Miguel Mansur is a Philadelphia-based illustrator who works halfway between traditional techniques and digital ones. He creates work that is both technically strong and socially relevant. Back in July, he landed an illustration gig for the video game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. He said the job helped give him invaluable experience in how art direction can go a long way and how it can improve the relationship between the client and the illustrator for a quality finished product. His work is powerful and well crafted and draws on a number of sources in order to look at the world’s problems in new and fascinating ways.

One of Mansur’s standout works is undoubtedly the illustration “Mezzanine.” It exemplifies a generation and a revolution in a very concise way. Mansur explores the imagery of Occupy Wall Street and global movements, as well as youth culture and the trials of higher education to cull a piece that is recognizable yet unique. In the center, a giant student sits atop a piggy bank wearing a backpack and a square academic cap. He is surrounded by scribbles and notes on ruled notebook paper, where numbers and reminders of student loans float ominously about. His face is shadowed, and his hands are cuffed by tiny police officers who tug and jeer at him from below. Although burdened with huge social, legal and financial burdens, Mansur sees the current generation as a sleeping giant in the midst of an increasingly globalized society.

Some of his other images take the direction of Internet and social media culture. “Over Tweeting” depicts a headless astronaut that has lost it with social networking. The cracked helmet from the spacesuit floats away and little blue Twitter birds flit about tweeting scribbles and blue knots of nonsense. In “Two of a Kind,” a male and female figure sit at two monitors, while the actual people stare away from one another and into their respective computer screens. They even share a seat, yet they do not physically touch. Above them hangs an enormous white barcode. Clearly these two illustrations are critical of the ways in which Internet culture and contemporary social trends sculpt and change us; sometimes we lose our heads on account of too much information, and other times, we never seem to connect at all.

The environment bears down heavily in “Weight of Nature.” Instead of an astronaut, here a deep-sea diver stands amidst a filthy sea on a rock. He holds up a shark on his back — and into the air — while a dead horse sloshes in the water at his feet. The juxtaposition of land animals in the water and sea creatures in the sky rings of all that we’ve done to exploit nature. The shark is in the process of coughing up a realistic-looking heart, which seems to represent either our toll on the planet’s health or the emotions of the humans that empathize with the earth.

Excellent illustration and intelligent messages go together hand-in-hand for Mansur. Both talented artist and social critic, this illustrator does a great job at getting a handle on our increasingly complicated and wild world. His pastel colors range all the way from the sea to the sky and from Tahrir Square to this very computer screen, as well as everywhere in between.

Check out Mansur’s sketches, progress and new works on his website or Tumblr.