Advanced_Photoshop_Issue_138_-_2015_UK_

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

UTILISINGVARIOUSSKILLS,CHRISLABROOYCREATESINTRIGUING

3DIMAGERYTHATTRANSFORMSTHEORDINARYINTOSOMETHING

DYNAMIC,REDEFININGSHAPESINAUNIQUEPERSPECTIVE

TRANSFORMING

THE WORLD

http://www.chrislabrooy.com

@ChrisLabrooy

H

aving the ability to re-imagine the world

is a great asset for an artist to have, and

Chris Labrooy has truly mastered this

skill. Whether it’s twisting the bodies of

cars or turning normal objects into typography, Chris

proves that there are other ways to see the world.

His work with textures, shapes and typography will

wow the viewer every time. Transforming the known

into something special creates a sense of artistic

freedom and expression.

YOUR ART IS WONDERFUL AND VERY

INSPIRATIONAL. DID YOU HAVE ANY

FORMAL TRAINING?

I am self-taught on the technical side... 3D and

rendering. Creativity however is unique to every

person and your process is not only learned from

others, but also through personal experimentation.

WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR CURRENT

STYLE AND HOW HAS IT EVOLVED?

It’s not something I was doing at all at a young age or

even at art school for that matter. I became

interested in 3D when I began using CAD to create

vital product ideas as part of the design process. The

things you could do with the tools were amazing. It

became interesting to see them in creative ways, so I

started concentrating on image making.

CREATING TEXT IN UNIQUE AND INTERESTING

WAYS SEEMS TO BE A THEME IN YOUR WORK.

WHEN DID THIS PASSION DEVELOP?

I started experimenting with 3D typography work in

2008. Initially it was all about rendering typography
      as large-scale buildings and then it developed to
      include all sorts of everyday objects. My background
      is in product design, so it felt natural for me to design
      letters as if they were products, food or whatever
      else I could think of. I didn’t want to create abstract
      CGI artwork so I thought letters would be good to try,
      because they are useful and functional.

WHAT WAS THE CREATIVE PROCESS BEHIND

YOUR PROJECT FOR PRINGLES?

We spent about six weeks on that project start to

finish. The agency had a good idea of the overall

concept and had the different headlines pinned

down. For me the creativity was in the details and

craftsmanship. I worked hard to create textures

that were both believable and tasty. To this day the

Pringles job is one of my favourites and it was

really satisfying.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND

AUTO AEROBICS?

Auto Aerobics began in life as a tiny idea for a

project about New York. Walking through Brooklyn

on a winter evening is truly a memorable

experience and motivated me to build a digital 3D

model that captured the various details and

textures of the area. The Pontiac automobile was

initially destined to be a prop parked on the

sidewalk; however, I later decided to make it a

parallel subject of the scenes and started to

abstract the forms of the cars by hollowing out

the vehicle’s core, stretching the proportions and

experimenting with multiples... Which over time

began to look extraordinary.

All images © Chris Labrooy

Time Magazine – Made In

The USA:preliminary sketch can help Starting out with a

move an idea forward