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Justin Kamerer
is a Weapon of
Mass Creation
Justin Kamerer
My name is Justin Kamerer, aka Angryblue. I’m 30 and have been self-employed
for about five years. I worked night hours on Angryblue while holding a day
job for a few years prior to that. I’ve been interested in art as far back as I can
remember. I got into it via comic books and album art. I went to a magnet high
school to focus on art, but didn’t think I could really pull off being an artist for
a living and had the focus of most high school students, so other than enjoying
dabbling in multiple mediums; I didn’t put a lot of thought into it.
After high school, I stopped drawing for a few years. I had sketchbooks and
journals I’d occasionally scribble in, but nothing serious. I needed to figure out
how to pay my bills and got a shitty job at a soup and sandwich place. After a
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley
week of that, I decided it wasn’t for me, walked a few doors down to a sign shop
and asked for a job. My logic was, “If I can’t be an ‘artist,’ I’ll see if I can pull off
being a designer so I can do something creative.” I got the job and the training
was, “There’s the computer.
I’m going fishing for
two weeks.” So I had to
figure out how to use this
archaic vector program
from the stone ages with
a vinyl plotter.
“My approach is very iconic. If I can do
an illustration and draw a circle around
it, I’m happy.” —justin kamerer
After about a year, I got
tired of that and dove
into the web development
world for about six years. Early in that, I was introduced to Juxtapoz magazine
and learned about Derek Hess, pop-surrealist artists and the poster art world. I
was hooked! I had friends in bands and started making flyers for them. Then I
started talking the bands into letting me do some merchandise for them.
My schedule was: wake up at 7 for work, come home at 5, nap for an hour, work
on art until 2 in the morning, sleep, rinse and repeat.
After a few years of doing web design and being told “make the logo bigger”
from every client, I got really burned out on it and decided to venture out on my
own with the few leads I had. I had really built my portfolio up and thought I’d
see if I could pull it off.
My Breakthrough Moment
There might be two of them. One was my best friend (Jeral Tidwell of
Humantree.com and co-owner of Crackhead Press) guilting me into quitting my
day job and giving myself the chance to try to make it on my own. The other
would be the first time I pushed a squeegee on the screen-printing press we put
together at Crackhead Press. I was hooked.
My Inspirations
Phew. Big list. Jeral Tidwell (man, I don’t want to admit that in print), Derek Hess,
Frank Kozik, Shepard Fairey, Wieslaw Walkuski, Franciszek Starowieyski, James
Jean, Pushead, Craola, Chipp Kidd, ALL of my poster art friends (this sounds like
Case Studies & Interviews 109