Craigio Hopson

Your pronouns.
He/him

Where is home?
Home is close to my dining table, in the afternoons, where I slowly brew my specialty coffee while I look through my window how peacefully falls the rain.

Describe your style in one sentence.
Bold, colorful, straightforward, funny and whimsical.

What lights your soul on fire?
My work, yoga, a hug, my family, the people I love talking with.

What themes do you enjoy exploring?
Human rights, the environment, niche perfumery, health, food, love, my personal and other peoples feelings.

What techniques do you use?
Although the result of final work is 100% digital my approach always starts with a wide range of sketches drawn on my Moleskine sketchbooks with acrylic and regular pens. The acrylic pens allow me to draw and fill spaces rapidly. Shapes and concepts appears while I enjoy the process.

How much of yourself and your own story can we see in your work?
I am an emigrant, you can see it reflected in some of my illustrations. I have touched this topic several times from a personal view. I am also a person who always have fun with the work and doesn’t know what to be bored is, that is the reason why people see plenty of my work coming out very often. I like to produce images, whether for clients or for my self.

Is there an unmistakable thread in your creative work?
Yes. No impressing myself is an issue. Every time I finish a new assignment, I need to be impressed by the work I did. I need to feel I evolved, that I am going a step forward and not the opposite.

What do you want to be known for?
For being a nice person, a professional, someone you can rely on.

Which projects excite you most?
The recently finished branding for Fuentelgato restaurant, my works for Dwell magazine and my personal project called Drawing Bottle of Perfumes where I am exploring with rough sketches the world of perfumery, the materials, feelings, memories and concepts behind each scent.

What is your dream gig?
I would love to explore how to innovate in decor with new ways of integrating illustration and color with the space. I wish I could have more personal prints. I would like to keep seeing how do people connect with my work, who knows if I have the chance of seeing one of my pieces in the MoMA (laughs).

Where, when and how do you best create?
Mornings are the best, at my desk.

How has your style evolved since you started?
It’s very interesting. Now my style focus less time in unnecessary details, now is bolder, colorful, funner and more modern.

What do you find most challenging in your practice or in the industry?
To deal with a huge amount of assignments at the same time from different projects and different clients. I have learned to say no in those moments that you are fully booked. Clients understand that it happens pretty often, it’s natural. I have understood that being honest and saying no when it is needed, most of the time ends with new opportunities for you. Now I deal with pressure better than before. I am lucky to have a great amount of wonderful clients who have enjoyed working with me and viceversa.

How has being an illustrator changed your life?
Personally I am so in love with my work at this point that I do know I was born to be an illustrator. I draw since I was a child, I did not like maths or engineering, nor literature was my favorite thing, so I found in the arts the perfect scape and my future.

Name a tool you can’t live without!
Acrylic coloring pens: Posca.

Tell us about a project you worked on that was meaningful to you as an artist.
The map of Valencia city (Spain). It was originally created for the program brochure of a musical festival and ended being one my best seller and most well known images locally.

What influences or inspires your art?
Mid century illustration and the Polish and Cuban schools of posters design of the 60’s.

What would you tell your younger self?
Never hide your self. Do your own, be yourself.

Why do you think art speaks louder than words?
Images reach the deepest of our consciousness. They have the power of changing behaviors and decisions and overcome the power. Images help this world to be a better place, all you need is a good concept and a message, the rest is done.