Richard Taylor II

Richard Winn Taylor II  holds an extensive background in live action direction, production design, special effects, and computer generated images for theatrical films, television commercials and computer games.
Richard began his career as an artist and holds a BFA in painting and drawing from the University of Utah. Richard began making short films in 1965 and in 1967 co-created Rainbow Jam, a multi-media light show and graphics company. Rainbow Jam toured with The Grateful Dead in 1969 and regularly performed concerts at The Family Dog, The Fillmore, The Winterland and other concert venues with bands such as Santana, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Crosby Stills and Nash.
In 1971 Richard was awarded The Cole Porter Fellowship to USC where he earned his Masters Degree in Photography and Printmaking.
In 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco.
In 1973 Richard joined Robert Abel and Associates, the pioneer TV commercial graphics/special effects studio, where he served six years as art director/director.  While at Abel’s, Richard created many award winning commercials, receiving four Clio awards for his work on the 7UP Bubbles, 7UP Uncola and Levi’s Trademark commercials.  He directed numerous promotional films and network graphics for ABC, CBS, and NBC and designed new theatrical logos for CBS and Columbia Pictures. As a part of his work at the Abel Studio Richard worked for Paramount Pictures on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where he supervised the storyboarding of the film and designed and supervised the building of the films miniatures including The Enterprise.
In 1980 Richard became the Creative Director at Information International Inc.  (III) was one of the first companies to create computer-generated images for film and television. While at III Richard designed and directed the special effects for Looker, a Michael Crichton feature and became the co-effects director of the innovative special effects and computer-generated images for Walt Disney’s Tron, the film that introduced the world to computer simulation.
In 1983 Richard became creative director of Magi-Synthavision’s west coast studio. While at Magi Richard created special effects for Disney’s Something Wicked This Way Comes and John Lasseter’s Where the Wild Things Are. He also directed numerous commercials including Atari’s Worm War One the first commercial to receive a Clio award for computer animation.
Richard joined with Lee Lacy and Associates in 1985 where he directed award-winning commercials for clients such as Ford, 7UP, RCA, and Duracell.
In 1987, Richard moved to Apogee Production Inc. where he launched the internationally acclaimed 7UP company’s Spot campaign. The 7UP commercial Baseball won the CLIO for Best Live Action/Animation Combination and the spots Teacher Lounge and Christmas both won Best Director at the International Monitor Awards.
From 1989 thru1992, Richard directed at Image Point Productions where he created spots for numerous clients. His Reebok commercial Cowardly Baskets won three Clio Awards.
In 1992, Richard joined with director David Dryer to form Dryer/Taylor Productions, where he directed campaigns for Duracell, McDonalds, Warner Bros., and Disney.  While there, Richard won three Clios, two Hugos and two Mobius Awards.
From 1998 to 2000, Richard directed for Rhythm & Hues Commercial Division expanding his clientele to include Euro Disney, Disney Cruise Lines, UPS, Honda, Bud Light, Intel, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Census 2000. 
In 2000, Richard co-founded BeachHouse Films. While there he directed spots for SAS (Statistical Analysis Systems), Toyota, and Disney Home Video, among others.
Aside from directing commercials and game cinematic sequences, Richard creates original art that has been featured in several tabletop books on computer art. His work is represented by Phillips Gallery and is in numerous private and public collections.
In 2002 Richard began working in the gaming industry. Initially he began as Cinematic Director for Indie Studios, a division of Microsoft Gaming Studios. While there he designed and directed the in game cinematic sequences and the marketing trailers for Top Spin and Links 2004.
In 2003 Richard became the Cinematic Director at Electronic Arts Los Angeles where he directed the cinematic sequences for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath. His latest work on Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 was released in November 08 and Command & Conquer, Red Alert 3: Uprising was released in March 09.
Richard has been a member of the DGA (Directors Guild of America) for 35 years. He has been the Vice-Chair of the VES Board of Directors.  In 2008 Richard received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University San Francisco.

Presently Richard is the Creative Director of his company XLNT FX Inc. He is also the founder of a new venture Imerce LLC specializing in LED 3D theatrical scale virtual reality formats and media.
In 2014 Richard was honored by the VES in becoming a VES FELLOW.
 

https://www.richardtaylordesign.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rwtaylor2?ref=name

Role with the VES

Directors Guild of America DGA, VES Board of Directors. Awards Committee,  Archive Committee, Technology Committee,VES Summit Committee. VES Fellows Committee.In 2020 Richard was honored with a VES Lifetime Membership.