As a professional DJ, Graphic Artist and an Architect by training, Jesus Corral explores plenty of media to express his creativity. Taking a step back, let’s just straight away appreciate how rare it is to find people multi-tasking on their career itself, and how rare it is for people to develop their hobbies into their profession.
His DJ name is J. Larroc, which is, you guessed right, his name spelled backwards. The interesting thing is, he doesn’t even like drinking or going out much, but what keeps him DJ-ing is the joy he gets from getting people together with his music. Technically, he is a House/Electronic/NuDisco/Dance DJ. He generally frequents the Chicago underground party/rage scene. He also does larger commercial events such as events at House of Blues, Congress Theater, Evil Olive, etc. He is a resident DJ, Booking Coordinator, and Graphic Designer for Risky Productions in Chicago. He has performed alongside Artists such as Chromeo, Miami Horror and others.
He was introduced to Graphic Design while studying Architecture. And also, while in High School he took a communications class and loved using Photoshop. This proved useful later on when he got to use his Photoshop skills in the Graphic Design classes. He has designed the whole look for Risky Productions (where he is also the resident DJ). He has rebranded Zombies vs. Skeletons logo. He has done designing and marketing for Lolla.
What really caught our attention though was his Instagram account. Upon perusing it, we get a brief glimpse into what inspires J. Larroc. An obvious theme across the pictures is buildings, or architecture.
Quite a few Architects prefer harmony with nature. They look at homes and hearths as a natural part of the landscape, rather than an imposition of man’s will on Earth. Think Howard Roark. Not so for Corral, it seems.
The buildings he prefers are tall, bold, classic and simple. Each picture carries its own caption as in indicator of what he thought of when he saw it. What we liked was the sheer simplicity of the messaging, even if the message isn’t intuitively clear on a conceptual level.
On a second glance though, his messaging seems deeper than we had anticipated. With quite a few pictures showing a cloudy (or smoky?) cover, we began to wonder if he does want to, in fact commentate on the role of man on nature. A simple hint was a man’s silhouette on buildings tilted horizontal. Indicating perhaps on man’s role in changing the course nature takes.
The following picture is a comment on how Capitalism is the final bastion of what humanity believes in. And yet the modern take on “temples” is perhaps more practical than faith driven – as religions go.
We enjoyed the juxtaposition of modern imagery with a few words that connect his thought with what he saw. His take on man’s role in shaping the environment is intriguing with its contrasting clutter of image yet clarity of message. We look forward to following his career path and where it takes him.
