you can take the boy out of punk, but not punk out of the man…
Art Chantry (art@artchantry.com):
One day, awhile I was working as art director at the rocket back in about 1988 or so (i can’t remember the chronology without going back and checking), this strange guy came in to show me his portfolio. he was rather tall, geeky and skinny, very white, wore horn rim glasses and a heavy brown plaid wollen hunting-style jacket (the kind we used to wear in high school in tacoma back in 1970 – ‘cos it was warm). To top it all off off, he had these crazy-ass dreadlocks sticking out of his head like an medusa on brown acid.
The first thing out of his mouth was “I won’t work for corporations, so I’m going to be picky about what you ask me to do. like, no oil companies…” At the Rocket, the idea that an oil company would approach us to do anything except sue us was sorta funny. But, this guy lived deep enough on the underground fringes of Seattle bohemian culture that he thought of the rocket like it was some sort of Rolling Stone magazine. He actually thought WE were corporate! So funny to remember that.
AC:it's so cool to hear that joe "passes it forward" like that. so many designers are such ambitious people that the very idea of returning favors (much less helping out another struggling designer) is utterly foreign thinking to them. i've seen some shocking behavior from designers over the years (criminal, even.) so, joe being a big heart is great to hear.
The guy’s name was Joe Newton. It turned out he was that maniac drummer in a local incredibly hip and influential band called ‘gas huffer’. The work he showed me was a sort of strange eccentric cartoon illustration style that he developed doing little rock posters and tinkering on the occasional self-produced mini-comic that all the underground kids were doing then. He was pretty darn good, too.
Gas Huffer was one of those bands where every single person in the band actually considered himself a cartoonist. They took turns doing record covers and posters, trading off the promo duties from project to project. It was always hilarious to see the latest Gas Huffer look. These guys were all smart and really snarky. The posters and record covers got stranger and funnier as each one tumbled into the streets.
Read More:http://josephnewton.com/design/
But, of course, I didn’t know any of this when I met Joe Newton. In fact, the dreadlocks led me to ask if he was in a band. He just answered with a ‘yes’. So, I actually assumed he was in a REGGAE band! such was my ignorance. So, it was like two ignorant presuming boobs meeting up for mutual exploitation – him to land some paying work and me to exploit another starving artistic talent. A perfect match.
So, that’s how I met Joe. Over the years, he began to do work for the Rocket (and he cut off those reads, too. thank god.) Then his work began to pop up over at Sub Pop and at Estrus records and at eMpTy records and everywhere else. His style really began to solidify and mature into a unique voice.
---Illustrator and Art Director Joe Newton has recently uploaded a whole bunch of the Savage Love illustrations he produced for the Seattle Stranger onto a new blog: Savage Illustrations. I love every one of these, and can’t wait to see the collection grow. Sez Joe: Eight years in the making! Here you will find 90+ illustrations culled carefully from my archive of over 350 pieces. These innocent-looking drawings offer a playful addition to the widely syndic
Savage Love advice column.---Read More:http://drawn.ca/archive/tag/illustration/page/9/These are two sample street posters from about 1992. They are little quick print xerox type things that were stapled up on poles around small parts of Seattle to promote some shows. He must have done scores of these things. He quickly became my favorite street artist of that moment in time when ‘grunge’ broke loose.
No matter what anybody out there in ‘professional writer land’ (aka usually from nyc) says in the accepted narrative of the Seattle grunge scene, Joe’s cartooning and little street flyers were the face of the streets in Seattle during the years 90-93 (or so) – the ‘year punk broke’. he was breath of fresh air in the face of the media onslaught. Having Joe do your poster was a ‘good housekeeping seal of approval.” It had cred.
Read More:http://josephnewton.com/design/
He eventually showed up in one of my classes that i taught at the school of visual concepts in Seattle. I asked him why he wanted to take a class from me, and he said he wanted to make a living and thought he would do more graphic design, as if graphic designers made money. But, compared to the way he was living, maybe we did, ya know?
The guy had a great eye and a natural talent. I really didn’t need to show him anything, just point out that he was doing some awfully good work. after that class, the next thing I know, he was working at the stranger as an assistant art director to my old friend Hank Trotter.
Hank Trotter (my old studio partner and himself a massively brilliant designer) had just done a re-design on the stranger and was working as the art director – as well as working in the sub pop art department and doing a full freelance load on the side. He was actually doing all of the graphics for UP records as well. Hank was over-burdened. So, he trained Joe to take over for him and then moved on.
---Rolling Stone Designer Joe Newton Photo Editor Deborah Dragon--- Read More:http://www.spd.org/winners08/merit/rolling-stone-2.php
Suddenly Joe Newton was art director for the Stranger, Seattle’s hottest alternative weekly culture/news publication. He suddenly found himself learning the ropes of professional graphic design in a trial-by-fire editorial deadline mode (just like all of us had to.) At first, he was a little rocky. But, soon, the stranger was looking, well, spectacular. He totally and completely came into his own as a graphic designer/art director. It was sorta thrilling to watch.
After a few years of innovative and dominating work (all the stranger’s competition just melted away), Joe decided that he needed bigger pastures. After all these years in Seattle, he decided he needed to move to New York City (a large town east of Seattle). He said that if he was ever going to have a real career, that he needed to go where the work was. truer words have never been spoken.
Once he landed there, he immediately began picking up freelance work all over the place, both as an illustrator and as a designer. He soon came to the attention of some folks at Rolling Stone magazine and he was hired on as a designer. Soon he was an art director there and Joe Newton, formerly dreadlocked anti-corporate grunge rocker, was working directly with the man – Jann Wenner – on personal design projects. I was stunned. That guy really hit the ground running.
But, you can take the boy out of punk, but you can’t take the punk out of the man. He got sick of dealing with Wenner. he looked me up at one time to discuss a book project he was doing with Wenner and he wasn’t satisfied with the way the type was coming out. He wanted my eye to maybe point out what wasn’t quite working.
This was a book that was being privately printed by Jann Wenner to stroke the ego of some organization or rock star or some such nonsense. A total vanity project to grease some action down the road. It looked great, but it was a big budget project that was total tripe, crap, smoke up the butt. Joe was really frustrated.
So he quit.
Now, he went to work at spot to decompress and then left that after a time to work at a stock house of some sort (i couldn’t really figure out what exactly he does or what the place is.) At any rate, he got fed up and moved backward into his comfort zone.
Joe’s story is a great lesson learned. He was willing to walk away from himself to find a level of success that he desired, but found that it wasn’t what he wanted to do. So, he changed his trajectory and fell to earth in a very happy place. Where he goes from here will totally be his choice and under his control. We all need to do that.
Sometimes the only way forward is to move back.
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