Hadrien Lopez's graphic design spans the influence of art and architecture

Graphic designer Hadrien Lopez, previously of Untitled studio, concentrates on the typographic element of projects in an approach that is, “conceptual, precise, poetic and strong”.

As a designer, Hadrien’s influences span a wide range of artistic pursuits. Ranging “from art to the fashion of architecture,” he also cites minimalism as “an attitude in the world that for me goes from a sculpture by Donald Judd, to a film like Elephant by Gus van Sant, or a building of Mies van der Rohe”. This ability to appreciate numerous areas of creativity filters into Hadrien’s work: “my approach is also global, the artistic direction of the shooting that I build with photographers that I like is as important as precision in layouts”.

Projects of Hadrien’s that represent this breadth of interests using typography include the branding for La Maréchalerie, a contemporary art centre in Versailles. A gallery that “values and encourages artists who work with notions of architecture,” Hadrien creates a “typographic system that evokes space, circulation and construction,” he explains. “The idea was to create with colour and typography by evoking the work and the artist. The choice of paper is very important, papers tinted in the mass and very textured, like a material, they evoke the materials of architecture, a density.”

Further projects of Hadrien’s include designing for Graal, an agency of architecture and town planning. Around their fifth anniversary Hadrien designed a print “composing with the logotype and the number five in the space of the poster,” he says. “The letters intermingle in the manner of an architectural construction or an urban fabric.” Hadrien additionally created the visual identity for Alan Purenne, who “installs and produces works for contemporary artists and very important places of art, such as Douglas Gordon or Galerie Agnes B”. For this brief the designer was asked “to speak of space, with a typographic installation that emphasises the space of the sheet”. To fulfil this ask Hadrien created “a simple editorial object to present Alan’s many references,” he explains. “I thought of a very fine 80g offset paper object folded several times in the manner of a mounting instruction, it unfolds in the same way that Alan unfolds a sculpture in a space with the artist.”