POST 1 - INTRODUCTION ROCCO FRANCISCO

I am Rocco Francisco, and I am currently pursuing a BFA with a concentration in Graphic Design. My pieces, usually digital, employ ideas of geometry and typography and in order to create environments and convey various emotions. My work can often be described as thematically being based in science fiction, especially with connections to the cyberpunk genre. With specific selections of color, the emotions felt from my work are typically closely associated with these colors. Outside of school, I am a self published musician, with my music and art carrying a close relationship with one another.

Futuristic Cityscape, Adobe Illustrator, 2024

    Though I usually work on digital mediums, I try to explore multiple ways of working and creating art. Behind a screen, I've explored digital illustration, typography, animation, and image manipulation. My workflow typically consists of creating an idea to work on, and giving it multiple attempts until I find myself working towards a finished product. I have also explored drawing in graphite and charcoal, painting in acrylic and gouache, and working with materials like wood, clay, and sheet metal to create three dimensional pieces. The culmination of work between sketches, test models, and final renders are important
parts of my process when working with physical mediums.

Painting of Joji, Gouache, 2023

    An artist who heavily influences my work is Syd Mead, who is mostly associated with his work on Blade Runner and his US Steel projects. I also take inspiration from the artists who worked on Cyberpunk 2077, a video game, and take typography inspiration from artists from the Bauhaus movement. I enjoy experimenting with the styles that I learn, using the fundamentals as a basis for experimentation.

Syd Mead, Blade Runner Concept Art, 1980

Words from Interviews about Mental Health, Adobe Illustrator, 2024

algabright Logo and Office Mockup, 3D Model - Blender, 2024

DON'T LEAVE ME HERE, Adobe Illustrator, 2024

Brutus Tattoo Design, Graphite, 2023

House by Rocco Francisco, 3D Model - Blender, 2023

Quotes from On Photography

"Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.

To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed" (Sontag).

    There is something to be said about the strength of photographs in world that has media of all forms, such as the handcrafted paintings or replayed videos. A picture is strong in the fact that it captures a specific moment, offering perspective on a single moment in time. The subject being photographed becomes much of the value of the picture itself, offering a different sort of value in both its stillness and the experience behind how the image was captured and preserved.

"In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are" (Sontag).

    Photography has much value in the fact that it captures reality, yet this is something that can be manipulated by the person taking the picture. This is an idea that has often slipped my mind, influencing the result of a captured picture, which can be taken as a captured moment in reality, shifts its value from that of lived experience to that of depiction. Photographers have the ability to change how their subject is captured and portrayed, being able to create different meanings and values from the same moment in time.