaving Boston and returning to California, specifically with the not-for-profit Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, writing cldear, concise, yet complete descriptions about virtually all aspecys of Kaiser Permanente. An interesting challenge providing a chance to work with an expanding marketing group in the creation of specialized marketing content while simultaneously developing an editorial style allowing content to be used across multiple platforms and be a part in the creation of a distinctive marketing voice for the Kaiser Permanente marketing used to directly influence the purchase of health care services for nearly 9 million Californians.

Now, More of the Same (And Lot's of it . . .)
In more recent times, I continue to cast a wide writing, marketing, and creative development net, wide enough to include managing media and staff for a congressional race, over-seeing person-to-person media marketing, giving voice to an animated, laser-projected beaver who provided the pre-show enertainment for the Grand Couless Dam nighttime extraveganza, and managing the a stat-up pet services business in Old Town Pasadena.

What's next? A whole different story?

Sure, why not? Once upon a time . . .

Stuff: