Altemus, a New York based designer, has nearly thirty-five years of experience in art direction for both print and broadcast; he is the recipient of well over a hundred and fifty national design, illustration and typographic awards.
All the designs that comprise the
Altemus Collection were designed by him. Initial work started in 1991 and continues to this day. The fonts include extensive compilations of dingbat and ornamental designs as well as illustrative printer's cuts. In all, the Altemus Collection currently contains nearly 8,000 separate designs.
He currently devotes much of his energy to interface design, animation and consulting. He became involved with the Internet in 1996 developing Web sites for the SPD and the Westvaco Corporation, and formed A+W Web Design with partner Janet Waegel in 1997. That company merged with a programming and development company D2R in 1999, and formed Interocity. Interocity developed a Fortune 500 client base, providing primarily cutting-edge streaming media design and development. The company was sold in 2000 to a major broadcast industry corporation.
A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art with a major in illustration and film, he worked as an assistant cameraman, designing and art directing on-air promos, bumpers and commercials for the WPHL TVs original programming and promotion.
Altemus has been actively involved in computer systems consulting and teaching since the mid-eighties for various clients including, Brides, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Details, and Us magazines. He has conducted workshops on magazine redesign, start-ups and desktop publishing, and organized and co-chaired Zine2000, a one-day conference on editorial design for the Internet.
Altemus is a past President of the the Society of Publication Designers, which serves over 1,000 magazine art director members, nationwide. In his fifteen years on its board of directors he staged numerous speakers programs and two national conferences, edited the newsletter GRIDS and brought the thirty-five-year-old society into a positive financial position.
A former Instructor at the Maryland College of Art, Altemus has taught courses in illustration, design and production. He has lectured before the School of Visual Arts, Parsons, Pratt Graphic Center, FIT, Maryland University, Maryland Institute, SPD, The Philadelphia College of Art, NYU, and the Washington, D.C. Art Directors' Club.
