Conversations : Lopezgrafico

Black Format has begun a pretty cool or what we would like to think as pretty cool series called Black Box. Black Box are very exclusive views and articles by artists, illustrators, designers, architects and dentists.

This type of article is a conversation, a conversation on the spot along with a doodle! This is very exclusive content only found on Black Format. We like to think this is the first time anyone has attempted to create an interview of this sort.

Here is our first of many.

Ph7labs: Hey man
Lopezgrafico: Hey amigou!

Thanks for doing this interview with Black Format!
Thanks to you men big pleasure

Awesome! Im listening to neon indian – Polish girl as we speak, what are you listening to?
I’m kinda old old school guy…Tom Waits new album…nick cave

the new old school?
no i’m really old…haha

Tom Waits is the man!
my birth date now is on clothes as a long time ago date you see like when you are 15th and you saw on the clothes 1942 now i see 1980

I was born in 1980 too! what a coicidence, but to tell you the truth I don’t like 80s music. Not that Tom Waits falls under that category.
no i mean like the date 80`s music was pretty lame also about new music not too much fan

Yeah, I know what you mean, What is the most important thing of the 80′s for you?
when i was born… hahahaha… on the 80′s that was a pretty sad year for music ian curtis from joy division die, lennon too, the drummer from zeppelin also but pink floyd released “The wall” this movie really fuck my mind when i was a teenager

can I say fuck? hahahaha

yeah man, speak your mind
The Wall kicked my ass too, I didnt get it till years later, it was just a big black cloud for me hahaha

hahaha…i saw roger waters like 2 years ago on live show…best thing ever

Ohh I heard that was a great time!
you know Great music, Awesome show…Fantastic graphics

My cousin went to that in Bogota , Colombia
I’m really on the music who has a great visual side, you know like bjork, the knife, rob zombie.

You are from Bogota, right? what are some great colombian bands 80′s and now, hey, make it all South America.
yeah from the great place called Bogotá… Colombian bands? mm not to much…i love just one band from here…1280 almas
but they started on the 90′s

i remember them they are great! the first album at least
famous song “Soledad criminal”

how does it go, i forgot?

excellent
few weeks ago something great happend with that band a friend send me a pic from a concert an the guitar player have a tshirt from lopezgrafico that was like… WTF!!

thats pretty amazing! are your shirt available for sale anywhere?
not now was a work with a company clothes call brinca brinca great friends

brincabrinca.com?
yep

Back to music i remember 1280 almas, 2 minutos and todos tus muertos but a great band maybe the only one with that sound that i really like is los Prisioneros. Los Prisioneros was a chilean rock band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1982. They began as a local band during the early 1980s, playing small shows in their neighborhood and high school. After selling a limited press number of their first album in Chile under the independent Fusión producciones label, they signed to EMI in 1985, re-releasing the same album on an LP record and Cassette. From that point on they reached mainstream success in Chile, then Peru.

los prisioneros was one of the first bands that talk to all as a continent, about the union of america WE ARE SURAMERICAN ROCKERS!

whats the last record you ever bought?
fever ray…the solo album from the singer of the knife, nice cover illustration, nice print

when was that?
like 3 or 4 months ago next to buy tom waits and bjork

awesome, so changing pace a little bit, we love your work and the shapes you create, where do you get inspiration from, aside from 80′s music, haha?

children books…tons…hehe and encyclopedia from my childhood like el mundo de los niños illustrators like mary blair

awesome, i remember that in school we used read Highlights, such a boring magazine… but the only thing that was fun was the pictures and puzzles.

so what drove you become an illustrator?

the love to draw, always since i can remembered i just draw. I made my first cover for a homework when i was 7 year old. that was pretty sick was a novel called “a wrong payback” a cop try to get a serial killer who killed people from vietnam an at the end the cop find s that the killer was his lost brother. that was pretty sick fro a child

wow that sounds like pretty intense and involving job at 7, although 7 is the magic number.
that was my father`s fault haha always when i was a child we watched Serie B movies all the weekends
gore, action, crappy actors and family

so living in Bogota, you were telling me a few months ago that it was really tough to be an illustrator mainly because it’s not recognized as a career path. Can you explain this further?
here we don’t have an illustrator career and mostly illustrators have study design first also we don’t have associations or things like society of illustrators you see so many talented guys here but don’t now how to work, how to charge, about budgets.

yeah thats tough everywhere, as far as I know its not easy to charge for work, right?
I have some rules for that: you have to respect your work first then people will respect too. never work for free for a big company. Always ask for the price before you start a work

We have all seen those amazing illustrations for El Tiempo, the main newspaper in Colombia, they are truly amazing.
Those type of clients dont come often

But also the work they are getting is one of a kind, and its good that is recognized

i have a great art director on the newspaper and she really let me work free…2 great art directors… both women both named Sandra

haha what a coincidence. I was just chatting with Erica Sirotich an incredible Illustrator about pricing and how difficult it is but we are really so fortunate to have the internet. How do you think the internet helps us?

a big tool for show and have this kind of thing like now
thanks to internet people from germany or turkey ask me to participate on magazines

thats remarkable. As far as I know this is the first time someone has interviewed via IM while doodling an interview doodle
hehe yeah…but will be a surprise!

i just got a new sketch book today and the doodle is my first page

haha great! perfect timing!
Well thanks alot for this incredible interview!

to you my friend and thanks to all the crew it’s pretty great when a interview is doing by your friend and people who you admire
our pleasure.

Here is the Doodle created while the interview:

Check out Lopezgrafico.com