Pictures of Raul Rodriguez with his Tournament of Roses floats and designs. The 2010 Theme of the 121st parade is “A Cut Above the Rest”. The parade begins at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

When the first float rolls into camera view and millions cheer in Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade, there’s a good chance you’re looking at the magic of the Rose Parade’s most esteemed and recognized conceptual designer, Raul Rodriguez. He often rides on one of the floats, appearing somewhat flamboyant with his regal blue hyacinth macaw on his shoulder and wearing long, ornate robes, or the costume of a Conquistador.  Raul and his bird, Sebastian, will be riding the Mexico float in the upcoming parade, held each year on New Year’s Day, January 1.

What you are seeing is the fanfare. This native Angelino couldn’t be more down to earth, and more in tune with the heart and soul of his community.   SEE VIDEO OF RAUL RODRIGUEZ

Ever since he was a youngster growing up in Los Angeles, Raul Rodriguez has had a unique talent for design. His first award-winning concept at the age of 15 became the selection for a float in the parade. Colorful, whimsical, and work-able, he has created countless award-winning floats in the Rose Parade and often has a dozen or so transformed from paper to life in a single year’s parade.  In fact, Rodriguez has won more awards than any other designer in the history of the Tournament of Roses parade event.

What makes this third generation native of Los Angeles such a success? His attitude of “giving back,” certainly stands out for those who know him. Rodriguez expresses it in these terms: “To entertain by re-creating diverse dramatic themes drawn from nature and the rich cornucopia of the world’s cultures; to replay concepts from the whimsical to the exotic in larger-than-life presentations that allow me to relate the wonders of life in a bold, unique art form.”

As an artist and conceptual designer of international acclaim, he has been a designer for the opening stage set of the World’s Fair in New Orleans;  consultant to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles; conceptual designer for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary parade, “Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams”, and most recently, Six Flags “Glow in the Park” Parades. His creative concepts and designs have also illuminated establishments throughout the Orient, and closer to home in Las Vegas, Reno and Laughlin.

Awards and recognition come from the Hispanic community, his college alma matter - California State University at Long Beach- and other such institutions and organizations.  An example of a person who turned his passion into a career, Rogriguez has touched and inspired people throughout the world.

Well spoken, thoughtful and upbeat in his goal to make the world better, this gentle soul has traveled the globe doing just that. From humble beginnings, growing up in Los Angeles County, the budding talent got his first break in high school at the age of 14 1/2 years. He submitted a float design for his city's submission into the Rose Parade and his was selected. It launched a life-long career. After designing more than 500 floats, Raul Rodriguez continues to see the Tournament of Roses as a celebration of life, carrying the hope and optimism that he began with.  I hope the good Lord allows me to do this for many years to come, Rodriguez says with a smile.

Even if you hadn't noticed Raul Rodriguez riding on a float with a big, blue hyacinth bird on his shoulder, you've surely admired his designs.

The internationally recognized designer has created more than 600 floats for the Rose Parade and more awards than any other designer in the parade's 121-year history. He has lived in Hancock Park for more than 20 years.

In high school he launched his career by winning a contest to design a float for the city of Whittier at age 15. He's been designing floats for the Rose Parade ever since.

The third-generation Angeleno raised in Boyle Heights to a painter - mother, and  Army staff sergeant father, took classes at Art Center College of Design when it was located on Third Street in Los Angeles, eventually graduating from Cerritos College and Cal State Long Beach, where he has since set up a scholarship fund.

He dedicates his floats to his parents each year. For him, there is more meaning and feeling behind them than mere physical splendor. Rodriguez especially enjoys the parade's “international flavor,” and the idea that it is a melting pot of all of the cultures of Los Angeles celebrating together on the first day of the year. He calls it the five-and-a-half-mile smile.

Rodriguez always shares that ride with his constant companion, a hyacinth macaw named Sebastian. Before Sebastian, Roxy accompanied Rodriguez in the parade for many years. The year the macaw, Roxy died, Rodriguez opted to sit out the procession and instead commentated with Univision, a presentation that won an Emmy.

From Vegas and Disneyland to Korea, Taipei and Thailand, his imagination sprang Circus Circus' 12-story clown in Reno, facades and sculptures for other gaming establishments, including the Flamingo Hilton and Caesars Palace, the “Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams” and the villa at Ferrari-Carano Winery. Rodriguez has also worked with Radio City Music Hall in New York, the World's Fair in New Orleans and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Designing floats for the Rose Parade is a year-round job. Before all the flowers have even been applied to the floats in Monday's parade, Rodriguez is already thinking about the next year.

The spectacular larger-than-life floral creations of Raul Rodriguez are part of the magic of America's parades and pageantry. Seen by millions of people around the world, the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California is broadcast internationally.
 

Rodriguez knows that a float must be entertaining and have irresistible photographic appeal and quick visual impact, like a moving stage set.

Over 70% of his designs for the Rose Parade have won awards, making him the parade's premier designer.

Besides being a visionary designer, Raul Rodriguez thinks like a set director with a sense of high drama. Floats are a larger-than-life expression which incorporate the poetry of flowers and the power of color to him.

Raised in East Los Angeles, he is a nature lover and finds inspiration in America's rich cultural heritage and the wonder and beauty of nature's own displays.

Raul Rodriguez has always been in love with creative design. At age 15, he designed his first winning Rose Parade float for the City of Whittier, California as part of a high school competition. The next year, he won a scholarship to Art Center of Design and later completed his formal art education at Cerritos College and California State University at Long Beach. After graduation, he joined Walt Disney Company, followed by Federal Sign & Signal and Heath & Company, designing facades for hotels and casinos, including neon signs and sculptures for the Flamingo Hilton, Las Vegas; Reno's Circus Circus, including its million-dollar 12-story clown. Under the auspices of his own firm, Rodriguez has designed the Eldorado Hotel/Casino; and the Flamingo Hilton in both Reno and Laughlin.

His boundless energy and unique talent have led him on grand scale projects throughout the country.

He also painted the Portrait of Pope John Paul which was selected as the cover for the memorial publication, "The Holy Father's Visit to the Southland."

Raul and his macaw, Sebastian

Raul R. Rodriguez
This artist of international acclaim, has pioneered the design of hundreds of magnificent award - winning floats for the Tournament of roses Parade in Pasadena. A few of his accomplishments include the opening stage set design for the Worlds Fair in New Orleans, Art Director for the Philadelphia's "We the People 2000" Parade and consultant to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
His career began at the age of 15, when he created his first Rose Parade float. Raul has won more awards than any other designer in the history of the Rose Parade. His concepts, over the years, have illuminated and imaged prestigious gaming establishments in Las Vegas, Reno and Laughlin, Nevada. Internationally, his illuminated neon designs are also in Korea, Taipai, and Thailand. He has also designed for or consulted for Harley Davidson, Ferrari Carano Winery, Landmark entertainment, Walt Disney, and Radio City Music Hall in New York City.


In the last daylight hours of December afternoons, as shadows lengthen, Raul Rodriguez’s stately Mediterranean house in the Hancock Park area gradually becomes a wonderland.

From the curving staircase in the foyer to the far corners of the high ceilings in the living and dining rooms, masses of twinkling white lights heighten the sheen of graceful gold and silver lame wreaths and gold-leaf fruit arrangements.

Renaissance angels on various lofty perches seem ready to burst into a Corelli fanfare, and oversize ornaments massed on a 9-foot tree sparkle in a rainbow of jewel tones. In a recessed front window, St. Nicholas, resplendent in white fur and red velvet, stands beside a snowy tree with tiny white lights. It almost seems the snow is falling.

Standing in his living room one day last week, Rodriguez surveyed the opulent scene thoughtfully. “I didn’t do as much this year.”

For Rodriguez, in his 50s and one of the world’s foremost designers of fantasy–he has a record 20 floats in the Jan. 1 Rose Parade–holiday decorating means incorporating lavish objects into a baroque symphony of sculpture, art treasures and crystal.

And, to the public’s delight, his decorated lawn at 3rd Street and Windsor Avenue becomes a traffic-stopping toy land with re-created scenes from past Rose Parade floats.

Raised in Boyle Heights, he won a high school contest to design a float for the city of Whittier, and has since become the most honored float designer in the history of the Rose Parade. As a student at the old Art Center College of Design on 3rd Street, he rode three buses to get to class.

Eighteen years ago he bought his dream house, which was built in 1919 and is modeled after a larger-scale estate. It serves as his studio, as well. Work is an extension of life so the home suits him well.

Rodriguez changes his holiday look every year in his home, incorporating things from past years and other holidays, and buying new decorations. He likes Pic ‘N’ Save, and the drugstores for decorations.

On the 3rd Street side of his lawn, it is protected by a chain-link fence, for safety purposes, said Rodriguez. The yard is full of wires and electric boxes during the holiday lighting event. The flood-lit panorama steals the show in the neighborhood.

Life is a series of moments of beauty. They save us from becoming stagnant.

Raul R. Rodriguez has won more awards than any other designer in the history of the Rose Parade, and by builder Fiesta Parade Floats.

Raul R. Rodriguez has pioneered the design of hundreds of floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. A third generation native of Los Angeles, Rodriguez's career began at the age of 15, when he created his first Rose Parade float. A classically trained artist in drawing and painting, Raul was raised in East Los Angeles, studied at the Art Center School of Design, and graduated from Cerritos College, and California State University Long Beach. Rodriguez has worked with Universal Studios, Landmark Entertainment, Radio City Music Hall in New York, and the Walt Disney Company. Rodriguez was the key production designer of the all-new Disney¹s 50th anniversary parade called "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" which highlights the many classic Disney stories and characters that have contributed to the magic of Disneyland over the past five decades.

Raul R. Rodriguez

Raul is an artist and conceptual designer of international acclaim. He has designed hundreds of magnificent floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena and has won more awards than any other designer in the Rose Parade history.

He celebrates the world's diverse cultures and expresses this through his larger-than-life presentations that allow him to relate the wonders of life in bold, unique art forms. raulrodriguez.com
 

Flamingo Hotel and Casino, Park Place Entertainment, a Rodriguez Design
3555 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV

The horizontal neon bars chase each other from bottom to top, and the incandescent bulbs oscillate rapidly. The two, rosebud type figures in the rear of the property also animate in the same fashion. The incandescent bulbs in the logo text above the old porte-cochere also oscillate. The bulbs in the faceted fascia below the old porte-cochere oscillate rapidly. The two, logo/text signs on the new porte-cochere are also filled with incandescent bulbs that oscillate also. The crest item that sits on the southwest corner of the building is lined with incandescent bulbs that chase downward, down raceways, running the length of the building. The bulbs chase all the way until the end of the tracks. The logo, above the bulbous plumage, on the east face of the southernmost tower is also filled with oscillating incandescent bulbs, while the neon bars and incandescent bulbs on the plumage below the text chase upward from bottom to top.

Environment: The Flamingo is in between the Barbary Coast and O'Shea's on the east side of the street. The establishment itself dominates the stretch of property, separating the pedestrian from the sidewalk with various shrubbery and palm, a phenomenon seen often on the strip. Exiting the Barbay Coast, headed north, the passerby is seamlessly brought into the Flamingo, bombarded by the vibrant pink and orange plumage, and continuous atmosphere.