Ydraw began with an Idea and a question. The question why. We love the quote “When you have a why the how really doesn’t matter.” Our why is to inspire and our passion is video. We love to create videos that will move people to take action. We love our clients and will do what ever it takes to help them succeed. Ydraw can take the most complicated message and simplify it in such a way that a child can get the message. We Love you! Ydraw..Creative Videos that Inspire

 

Jace Vernon is a Co-Founder (and some say the runner-boy) of Ydraw. He takes care of the day to day tasks to keep Ydraw a video-making-machine. He managed to graduate with an MBA in Business (which doesn’t mean much), because his real education comes from the school of hard knox. Multi millionaire by age 26, broke by age 29, back on track at 30. He is a true entrepreneur and considered “unemployable”. Some of his greatest accomplishments include dunking a basketball, getting a hole-in-one, reading 150 business books in a year, and winning the football city league. Such a rough life… but somebody has to live it! Triumphing, conquering, and failing in great business endeavors have created amazing building blocks for Ydraw. Of course he has no idea how he ended up in the Video Business but that is what makes it so interesting. It’s all a mystery. Jace is here to serve you and would love to help in any way he can and no his chin isn’t that big.  

Curtis Pace is also a Co-Founder (or the brains) of Ydraw. Born and raised in Coalville, Utah, he loves big trucks, working on the farm, and spending time with his family. At heart he is also an entrepreneur, and enjoys hard work, especially to see it pay off to happy customers. Some of his tasks include editing, drawing, production, layouts, customer service, and keeping Jace in line. Curtis’ greatest quality is his attention to detail, he does not release any video if its not close to perfect. Somehow, the University of Utah gave him a business degree, but we all question its validity. His greatest accomplishment is setting the all-time world record for laying sprinkler pipe. He is fast, efficient, and he knows it. Always willing to help, he loves producing fun, fantastic vides. It is his passion!

Mark Swan, Head Artist at Ydraw, and an extremely talented and well-known artist, is am extremely valuable part of Ydraw. Most agree that he is the real talent behind Ydraw, we would probably be lost without him. As head artist, Mark makes sure all the artwork is just how the client’s envisioned it. With more than 20 years of experience working in the animation industry, he specializes in story and visual development. He has provided his talents in projects Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and MGM, with credits from An American Tail, Land before Time I-IV, Space Jam, A Goofy Movie, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Rock-a –Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park, and Cats Don’t Dance. Wait, we’re not done… he has also work on various television series such as Thundarr the Barbarian, The Incredible Hulk, and The Smurfs. It seems like each week we uncover more of Mark’s unlimited supply of artistic ability.

Bob Simmons, another one of Ydraw’s skilled animators, is a great asset to the Ydraw team. Drafted into the army in his earlier years, he was made an illustrator instead of going to Vietnam. After this, he started freelancing in Southern California doing logos for album covers and movie posters. He graduated in airbrush illustrator, and then moved to Orem, Utah where he had his own animation studio, taught at BYU in illustration and graphic design, and raised his kids. In his career he has worked for Disney creating the Thief and the Cobbler, designed posters and titles for Thumbelina and All Dogs Go to Heaven, and more. Bob has also worked for Warner Brothers, as well as Don Bluth Studios where he got the opportunity to direct special projects and be an effects animator. Working for Dreamworks, he animated for the Prince of Egypt, and designed various theme parks and theme park rides. And what does he like to do in his spare time? “Anything… as long as it’s creative”.

Jared Beckstrand is another incredibly talented animator here at Ydraw. Born in Long Beach, California, he is the oldest of … 10 … children. As a young boy, if he was not out playing sports, he could be found drawing for hours on end. At age 12 he began receiving commissioned requests for his artwork, most of which were portraits and caricatures. Since those early times, Jared has actively pursued a career in illustrations and animations. In 1990 he assisted for Don Bluth Studios, where he worked on the Swan Princess, Thumbelina, Troll in Central Park, and other known movies. In 1994 he was hired to work for Walt Disney Feature Animation, and stayed on for 10 years where he worked on various projects including Chicken Little, Emperor’s New Groove, Fantasia 2000, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Pocahontas, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, and more. In 2004, Jared decided to leave Disney and currently resides in Saint George, UT with his wife and 4 children, working as a talented illustrator.

Alecsy Christensen is the Marketing Gypsy of Ydraw. Mostly, she tries to keep things interesting at Ydraw by creating an element of surprise. When she is not dealing with the most random car problems, she enjoys playing guitar and singing cover songs on YouTube. Raised in Bend, Oregon, she then attended Gonzaga University, and now lives in Saint George with her degree from Dixie State College. Her tasks include internet marketing, web design, SEO, social media management, news/ press releases, editing, blogging, PPC management, and assisting Jace in a bunch of odd (but super fun) jobs.  Lucky and excited to work under such a great team of entrepreneurs, Alecsy considers herself an entrepreneur herself. She is here to help with any questions clients have about marketing their videos, and if she doesn’t know it, she’ll work really hard to learn it.

Haley Zitting is the amazing Office Manager here at Ydraw. Growing up in Sandy, Utah, she then got her Bachelors Degree in Communication from the University of Utah. She’s in charge of making the customer happy, getting the occasional lunch order (currently on probation for the “entrees of surprise” incident), and keeping track of all the clients at once. An avid U of U fan, she loves playing or watching sports of any kind (which definitely includes shopping). Loving to travel, she got the opportunity to spend two summers in Kenya. She claims to love diet coke even more than Curtis does, but we have yet to test this theory. She is great at organizing, great with clients, and is here to help with any client.

 

Meet Don Barfuss. Where most people require things like water, food, and oxygen as sustenance, Don’s only nourishment comes from the joy he reaps from telling a story. Also, caffeine—glorious, life-giving, brain-frying caffeine. We could bore you with all of his accomplishments, flaunt his Master’s Degree or his countless years of professional writing experience, or drone on and on about the dozens of studios he’s worked for, but most of those things aren’t interesting and frankly all of them are lies. Don’s a simple writer of a simple upbringing. We’re not really sure where he came from (mostly because he awkwardly evades the question), but we are sure that you can trust him to take your script and do what he does best: write adequately.

Meet Aaron Barfuss. In all honesty, he is a great writer hence the reason we picked him up off the streets. His only talents are in the field of making fun: making fun of Jace for his spray-tanned glow, making fun of Don for wearing an eyepatch to work, and making fun of scripts and scene plans that are too boring. Yes, Aaron makes them fun. Most of his writing experience comes from being an English major at Dixie State College; Aaron is perfect for any script writing endeavor and we keep him around because everyone else takes their jobs a bit too seriously.

Paige Conrow  is the Project Manager over the Scripting Process here at Ydraw. She was raised in a small town in North Western Montana. (No, she’s not a cowgirl). She graduated from Dixie State College in Southern Utah with her Bachelor’s Degree in Human Communications. She is in charge of getting the ball rolling, making sure your script is professionally made, and keeping everyone on their toes. Paige loves to talk, has an obsession with motocross, loves to organize, and continually finds ways to improve the system. If the only food left in the world were cereal- she would be good to go. She believes simplicity is best and will do anything to make sure you are happy.

Evan Wainberg is one of Ydraw’s script writers. With a background in business-to-business sales and programming, he’s used to speaking to people in all roles at their company in the language they understand. Having worked as a freelance writer and photographer for the last several years, he loves being an essential part of a larger project and doing everything he can to make sure his client’s message is expressed in the best way possible. In his spare time he enjoys playing with his son, studying Krav Maga, watching Archer re-runs, and reading about augmented reality.

Rex Jones  works as our lead editor. He spends most of his time looking at a computer screen ignoring the rest of us….we’re working on trying to help him become more social. He has been working the past several years gaining experience in the multimedia industry employed in a wide variety of roles (both freelance and hired) including Cinematography, Photography, Video Editing, Webpage and Graphic Design, and even a little bit of Acting. He loves what he does, and is always looking to become better and faster. Aside from work, he’s an EMT currently studying for advanced certifications in the emergency medical field. And when he’s not at work or school…you’re most likely to find him either at the gym, out cycling, or in the middle of some national park perfecting his landscape photography skills.

Mark Keysor specializes in “constructing” the special effects, the perfect score, and the final touches on Ydraw’s videos. As the final say guy, he gives our videos just the right amount of pizzazz. He is a big part of the reason why Ydraw videos are so awesome. Mark found his life calling when he picked up his first camera at age six and started editing his very own batman action figure videos. This was before he had his own computer and did all the editing in camera. This interest in editing has led Mark to a very happy, long term, relationship with Adobe After effects (congrats Mark!). As an editing prodigy, Mark was bound for whiteboard animation videos and hasn’t looked back since.

 

Sam

Alex

Jeff Jones

Sara Swan

Sami Warnick

Kristen Campbell

Wes Bledsoe

Scott Petersen