Gilberto López – “Caracas has its good side and another wilder side”

Creative Chair talks influence with Gilberto Lopez aka “BigGil”

The week Creative Chair is in Caracas, Venezuela where we’re talking to ‘BigGil’ Gilberto López, a bold graphic artist with a unique visual style.

You can see a lot more from Gilberto López (BigGil) on Behance.

Tell us little more about yourself and what you do?

I am an art director, illustrator and amateur photographer, for many years I worked in advertising agencies here in Caracas Venezuela, one day I got tired of the routine and decided to experience something new and take a sabbatical year to see what path I gave my life and my new interests.

Back from that trip, I formed a digital studio with my best friend and we created a graphic studio that for a time went very well for us, but continued with creative dissatisfaction, I got tired of annoying clients with their boring ideas.

Partners and I told them that I was going to do something different looking for new ideas, and I was thinking about developing a new study with another creative orientation in addition to trying something new for me, so I started with “BigGil” which is my alter ego and with time I decided to develop a brand called “Magnifico”.

I joined Behance and I began to show a lot more people my personal work and my graphic art experiments, as time went on several brands with the same creative attunement were fixed in my style and way of seeing art so I started to capture new national clients but mostly international, well aside from the last three years, I have clients who want new things and especially very artistic I also have my great creative laboratory that is “Magnifico” my project of entrepreneurship.

Has Caracas influenced your visual style?

I think so! Caracas, like all cities in the world, has its Good side and another wilder side.

I arrived here when I was 8 years old; we were from another region of Venezuela. We arrived in Caracas because my father was looking for better jobs and he decided to take his family with him, so I came to a neighborhood in the west of the city and I grew up there with my brothers and sisters and if the city, friends and all the experiences shape you in some way, some things mark you and others leave a very deep impression on your mind and heart, that influences your art whether you want it or not.

I have travelled a lot, I have lived outside, I studied outside, but you always miss your hometown with its good and bad things.

Is there also a Japanese influence?

If as a child in Venezuela, the Japanese TV series were broadcast and those different superheroes changed my life forever.

Their stories and characters were very attractive, I consumed them together with my brother and my friends, they influenced us all.

Generations of Venezuelan children, but to me in particular made me a diehard fanatic, consequently, I became an addict to the Japanese world.

On the other hand, I was also influenced by American comics, especially Batman.  That TV series from the 60’s mixed with those Japanese characters and stories.

Of course, I was interested in more and more in Japan its people, history, its art and customs to the extent that my love for them made me know them by my own eyes and after six years I went to Tokyo Japan for the first time and it’s definitely made me what I am today as a graphic artist.

Which of your projects are you most proud of?

From this new professional stage there are many works for which I have a lot of love, but without a doubt I believe and without fear of being wrong that I do for my particular story of “Magnifico” which is my personal endeavour and I have all the faith of world, by the way the freedom that I have allowed me to develop a series of extraordinary designs, has brought me many joys and has been a great creative laboratory that has allowed me to create very nice images and try many things for which I am very proud of that project, which is my life.

And finally, if you died and got reincarnated as a song what would that song be?

David Bowie – Starman