Like a majority of Americans polled, I support the Occupy Wall Street protests, occasional muddled message be damned. The main complaint by the media coverage seems to be that it’s too disjointed to be a forceful argument in favor of anything, which I think misses the point a little bit. At base, the OWS movement is a group primal scream against a system that many middle-class Americans feel is rigged against them, and I think you’d have to be pretty intransigent to see it otherwise. Sure, it’s a little goofy sometimes, but statements of anger and rage often are. It will coalesce around a core group of ideals within time. The fact that those folks are out there in the snow to the service of a cause, all while keeping non-violent, is something to support, in my humble opinion.

While I’ve been down there several times, and  participated in a OWS group show (showing this little lovely), my family obligations prevent me from being out there on front lines. But I can lend what I do know: graphics, and my love of 30s era poster stylings.

Above is the first of several posters I plan to make, and then print out and drop off to the OWS people when I have a spare moment.

In the meantime, you can download a full print-ready version PDF here (13.7 MB): http://www.joealterio.com/Clients/OWSPoster1.pdf

It’s sized to be 12 x 18, but will scale down to a tabloid nicely. Enjoy, and stay tuned.

Above is the final for the poster I was hired to create for Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell’s Wage Slave Glossary. It’s a terrific book, you should go and buy it immediately.

The subject matter is one that I think we all face in this modern world, and I wanted something very graphic and nearly mechanical as a representative of it. A few prelim sketches are below; once the authors they decided they liked the image of the ball an chain as tie best, it was a simple process of – well, of imitating process.

Over at HiLoBrow, editor Josh Glenn asked me to guest curate a new series they’re running, in which curators pick a few panels from the terrific blog 4CP, and group thematically. As expected, I made a little story out of mine. You can see it here.

More WPA-inspired art for a still-under-wraps interactive project I’ve been hired for. I’ll have more at the end of October, but for now, here’s something to wet your whistle.

I find that I’m always in need of greeting cards; I seem to be one of the few people on the planet that still uses the mail for thank yous, hellos, and just just general queries, and some nice compact illustrations that fit on 1/4 of an 8.5 x 11 page are always in need. I’m jealous of some artists who seem to get finished looking sketches done every day – what a treat! I seem to either be running at 5 mph or 90 mph, either loose, loopy sketches that only I can figure out, or really detailed work that I obsess over. So my constant need of card images seems to justify that middle ground that I’m trying to develop; these are a result of that effort. Polished, but not too polished. Thought-out, but not too thought-out. Somewhere in the middle, the truth lies, grasshopper.

See the full size poster here.

Above is my most recent illustration, for the German software company Emnis. I’d like think it’s part of a bigger trend.

Before I pontificate, I’d like to thank in particular Tobias Zimmer, who was as great a client to work for as I’ve ever had: it takes a strong confidence and a belief that people operate best when allowed to be free to excerise their expertise as they see fit, and he did both, giving me minimal notes and trusting my choices in the end. I think the piece turned out really well, and both Tobias and all of Emnis seems very happy with it, and which makes me happy, too.

In an unexpected turn, Tobias also told me that the work and a small blurb will be in the German magazine Page, which is great, and he asked me about the idea of “album art for software.” Since my work for Blue Flavor at the beginning of the year, this is the work that has gotten a lot of unexpected attention. I have to give some credit to Blue Flavor for giving me the venue initially, and for their completely hands-off approach, which let me take it in my direction. So I’d be deficit if I took total credit without Blue Flavor’s opportunity.

But I think the idea is a great one: it finally starts recognizing and putting on parallel the creations from programmers as well as musicians. Video games were actually the earliest iteration of such a trend – it’s only natural to assume that the software of more prosaic applications would start to get into the act, as well. In fact, the more abstract the idea or task that the software is engaged in, the more a simple and effective branding process is needed, so that a visual shorthand can rapidly put both users and consumers on the same page: this is best resolved by engaging art that not only speaks to the software, but creates a visual excitement in the viewer. Most smart, successful companies recognize this, and invest heavily in their visual output. In the end, humans love to spoken to in visual terms – from hieroglyphics to illuminated manuscripts, stained glass to instruction manuals, comic books to album art, they want and need something pretty to look at and give them a shorthand.

The other great aspect is that, with the advent of small, short-run, focussed printing, and larger bandwidth that allows for more involved and artistic websites, the strength of the small, underground artist or illustrator has never been stronger. While you will find many large illustrators who will bemoan the current state of stock illustration and falling usage fees, the reality is that the playing field has now been leveled, in the favor of smaller artists. This means that while huge fees are less common than they once were, young, interesting and edgy artists who once were sidelined now have an increasing number of venues in which to get their works seen. If every software company gave each of their products a great graphic edge by hiring a unique artist, the world would be better looking and more visually dynamic place.

Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is that I think every software sompany, or upstart website or whatever, should start tot hink about the idea of “album art”: far beyond just some simple BS color branding or some boring swoops and blocks of text, having the stones to allow an artist to provide you with super-compelling visuals without much input is a net-benefit in the end I’m convinced. It ups the companies “cool cache” (so important in this age of Yelping blogposts alternatively raising and trashing anyone’s reputation within moment), and makes the company seems forward thinking and concerned with a customer-viewer approach, rather than a top-down, old economy approach.

So, you companies: go hire weird artists! They’ll thank for it, you’ll be operating in the tradition of the Medicis, and in the end, you’ll get some great looking stuff.

Go! Go now! I’ll wait.

See the full size poster here.

Above is my most recent illustration, for the German software company Emnis. I’d like think it’s part of a bigger trend.

Before I pontificate, I’d like to thank in particular Tobias Zimmer, who was as great a client to work for as I’ve ever had: it takes a strong confidence and a belief that people operate best when allowed to be free to excerise their expertise as they see fit, and he did both, giving me minimal notes and trusting my choices in the end. I think the piece turned out really well, and both Tobias and all of Emnis seems very happy with it, and which makes me happy, too.

In an unexpected turn, Tobias also told me that the work and a small blurb will be in the German magazine Page, which is great, and he asked me about the idea of “album art for software.” Since my work for Blue Flavor at the beginning of the year, this is the work that has gotten a lot of unexpected attention. I have to give some credit to Blue Flavor for giving me the venue initially, and for their completely hands-off approach, which let me take it in my direction. So I’d be deficit if I took total credit without Blue Flavor’s opportunity.

But I think the idea is a great one: it finally starts recognizing and putting on parallel the creations from programmers as well as musicians. Video games were actually the earliest iteration of such a trend – it’s only natural to assume that the software of more prosaic applications would start to get into the act, as well. In fact, the more abstract the idea or task that the software is engaged in, the more a simple and effective branding process is needed, so that a visual shorthand can rapidly put both users and consumers on the same page: this is best resolved by engaging art that not only speaks to the software, but creates a visual excitement in the viewer. Most smart, successful companies recognize this, and invest heavily in their visual output. In the end, humans love to spoken to in visual terms – from hieroglyphics to illuminated manuscripts, stained glass to instruction manuals, comic books to album art, they want and need something pretty to look at and give them a shorthand.

The other great aspect is that, with the advent of small, short-run, focussed printing, and larger bandwidth that allows for more involved and artistic websites, the strength of the small, underground artist or illustrator has never been stronger. While you will find many large illustrators who will bemoan the current state of stock illustration and falling usage fees, the reality is that the playing field has now been leveled, in the favor of smaller artists. This means that while huge fees are less common than they once were, young, interesting and edgy artists who once were sidelined now have an increasing number of venues in which to get their works seen. If every software company gave each of their products a great graphic edge by hiring a unique artist, the world would be better looking and more visually dynamic place.

Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is that I think every software sompany, or upstart website or whatever, should start tot hink about the idea of “album art”: far beyond just some simple BS color branding or some boring swoops and blocks of text, having the stones to allow an artist to provide you with super-compelling visuals without much input is a net-benefit in the end I’m convinced. It ups the companies “cool cache” (so important in this age of Yelping blogposts alternatively raising and trashing anyone’s reputation within moment), and makes the company seems forward thinking and concerned with a customer-viewer approach, rather than a top-down, old economy approach.

So, you companies: go hire weird artists! They’ll thank for it, you’ll be operating in the tradition of the Medicis, and in the end, you’ll get some great looking stuff.

Go! Go now! I’ll wait.

Well, it’s been a hell of a few weeks.

In short order, my grandmother died, I got hitched, and Barack Obama got election the next POTUS. I’m feeling pretty emotionally exhausted right now, but all things considered, I came out way ahead. I just want to use this small forum tho thank everyone who helped out on our big day: Tim, Glaser, Jen & Todd, Dad & Donna, Marcy, Melanie, Derek and Ben, thanks to everyone for helping us pull it off. Tomorrow: back to design and illustration blogging. Right now, mad props, yall.

Thanks, again.

Whoa!