Interviews

Chris Delorenzo

You’ve probably seen Chris’s work—it’s everywhere, from editorial to advertising to murals. His illustrations are smart, energetic, and elegant, and it’s hard to not get sucked into the worlds he creates. His clients include Google, Converse, and the New York Times.

Do you have personal work you’re developing outside of client work?

Yes, I try to spend my time doing 50/50 personal and client work. The client work usually begets more client work so in order for me to keep my job interesting and not constantly repeat myself I have to start developing things outside of jobs and slowly start to integrate or fuse them together, a kind of natural evolution, slow but eventual. My personal work is scattered across my sketchbooks, iPad, and paintings and I feel like now they are just starting to become harmonious.

What have you always been really good at drawing? What do you avoid (like, a lot of people shy away from drawing hands, that sort of thing!)?

I actually don’t know if I’ve ever had a knack for any one thing I draw. I draw people a lot and I draw flowers a lot but I don’t know if I’m even any good at them. But I’m interested in them and enjoy finding new ways to draw them. I can draw realistic if you need me to, it’s my parlor trick, but professionally I try to simplify and reduce subjects. I’m definitely in the boat of artists that hate drawing horses though.

Any tricks to staying inspired and avoiding burnout?

For me, I always try to spend time in nature, going hiking, trail running, bird watching, swimming in lakes—that kind of stuff will turn me back into making something more personal and then from that comes growth or a new realization. I always thought that my thoughts moved better if I were actually moving, like riding in a car, walking, or on a train. But always going back to exploring what you already know or love will usually push you through that first hurdle to get back up and running again.

“I’m definitely in the boat of artists that hate drawing horses.”

What’s your favorite go-to tool?

These days it’s my iPad, I do a lot of sketching on there. But I do love a Pentel brush pen.

We love your limited color palette. How did you move towards that? Is that something you have to fight for a lot with clients?

I do a lot of work in black and white because I’m not really good at picking colors to begin with. When I was in school and learning about logos and brands, my professors always said that a logo should always work in black and white first before picking colors. I think I may have carried that philosophy into my illustration career. I just love making a balanced illustration with one color. Then, when I worked as a t-shirt designer I tried to make one color because it was cheaper to print.

These days a lot of projects will ask to put color in after the illustration is done, which I’m never really happy with because it wasn’t factored in at the beginning. If I’m given 6 brand colors to work with, I’ll drop it down to 3 because they soon realize that too many colors with my style just doesn’t work.

Do you imagine your work will change and evolve a lot in the future, or do you feel like you’ve found your signature style? What do you still want to explore? We loved your video for Penguin, maybe more animation?

My friend was asking me about this the other week, and it definitely surprised me, because to me I feel like I’m evolving, but maybe to the average glancer I’m not really. I think visually it may seem consistent but I’d like to evolve the application of the style and work it into mediums as an artist. The Original Penguin video was one of the first times I brought it into animation and since then it has proven a great style for the medium that can have a lot of variation to it. The past year or two I’ve brought what was once a magazine editorial style into giant murals which I didn’t predict when starting out. So making certain leaps like that will naturally evolve it I think. I’d love to do something a bit more experiential or sculptural in the future, maybe a video game of some sort or something more narrative.

“My design professors always said that a logo should always work in black and white first before picking colors. I think I may have carried that philosophy into my illustration career.”

How do you think your own personal style or stamp comes through no matter the client?

Well having the right client helps for sure, but it’s just usually in the execution or the inclusion of certain subjects or perspectives in the piece. A little bit of whimsy, normalcy, and surprise in the end turns into something that looks and feels like me.

Is there anything that art directors could do to get your best work out of you?

Art directors these days usually find you through Instagram or another project you’ve done that they’ve seen. It’s very easy to pull one image from your past and say, “We want our version of this.” Which is fine and I do those jobs a lot. But I think for art directors to really get the best and current version of an artist is to look at what you’ve posted recently, not just a job you did 3 years ago, and understand how those things can be bridged and integrated to make something new and not just recycled old stuff. I think understanding an artist’s direction is very vital to a successful project.

How does making a mural work? Are there certain things you have to do differently than you do in more typical editorial work?

Murals are a bit more artistic and less formulaic or topical, since they have a longer shelf life they need to evoke more of a feeling and energy than a summary of something. If it’s a mural with an ad agency, then there is usually a message I’m trying to convey for the product, but if I’m contacted by an independent business that wants me to paint on the wall of their building then it’s usually more about the atmosphere and a sense of discovery, something to notice and observe every once in a while when you walk by it. Besides the obvious switch from drawing to painting the only big difference is I have to put sunscreen on when I start the job.

View Chris’ portfolio.