My name is Julian Guzman, I am a Colombian designer and 3D artist. I have been lucky to have had several roles as a designer working in different advertising agencies for various brands during my professional career. I have also participated in branding projects for independent brands and I have collaborated as an illustrator and creative for Vice Magazine.The most experimental part of my work comes from projects related to music, especially about electronic music, designing some posters for events in different parts of the world, as well as digital and physical covers of different DJs. I also participated in the construction of a brand of musical synthesizers called Outer Space Sounds and my last work as a designer and partner is in NEA (New Electronic Assistant), a project related to AI and music. These projects have forced me to explore new visual languages according to their needs and also influenced the experimentation with 3D art, with which I want to continue to make my way around Music, Art, Photography and Fashion.
As a designer I’ve always been very curious, I like to experiment with different tools to face all kinds of challenges that clients put in front of me. But the biggest of them was the need to find my own creative voice. Starting from that need was how this path of experimentation began, where I mainly sought the satisfaction of learning something new and creating something exclusively for myself. With 3D, I felt comfortable creating, it was a surprise to know that there is an infinite universe in these programs where there are no physical rules, being able to mold metal like clay or play with liquid materials and make complex shapes, was something that blew my mind.I know that the road to find my own creative voice is long but I enjoy it all the time and I am very excited about what is to come in the next few years.
I’m very influenced by abstract and conceptual art in general. I find inspiration in themes such as human perceptions, nature, technology and the future.
Tough question! I think my work still doesn’t expose something clearly, I don’t know if I want to do it either. I just know it does because I did it that way at the time. Maybe in a few months I’ll do something different. Everything is constantly changing and evolving. That said, I think I’ll define it for now as “Impermanent Art”, it is in constant mutation finding multiple definitions along the way
I think that in some cases yes, there are many artists who want to express social, political, philosophical, cultural messages and I admire very much to understand the work behind their works. In the case of my work, more than a message I want to awaken doubts “What are those forms?” “What do they represent?” “How do you make them?” “Are they liquid or solid?” Also the sensitive is important to me. When I work with so many details and textures I try to open doubts about their smell, their taste, their relationship with touch. Of all these doubts I like people to make their own interpretations of what they mean.
For me it is not so easy to choose just one project, all of them fill me with pride, but if I had to choose a project that I really appreciate is “BICHOTA”. The term “Bichota” is a colloquial expression in Colombia that represents power and greatness especially in the female gender. The “bicho” is also a local term for insects. These two words don’t have a direct relationship but it was from there that the idea of creating new species of insects with futuristic anatomies and that find their personalities and identities of power through color spectra was born.
I don’t have one specific influence, it’s a mix of references from different digital artists and from different disciplines. For example the case of the creative and visual universe of musicians like Bjork, Aphex Twin and Arca. Also with fashion designers like the work of Iris van Herpen or the architect Neri Oxman.
Design has had a great impact on my life, so much so that it is inevitable to see everything with a designer’s eye. I believe that these bases help me to solve visual communication problems with my commercial projects. Undoubtedly design is an essential tool when creating my 3D works. I apply design basics when I make compositions, when I choose a color palette, when I set up a lighting scheme and to define the best way to show my work. This saves me a lot of time when making such decisions during my work, giving me more space to model and play with textures.
I think my abstract style is consistent but has a series of constant evolutions as I experiment with new tools. For example, lately I’m integrating VR modeling to achieve more complex and organic shapes. For me it’s very important to experiment and have those constant small changes to avoid creative fatigue with my work.
I’m working with a collective of digital artists called HYPERFUTURISM @1_1pr_f2r_sm_ a project committed to the search for new narratives through digital art. At the moment we’re in the development of a book with works by all these artists that will be released at the end of 2022.
