Hi! I'm Alejandro. This is a little story about me and martyr—
Previous to martyr— I've worked on a couple of projects. They were quite diverse to be honest. From fashion and music photography to filmmaking, computer programming and some attempted business ventures with friends.
From there, I've come to realize that I've been jumping from one discipline to another since I got memory. I enjoy engineering problems, as well as diving into topics like the complexity of human civilization and psychology, and how it all connects to visual arts and music in some way.
I'm curious about anything. At the same time, I'm bad at focusing in just one specific discipline for a considerable amount of time. A bliss and a curse.
One thing I was sure: I like to create things and solve interesting problems. Even better if it incorporates stunning visual experiences. I was – and still am – a firm believer that the process of creating new things and solutions to diverse problems are found once we connect different skills. So, maybe there was hope for a multidisciplinary person like me to find its way through the world.
And then, one day, a great idea struck me.
martyr—, at its core, was born to improve connections between visual arts, human nature, technology and the digital/analog world. A wild mix of skills.
To accomplish the task, the project started with something simple: enhancing the voice of artists with graphic assets such as textures and mockups.
Over time, a noticed something interesting: there is a lack of good documentation about the processes involved in making those assets. Even the process of starting a project like this from the ground up was a total mystery.
Coming up from Computer Science where there's plenty of super detailed and well organized information available online about pretty much everything, this was a shocking realization. Information was scattered or poorly written at best. Gatekeeping it was the default choice.
As I gather a lot of knowledge from the web and people around for free, I want to be reciprocal, embrace the open source philosophy in some way, and free the knowledge and behind the scenes so anybody willing to put the work can understand all the technical and mental complexities behind martyr— and apply it to their own craft.
I've been posting stories in Instagram showing logs about some assets made here. But I don't think Instagram is living up to my expectations as a good platform to spread this knowledge. That's why I built this.
martyr— wants to make better tools for better artists. Gatekeepers: you're warned 🤠