Lorenza Centi

We started working with Lorenza in the middle of the pandemic. It was the first - and maybe only - time we hired someone off of a cold email. Lorenza had reached out with a link to her personal work, which featured many colorful and chaotic digital collages that immediately drew us in. What started out as a few open-ended conversations culminated in her art-directing our Spring 2021 lookbook shoot remotely, while we worked from home in Las Vegas - no easy task. She brought a different creative layer and exciting new perspective to our seasonal presentation.

Follow Lorenza on IG: @craftsnool

Photography: Adam Humphreys

 

How did you get into work as a creative director / art director?

Creative Direction was something that I never really “chose”, it just came naturally to me. By the end of my college career, I already felt limited by the digital world. I loved digital design but I didn’t want to go on to be a graphic designer that just sat behind a screen 24/7. I wanted to experience design, move through it and see all possibilities from every angle. My first job out of college was an Art Directing position for an advertising agency and that’s where everything started to come together. Being able to marry digital with the conceptual and physical storytelling aspect was exciting and the magic of being ‘on set’ really struck a chord for me.

 

What did you study in college?

I originally graduated with a BFA in Studio Art with a specialization in Graphic Design. I graduated from Michigan State University where the Studio Art program didn’t  initially  offer degrees in digital art. About half way through my time there, they started to recognize graphic design as a specialization and that’s when I shifted heavily into the digital world. Having the beginning of my concentration be solely in studio art exposed me to mediums that were outside of digital design which I think really helped shape my conceptual brain and how I approached design thinking. I loved that I had to take classes like color theory, painting, ceramics and woodworking because it allowed me to think about art in a tactile, three-dimensional way which I then could apply to the digital world.

 

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Detroit, Michigan but always had the dream to live in New York City where there were more people and opportunities. Again, I felt limited in my surroundings – I wanted to be paid for creating work that was art and not just advertisements and knew I had to be in a location that offered that avenue. 

 

What is the craziest concept you’ve realized on set?

I think the craziest concept I’ve worked on was for the reveal of the 2020 Corvette C8. It involved perfectly syncing up a live stream of a real time event, in which the new Corvette was revealed by it racing down a jet way into a plane hanger, through an audience and onto a stage. Timing was impeccable.    

 

I saw you got to go to London recently for work. What was that like?

Chaotic, exciting, exhausting and inspiring! This was my first time visiting London and the first time I would be traveling outside the country for work. I love an opportunity to be in an unfamiliar place because it allows me to draw so much inspiration from simply just walking down the street. The mundane becomes exciting and new, which after over a year of working from home was super refreshing.

 

I love your collages and personal work - where does your inspiration come from? Or what drives you to create your own work?

I think it’s really important for people who are in the creative industry to continue to practice their own artistic release. I’ve actually found it to be quite conflicting when your passion is also your career, I often find myself creatively burnt out but I try to remember how therapeutic art can be. Collaging is an easy way for me to recharge my creativity, the act of creating something new out of what already exists feels cathartic. Moving around shapes and colors, experimenting with found items to recreate meaning and intent helps me put my conceptual, playful brain to work. It also allows me to have a voice, a lot of my work aims to address feminist issues in society, as well as, content exhaustion in media, social and art related fields. My inspiration steams from being a female artist in a male dominated field and it has became my way of addressing the exploitation and over-sexualization of the female form and manipulation of the feminist wave.

Lorenza is wearing Mika Loafer in Leopard Haircalf