My third featured artist is Joe Lifrieri. Joe is a designer and visual artist from New Jersey. He has a unique style where he combines his art and design, which is rad.
I met Joe first through the Crush + Lovely campfire chats, from when he used to work with us. I immediately could tell that this guy was a hilarious guy to know. I met him in person in New York when I visited in August. He’s a fun person to know and work with, so I decided to have him do some art for me as well. I love what he came up with. I asked him the same interview questions I asked my previous featured artists.
What are five words you would use to describe your style?
“Goofy, fun, narrative, sketchy, handmade”
What, or who are your influences for your illustration style?
“The band logos 15 year olds draw on their Biology notebook covers.”
What are your thoughts on the merging of web design and illustration?
“I’m excited that PNG-24 is widely supported now so illustrations don’t have to live inside little boxes and can feel a lot more organic.”
Do you have any insight you’d like to share about your process of creating the artwork you did for Sushi & Robots?
“I was actually really worried at first. I didn’t want to be super obvious about it, so I decided to be really weird and make up a little story. It starts off with the setting of a cheesy Japanese giant monster movie, then turns into a really creepy love story that ends in drinking motor oil alone in a ranch house.”
If you like sushi, what’s your favorite?
“I like to stick with the classics. Spicy tuna or regular tuna.”
If you owned an army of robots, would they be good or evil?
“I’d probably dress them all up as Megaman villains and fight scientists. So yeah, evil.”
Very soon, Joe will be selling t-shirts he designs and even a hardcover bound children’s story he’s writing and illustrating at hugsformonsters.com. Also, his video game blog, Bomb Guts is just getting good; he and his fellow bloggers there are all really excited for all the great games they get to make fun of coming out in late 2009!
