Killian Loddo is from France, a tiny village near saint Etienne. He is fascinated by the magic of pictures, the sexuality and seduction behind images, and likes to reappropriate himself with the codes of popular culture and use them in creative contexts.
Loddo works and lives in Paris with clients such as Colette, Social Club paris, Novembre Magazine, Andrea Crews, and music bands. His works are published in IDpure, Items Magazine, Pretty Ugly (Gestalten), Etapes graphique, Type Only, Novembre Magazine, Avant-Garde, Azimuts, Shabbaz project, Ink magazine, Kiblind, and Amusement magazine.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. Hi, I studied graphic design. I’m still doing that as a job but I consider myself mostly as an image maker. Most of the time, it is applied to clients, but also often in a research field for art exhibition or various projects. It goes from CD covers to Illustration for magazine, or pattern design, as well as artistic direction, movie clips, digital paintings and designing clothes.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on? I’m doing the Art Direction for the band, aamourocean. I am also finishing up a fashion collaboration with the brand Vaisslle, which I’m pretty excited about, and a movie clip for the new label, Permalnk.
What is one of the bigger challenges you and/or other designers are struggling with these days and how do you see it developing? Trying to stay creative within a very small amount of time, so time. I know I could do whatever I want, from new clothes to installations, with a lot of time and some money. But for now, I have to be fast and smart about the way I use creativity, when to use it, when to display my best ideas, with which clients and how much time I spend to still make a living and continue to love my work.
How did your interest in art or design begin? I think it started as a child. I loved drawing, drawing basketball players for instance, in the air, then reproducing the moves and taking photos and videos of it. It was about aesthetics as a whole thing with the shoes, the brand, and the figures. I played around with different mediums and on myself, therefore living it myself. I was drawing hundreds of shoes, inventing and reproducing. Also, I created scenarios on little flip books about basketball, skateboarding, and wars in caption. But I guess this all made sense when I started to study applied arts in college and learned to understand how to use arts more consciously.
How has living in Paris affected your design practice? I think that at the beginning for a while it made my creativity regress, just a little bit, because of the expectations of the clients. Things are moving here in Paris, but we have to push it, because there seems to be a more open way to look at new things in cites like London, Berlin, NY for instance, and here when you work on new visual fields, people tend to close the doors a bit. They are quite attached to an old scene, it’s not always about your talent or your ideas, but about the way you communicate them, the way you show yourself and make contacts. Of course this happens everywhere but in Paris, the road to make it big and interesting. Things that happen are often quite locked and wetted already.
What products or companies are you interested in right now? I like the methods of communication in the brand, Telfar, linked to the artistic director Babak Radboy. I am still impressed by the Dis Magazine scene to be honest. I also like the work of Études Studio and a lot of their products. I also like pretty much all the Raf Simmons shoes and the collaborations he does, for example with Adidas.
What materials do you use in your work and what is your process like? In fashion, I use mostly silk because of my silk scarfs, but lately I have been using some technical materials, stretchable textiles, etc… I mostly make digital works, where I pretend to use plastics, metals, porcelain, glass and ice, but it’s all effect and the reproduction of visuals sensation are related with those materials.
What’s your favorite thing about your city? It’s something that I sometimes hate but love about Paris, the magnificence or the glory of somebody, or a project when it works on every level, when it’s recognized by peers, and the fame around it. I have the feeling, just like a tourist, that this is only happens in Paris. I don’t know if it comes with the whole history, and what we sense of it, in the walls and in the architecture but there is even for me, as a french guy, something very deep, which stays with the glory in Paris. It can very much be on the surface, just some fake fame, like the immortalization of a still painting, very vain and sad. It repulses me and attracts me at the same time.
What was the last show you saw that stuck out to you? Nothing really lately, I missed the Dries Noten exhibition in Les arts Décoratifs, but I saw some nice 3D movie clips, and also this cool clip.
What is your snack/beverage of choice when working in your studio? Some granola (biscuits) with milk.
What are you really excited about right now? My girlfriend. More seriously, the next concert of Coldplay, no kindling again…and I guess playing basketball my friend.
What are you listening to right now? The guys I work with: aamourocean, the pc music scene, also some yellow claw sounds, and those tracks among others on my Soundcloud :
I do mix some music in the club frequently, so if you’re interestted about it here is my Soundcloud page with some likes.
Can you share one of the best or worst reactions you have gotten as a result of your work? I thought it was a good sign, but someone commented on the design I did for 2012 Open Doors at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy school: “I hate it—it makes me angry but it makes me interested too…”. I remembered this more than most of the good reactions, which also sounds a bit similar.