013 CHRIS LOPEZ
LATIN NAME: Exerceo Noctivigus
(to train, work, cultivate; and to wander by night)
AGE: 34

DESCRIPTION:
Chris Lopez began his career creating interactive games, edged into art direction, and then took a bold step back to school, studying motion graphics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Lopez now specializes in soup-to-nuts video and sound design of film title sequences, commercials, trailers, and music videos. His client credits include Tide, Qualcomm, Paramount Pictures, and Comedy Central.

VOICE:
The designer’s work straddles typography, graphic design, animation, and documentary. In his work for Imaginary Forces, he found himself wondering, “Can design or typography stand on its own as a cinematic experience?” Much of his work investigates the nature of typography—how it is read and how it is affected by time-based work, like film. Other aspects of his work, such as “American Weapons of Mass Destruction,” reveal a darker political side to his design personality.

DISTINCTIVE MARKINGS:
Lopez is a compulsive writer: “Anything I can think of, anything that might be related. I’m mapping my thoughts so I can refer back to them. I also start making stuff right away; I don’t pin anything down or I’ll get frustrated. After a few days of working in an open-ended way, you notice that your unconscious is on to something. You start to trust and believe in that a little bit.”

HABITAT:
He works out of his apartment in Koreatown in Los Angeles. Lopez describes it as a “1930s-era, streamlined, modern apartment with wooden floors. It’s inspirational because it’s so welldesigned —a real relic in L.A.” His workspace is lined with row upon row of chrome restaurant shelving. “I have so much gear— samplers, sound boards, drum machines—my space isn’t the usual desk-with-a-computer.”

SPOTTED BY:
Rick Valicenti: “Over the years I have had the good fortune of working with a number of grad students in their studios; Chris is the first to really blow my mind. His short film work is the most graphically inventive, compelling, and emotionally powerful work I have seen to date.”

CONTACT:
213.361.0360 | www.cinegraphic.org

Written by Jude Stewart