Phaeton Group includes art and media specialists as well as academic experts. We are often told that such a mix of personnel is unusual, but this combination of talents represents Phaeton's core belief in the value of a multidisciplinary approach. The range of talents in our personnel allows Phaeton to create media that combines high intellectual standards with engaging text and high-quality illustrations. Artists working directly with content experts are able to make their work more truly expressive of the experts' precise understanding of the material. The artists' skills in visualization fosters clear communication of this understanding to our audiences.
Phaeton values its artists as a vital component of our ability to accomplish our mission of making our work as accessible as possible to a broad audience. Our academic experts allow us to maintain high standards of content quality; our artists allow us to make our communications appealing and attractive.
Phaeton collaborations between experts and artists enrich a variety of our books, articles, and presentations, both academic and popular in nature, and include traditional and computer illustration, paintings, and photography as well as scientific sculptures and models. Alicia Aldrete's line drawings of ancient orators appear throughout a Johns Hopkins academic book on Roman oratorical gesures. Dan Erickson's sculptures of prehistoric animals are on display in museums in America and Europe, and include the 16-foot Devonian predator fish Dunkleosteus, twin version of which hang in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. Alex Ivanov's superb photography and the extraordinary intricate cutaway artwork of Jenssen and Chasemore have served as primary assets in the best-selling popular books written by Phaeton Director David West Reynolds. Phaeton artists also play a vital role in acquiring visual imagery and documentation during our field missions.
In its finest examples, the creations of Phaeton artists can be rightly claimed as the work of professionals at the top of their fields. Their work for publishers, ad agencies, and many other clients attests to industry appreciation of their achievements.
Alicia Aldrete, M.A.
Illustrator
With an undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University, and a master's degree in English from the University of Michigan, Alicia's primary background is in literature, but her artistic skills come to the forefront for Phaeton. On field missions she serves as our illustrator, capturing the precise contours of finds such as dinosaur bones as they emerge from excavation.
See Alicia's field illustration in a Dinosaur Hunters mission article
Alex is a master photographer and imaging specialist, tackling a wide variety of assignments including studio work for best-selling books. He holds a regular position in the stills lab at George Lucas's movie special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic.
Hans Jenssen
Illustration
A master of traditional medial techniques and three-dimensional conception, technical illustrator Hans Jenssen specializes in painstakingly-researched cutaway art. His highly detailed paintings accurately reveal the inner workings of vehicles ranging from historical airplanes to fictional spacecraft for best-selling books about the Star Wars movies. Hans' illustration web site
Richard Chasemore
Illustration
Richard Chasemore also specializes in cutaway technical art, often collaborating with his Phaeton colleague Hans Jenssen. Using both traditional and digital media, Richard is best known for his cutaway work on armored vehicles, but his diverse art projects include everything from advertising and book design to digital photo retouching. Richard's illustration web site
Dan Erickson is an Exhibit Preparator for the University of Michigan's museum of natural history in Ann Arbor, where he creates realistic re-creations of prehistoric life. Erickson serves as Phaeton Group's expert consultant on field gear for every situation. Not content with off-the-shelf hardware, Erickson often creates his own equipment--he is a master machinist and fabricator who makes everything from precision camera fittings to rifle parts.
U
of M Natural History Museum home page
