(TOP) LEFT: RSS FEEDS GO MAINSTREAM, for FAST COMPANY, Aug. 2005. The piece was created using acrylic on poplar wood panel.; MIDDLE: COLDPLAY portrait, June 2005, acrylic on poplar wood panel; RIGHT: “WILL YOUR DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN WORK?” for STORAGE MAGAZINE, Oct. 2005, acrylic and collage on poplar wood panel; (BOTTOM) LEFT: IF YOU ASK ME, LIGHTS! CAMERA! SIT! An acrylic on poplar wood panel illustration for PREMIERE MAGAZINE, Oct. 2005. ... Gorchov illustrates a monthly column for the magazine; RIGHT: CHARM SCHOOL #316, SURVIVING AN INSULT an acrylic illustration for the July 2005 issue of MEN’S HEALTH.

Joshua Gorchov, Joshua Gorchov Illustration Latin Name: Concepticus Illuminato Age: 29 415.246.8390 | www.gorchov.com

Joshua Gorchov, whose illustrations appear regularly in GQ , Fast Company, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Men’s Health, and Premier, is best known as an illustrator. But Gorchov earned a BFA in graphic design from California College of the Arts (CCA), and views every illustration as an opportunity to apply the design intelligence he honed there.

As a student, Gorchov conveyed principles of graphic design though paint, raising eyebrows in the process. “I wasn’t trying to be a contrarian,” he says. “I just thought it was a way to look back at the history of graphic design.” Pointing to the posters of Aubrey Beardsley, Jules Chéret, and Toulouse Lautrec, he adds: “Graphic design started with paint.”

Gorchov says he’s interested in symbolic, not pictorial, spaces— in which every element is intentional and visual concepts are delivered according to a hierarchy of importance. His illustrations, whose influences range from cubism to puppet theater, tend to capture subjects in a moment of sudden clarity. “Like something’s been going on all the time around them,” he says, “and they’re noticing it for the first time.”

Mark Fox, CCA’s chair of Graphic Design, is so awed by his former student’s productivity that he suspects Gorchov had himself cloned. “When I consider the sheer volume of work he has produced since graduating, the consistently high quality of this work, and range of clients he has made this work for, it makes me want to cry. Joshua is a superstar.”

Gorchov’s take on this superstardom is the pinch-me, incredulous kind. His goal for the future is simple and sincere: “I want to continue with what I’m doing now. I like every part of it—the deadlines, working with art directors, seeing my work in print.” What about deadlines turns him on? “It keeps things moving forward. There’s not much time to look back or forward, so it’s all about making the work here and now.”
Tiffany Meyers