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The Art of Hackaday Hack Chat

Where art and hacking collide

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 12:00 pm PDT Local time zone:
Hack Chat
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Joe Kim will host the Hack Chat on Wednesday, May 15 at noon Pacific.

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JoinHere at Hackaday, we writers strive to bring you the freshest hacks and the best news from the world of engineering and science. When we miss the mark and make technical errors or stake out a controversial position on something, our readers will certainly let us know in the comments section. It's a love-hate thing.

While we don't always see eye to eye, there's one thing that everyone seems to agree on: Hackaday's art is amazing! Our unique look comes down to one man: art director Joe Kim. Joe's creations have graced Hackaday's pages for years, and his ability to come up with just the right art to illustrate subject matter that's often complicated and abstract never ceases to amaze.

A lot of you have asked about Hackaday's art over the years, so we asked Joe to come on the Hack Chat to talk about the process of creating these mini masterpieces. If you've ever wondered about the art of Hackaday, or just wanted to say thanks for the visual feast, here's your chance.

  • Hack Chat Transcript

    Tom Nardi5 days ago 0 comments

    Dan Maloney  3:00 PM
    Hey all, welcome to the Hack Chat. I'm Dan, I'll be muddling through the modding today with a big-old bandage on my finger, so apologies for the typos. Dusan is out there too, I think, maybe he can do better. Anyway, we've got a treat today -- our art director Joe Kim is joining us to talk about how he makes the excellent art you see on our original content stories and elsewhere!
    Dusan Petrovic  3:00 PM
    Hi Dan!
    Dusan Petrovic  3:00 PM
    Welcome evryone!
    Dan Maloney  3:01 PM
    Joe, thanks so much for joining us today. What's the back story on your road to Hackaday?
    Joe Kim  3:01 PM
    Hi Dan! Hi Dusan! Hello everyone!
    Nicolas Tremblay  3:01 PM
    First, Congrats @Joe Kim, Hackaday always had the best art
    hyperific  3:01 PM
    Hey all! Thanks Dan for setting this up and thanks Joe for chatting with us!
    Joe Kim  3:02 PM
    Thanks everyone for having me today
    Joe Kim  3:03 PM
    Awhile back a friend of mine at Supplyframe asked if I was available to create some art work for shirts and they felt like my style fit pretty well with where Hackaday was. So they asked if I could do some art work for the articles and after a year of doing some freelance with Hackaday they asked me to come on board full time. And I'm still here churning out the art!
    Joe Kim  3:05 PM
    Over the years I've gotten alot of kind words left on the articles, so I just wanted to say thanks for all the comments! I really feel lucky to be a part of this community.
    Will Kalman  3:05 PM
    How long has it been?
    Joe Kim  3:05 PM
    I've been the art director now for about 8 years
    Dan Maloney  3:06 PM
    Was art something you went to school for or did you just sort of dabble in drawing and build on it?
    Joe Kim  3:07 PM
    I went to art school focusing on illustration. I was doing some video game and packaging art work before I joined Hackaday.
    Will Kalman  3:07 PM
    Any notable games/packaging or ones we might recognize?
    Joe Kim  3:09 PM
    Eh the video game stuff was mainly mobile games that have come and gone. There was some Disney toys that kind of fell by the wayside too, so in other words no one has probably seen them haha.
    hyperific  3:09 PM
    What's your process like? How long does it typically take you to come up with a finished illustration?
    Joe Kim  3:12 PM
    So the timeline for the articles is pretty short. We have a calendar where requests for art work are posted. They'll give me a short version of the article and kind of break it down for me since a lot of times the information goes beyond my understanding. From there I'll either do a short sketch on paper or go straight to the computer and paint it up on Photoshop. They'll usually be done within a day or two.
    hyperific  3:12 PM
    Wow that's quick!
    Nicolas Tremblay  3:12 PM
    how many a day do you do on average?
    Tom Nardi  3:12 PM
    When I first started writing for Hackaday, I figured it would take Joe like a week to turn around a piece of original art once we put in the request. I'm continually amazed how fast the process really is.
    Joe Kim  3:12 PM
    As far as things for contests or event posters I'll have about a week and try to come up with something clever based on the theme.
    hyperific  3:13 PM
    What are some of your favorite pieces?
    Joe Kim  3:14 PM
    The amount I do on a day vary based on the number of requests or if there something else I need to work on I can stretch them out throughout the week.
    Joe Kim  3:14 PM
    But its usually only one or two.
    Tom Nardi  3:15 PM
    I also want to say that from the writer's perspective, Joe always nails the intent. Even with the limited information we are able to give him (the articles generally aren't written yet...
    Read more »

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