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HI, MY NAME IS JOE.
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I make art about technology and technology about art.

My day job is making digital products, and I really love it: you can see that portfolio here.

My clients include Microsoft, Starbucks, SubPop Records, Nickelodeon, Disney, Adobe, the Democratic Party and many others. I've spoken at SXSW, San Diego Comic-con, the Seattle Interactive Conference, the Seoul International Cartoon Festival and many other venues about interactive art and creativity. My work has been featured and lauded in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, The LA Times, The Seattle Times, The Atlantic, Art Forum, Tin House and many other publications.

I have a newsletter in which I send weekly comics, ideas, podcasts, talks, and sometimes even merch. You can subscribe here.

Reach out to me for speaking engagements or interesting project ideas.

I am not currently taking on new freelance projects at this time.

XO, Joe

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Ruppersberg at the Walker, MPLS. Image credit: Tim Lillis
JOE ALTERIO
ABOUT
MORE
PROJECT
The Imaginary Friends Project
DESIGN NOTES
I was so pleased when I was contacted by Alix Lambert and Rose Seyfried because I have been following and in awe of their work for a while. They were working on a series of shorts about notable people talking about their imaginary friends, to sell to prestige TV and short film festivals. I know, it's a brilliant idea, right?

We producsed several that ended up with Tinhouse before the project ran out of run. This is one of the most fun projects I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of.
Animating to vocal cues is harder than it looks, because you don't want to visually spoil what hasn't been said yet, so the animation is always reactionary, and it's a fine line: too anticipatory, and you end up revealing something too soon. Too late, and it comes off as sluggish and dull-witted. Calibrating the exact timing of a visual reveal to communicate a wry urbane witticism is no small feat.
Alix and Rose found and edited three Imaginary Friends scripts, and we started production as they went to sell them. I made the first, and my collaborator Marcy Stone-Francios made the second with art direction input from myself and the team.
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We sketched on paper, created artboards and collages all in Photoshop, and then assembled and animated in After Effects.
RESULTS
The project is on hiatus, but the first few episodes have been featured in Tin House and as Showtime bumpers.
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All work copyright Joe Alterio © 2023 unless otherwise noted.