Meet the Ballistic Arts residents!

ted LAU

visionary ceo, father, and sales guy

After somehow completing a degree in Communications at SFU, ted roamed the streets of Vancouver trying to solicit business from people. He soon found out that in order to get business, you first need a company with services people want.

Like all ADHD-ridden entrepreneurs, ted can’t sit still. Instead of having him talk them to death at work, his team put him in community groups as: Membership Chair for EO Accelerator Vancouver; President for the Federal Liberal New West-Coquitlam EDA; Founding Member of the Next Leaders Council (BC Business Council) and; Board Director at the Douglas College Foundation.

He’s married (yes, really), a father of a little girl (again, yes, really), a black belt martial artist (to protect himself from himself), and able to speak 4 languages (sometimes all at once, and none very well).

Tak Kawana

workaholic coo

Often times referred to as a figment of ted's imagination for never appearing outside the office.

Before becoming ted’s imaginary business partner, researchers have reason to believe that Tak was obsessed with learning how to make pretty things on the web and started his experiments back in 1996 armed with Notepad and loads of coffee. During his limited excursions into the wild, he shot with up-and-coming professional photographers to hone his own skills. It was this curiosity in all things creative that lead to his part in the creation of Ballistic Arts Media Studios.

His invisibility is believed to be either a mutation from his over-exposure to computer screens and paint fumes (he loves robot models), or perhaps ted is just loud enough for the both of them.

During rare instances when this subject is not being invisible or creative, he may be found buying movies and video games he will never watch or play, cheering on the Canucks, or found trying to get back into the asylum because he just can’t stay away. When he gets to work with the great, creative, and crazy people in the asylum, you can’t blame him.

Marisa Woo

Keeper of the books

Marisa purchased a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University, with a major in Communications, and minors in English and Publishing. Her obsessive-compulsive impulses to organize things and pay attention to very small details brought her to Ballistic Arts, where she was admitted in 2005.

Marisa’s OCD is treated with a medical cocktail that includes accounting, administration and website programming.

When she escapes from the asylum, Marisa can be found shopping in a mall, staying active in dance and yoga classes, shopping online, figuring out how to grow a vegetable garden, colour-coordinating her closet, and glued to the couch watching her favourite TV shows.

Bryce Gieschen

the shazam of sales!

Upon graduating with a 4-year BMOS degree from the University of Western Ontario, Bryce headed back to his beloved hometown of Vancouver. It was only a matter of… about a month before he realized how much he enjoys communicating with people, which led him to be admitted into the Asylum in October of 2011. Splitting his work activities between meetings, phone calls, and networking events, Bryce can honestly say he loves his job!

Along with a high level of energy and passion for creative marketing, Bryce is able to provide smiles for those who are terminally “under the weather”. He also has a deep love for all types of food but in particular, Asian cuisine.

When he’s not working, Bryce is likely watching a Canucks game (because they’re awesome), playing video games (probably NHL), or listening to any type of song (it could be country, metal, or rap… really!).

Tamera Miller

manager of projects and pokemon

Tamera is the hyper-active ball of creative energy of the Asylum. She graduated from the Art’s Institute of Vancouver with a diploma of Graphic Design and Foundation for Design in late 2010. This is where her intense aura was spotted among a crowd of up-and-coming designers at the school. In the new year of 2011 she was admitted into the Asylum.

Her specialties lie in the areas of drawing, and being the Asylum’s InDesign, layout guru. She also enjoys helping the Ballistic Crew get the creative juices flowing when projects of high creativity are required. Being diagnosed with ADD she likes to take on all of different kinds of projects, to keep her mind sharp and informed on all types of media. She also has an addiction to pleasing people. Any random, loud squeaky noises heard in the office will have most likely come from her.

During her off hours Tamera practices Photography and becomes the biggest nerd possible. She loves Japanese Animation, Star Trek and video games. However when the sun is out she’ll be outside with her camera as much as possible. She also has an incurable love for cats of any kind. She makes it her mission to talk to and pet every one she sees.

Jeffrey Pineda

Man of motion ... graphics and many talents

Sophia Sengsuriya

Sophia is a media designer with a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Manitoba. Her love for science, art, and culture resulted in her pursuance of architectural training, an equal love for high heels and steel toes, and an impatience for glue drying on scaled physical models. She had never left her endearingly nicknamed hometown, Winterpeg, until she became a participant of Vancouver’s Youth Eco Internship Program in summer 2011. Swayed by rapid transit, mountains, and land that wasn’t flat, she returned the following spring upon graduation.

Her inability to separate her love for making stuff both in physical space and digital space resulted in her admittance to the asylum at the start of 2012. She can now be found periodically bouncing ideas off the design team and tinkering away on stylesheets next to the web team while yelling “more bass!” to David, the resident DJ.

When she is not at the asylum, Sophia can be found creeping local cafés and tea rooms, geeking out at conferences, cycling, dancing, aimlessly wandering/photowalking, tweeting, and staring at buildings.

David Wright

Code Ninja

"Challenge Accepted!"

David, or just simply D, has a Diploma of Technology from BCIT specializing in Information Systems. David was admitted to the asylum in 2011 for his coffee addiction and obsession with web technologies.

David is a talented web programmer that covertly builds WordPress websites with deadly precision. His tenacious drive to finish projects makes him the type of programmer that Ballistic Arts is proud to have.

When David is away from the asylum he can be found buried in a pile of empty coffee cups while looking up, and using the latest and greatest web technologies. Otherwise he is spends time in the gym, watching TV or going to the latest action flick.

Darrell Aganon

WordPress Wizard

Before admitting himself into the Asylum Darrell was at BCIT earning his Senior Management certificate in New Media Design and Web Development. While there he earned a number of skills towards coding and design.

After a year of driving himself into madness with another job, Darrell felt he was crazy enough to be admitted to the Asylum in 2012. Here he can be found banging on his keyboard making WordPress websites magically appear.

When he manages to escape, Darrell can be found shredding the mountains snowboarding, playing video games, or plotting his takeover of the world.