Illustrations by Staake appear in The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and others. Illustrations by Staake are used in advertising by such companies as McDonald’s, American Express, Sony, United Airlines, Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Ralston Purina, Hallmark Cards, Kenner Toys, and others.

Starting in 1993, Staake illustrated and contributed concepts to The Style Invitational, which is a humor contest at The Washington Post.

In 1995, Staake became a regular contributor to Mad Magazine.

In the September 4, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, Staake created the first of many cover illustrations to follow for that magazine.

Interestingly, he still uses Photoshop 3, first released over 12 years ago,

Let me clear up today’s rumor: I do NOT work in OS 7. I use OSX and run classic (9.0) in the background. Photoshop 3.0? Yes, STILL use that.

Responding to some brouhaha over his tools, he made it clear that it’s by choice,

I love how every tech geek out there goes POSTAL over the idea of an artist using software that they’re comfortable with – even if it’s old.

Reminds me of people who still think Microsoft Word 5.1 was the best version ever. Personally, I don’t think they are off by much, although given my spelling, a word processor without spellcheck-as-you-type just won’t cut it.

.. aesthetics (are) important in UI. If you begin to look at something and want to avert your eyes, the site has failed.

Hank Williams

I highly recommend the book Emotional Design, which makes this point in much more detail. A person’s emotional state has a quantifiable impact on how successful they will be at a task. Aesthetics are still the most direct way to manipulate emotion.

There’s also a book (unrelated to the flickr group), but disappointingly it does not give bibliographical information on where the signs came from.

Here’s a blog of safety graphics.