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3DTotal: Hi Coro, I hope all is going well for you in San Francisco! Can you tell us a bit about your daily
life there, for a start, are you a freelancer or do you do the daily 9 till 5?
Coro: Hi. Yes things are going pretty well here in S.F. We are all keeping busy, that’s for sure. I am a Concept Artist/2D Art Director at ‘Massive Black’, a high-end art outsourcing studio, which I started with a few friends back in around 2003. I live and work with my better half, Melissa, who works with me as the
2D producer there. We are basically responsible for all the concept art that goes through our studio. It
can get a bit hectic at times, but I find living together we can better handle the sometimes insane projects we cycle through. We head a team of 15 fantastic guys, and have worked on around 150+ project, as well as the occasional movie and commercial jobs, over the past few years. It’s a great gig. I love the variety, and I love my boys. I feel extremely lucky to be a part of it
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3DTotal: What led you into starting up ‘Massive Black’ with your friends?
Coro: Were you working on some freelance projects and suddenly thought “there’s room for something bigger here!”? We were all working at different studios at the time, but after ConceptArt.org went up, we would each occasionally get offers for freelance work. We found it easier to pool our talents and tag-team projects, which eventually led to us getting in more and more work, to a point where we could salary ourselves and get a studio. It was a scary step, but I’m very glad to have done it. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for Jason Manley. He was the first to take the plunge and say “f**k it, let’s do this!”. He quit his job and started actively setting the business up. We started the studio on cash we’d saved up and money we were earning from projects. It was very grass roots - it still is - and I’m very proud of our independence.
3DTotal: Your early influences of working with spray cans and brick walls are apparent in all sections of your portfolio. Do you still ever paint this way, or do you just carry the style into your digital and illustration work?
Coro: Graffiti saved my life. If it hadn’t been for spray-paint, chances are I would not be making art for a living today. It combined 2 things that appealed to me as a confused, young man; vandalism and art. . . . |
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I tagged and sh*t for years, but have since switched to mostly legal works, since I’m all old now [ha ha]. I try to get out at least every couple months to do it. I can’t ever forget where I came from. |
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3DTotal: Do you have any “interesting stories” from your early El Paso spray paint days that you can share with our readers?
Coro: El Paso is kind of a rough place to grow up. It’s located
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along the border of Mexico, and there is a lot of gang and drug activity there. I didn’t realize this until I moved to Frisco and started talking to people about having been raised
in the hood. Sh*t, I though everywhere was like that! I like to think of growing up there as a unique sort of education. I think it has helped me immensely in the business side of things, since dealing with large companies is frighteningly similar to the politics in gang culture.
3DTotal: Cut-throat stuff eh? Do you find the bigger the company, the tougher the negotiations (and getting paid) can be?
Coro: I think that typically, the bigger the company, the more red tape there is, |
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and the more chance there is for someone to screw you over to save his/her job. There seems to be less accountability with larger companies sometimes, since they can hide behind the bureaucracy of it. I will say that, in my experience, I’ve seen the full gambit. In the end, it all comes down to who you are working with specifically. I’ve had great experiences and terrible ones with the same publisher on different projects. |
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