ABOUT
Samuel Rodriguez (born March 16, 1981) is an Abstract Portrait Illustrator based out of San José California. His work spans across public art, advertising, tech, commerce and media publications. As a youth, he dedicated most of his time to Painting Graffiti until he later pursued a BFA at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He has since built his career as a portrait illustrator, developing a style that blends facial features, lettering, and abstract shapes to formulate distinct visual narratives.
Hello!
My name is Sam Rodriguez and I use portraiture to tell stories. I do this by mixing a variety of ingredients from visual cues such as places, iconography and more. I’ve learned that each person, beyond physical appearances carries within them, a complex set of traits that reveals who they are beyond what’s seen. My aim is to include these unseen aspects of individuals in order to portray them in their entirety.
LET’S WORK!
Project inquiries contact the following:
Elliot O’Donell elliot@ba-reps.com for the USA
Sam Summerskill sam@ba-reps.com for the UK and International
My Approach
COLOR & EXPRESSIVE DETAILS
Color plays a big role in how we feel, and I try to capture a sense of warmth through my palette. In addition, I try to show the essence of a person through facial expression, features, and body language.
PEOPLE & SECONDARY ELEMENTS
I blend faces, figures, lettering, and abstract shapes to formulate distinct visual narratives. There are endless possibilities with this approach and it always surprises me to see the results.
I group my work into three categories, Nouns, Verbs, and Typography.
NOUNS
Nouns are what I call my Portraits. They are closeups that focus on faces, places and objects. As mentioned before, I use portraiture to tell stories by mixing a variety of ingredients from visual cues such as locations, iconography and more.
VERBS
Verbs is what I call my Figurative Work. They zoom out to show bigger scenes of people engaged in activities. I apply a similar approach as my portraiture by mixing a variety of ingredients from visual cues such as locations, iconography and more.
TYPOGRAPHY (ETC)
Lettering has played a major role in my creative development. I spent much of my youth as a graffiti artist and later worked as a graphic designer specializing in typography. Traces of this can still be found in my portraits, but I still am occasionally asked to work on projects with Typography as the primary component. I also enjoy abstracting letters into interesting shapes, or the ‘etcetera’ part of my process.
contact
For project inquiries contact the following emails.
elliot@ba-reps.com for the USA
sam@ba-reps.com for the UK
PAST CLIENT LIST
Adobe
Burger King
1800 Tequila
New Yorker
Los Angeles Times
Politico
Microsoft/XBox
World Health Organization
Accion Latina
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Espolon Tequila
Boost Mobile
Miller Fortune (Miller Coors)
Levi's
Yahoo
Linked In
Complex Media
Highsnobiety
Hypebeast
Look/See
1xRun
The Bold Italic
1st Act Silicon Valley
Above Second Gallery
Wall Therapy
The Money Team (TMT Brand)
Los Angeles Metro Authority
City of San Jose
Oakland Museum of CA
San Jose Museum of Art
SV Debug
New American Media
Ben Davis
Hot Topic
Miami Ink
L.A. Ink
Youth Speaks
Cukui Clothing
Clout Magazine
SF Bike Expo
BCCP
Dopest Outsiders
Mun2
Fifth Sun
Metro Newspapers
COVERAGE
Complex Media
El Observador
Pow! Wow! Hawai'i
Booooooom
San Francisco Chronicle
Mtn-World
High Snobiety
Instagrafite
12 Oz. Prophet
Global Street Art
Afro Punk
Forbes
Contour Magazine
SF Art Enthusiast
Art Nerd San Francisco
Artistaday
Mun2 (MSNBC)
Graffuturism
Web Episode: New America
ACCLAIM MAG (Australia)
Known Gallery Blog
Bike Art. (Book on Bicycles in Art)
BikeReviews.com
Silicon Valley Metro
Fansbikes.com
Hypebeast.com
Clout Online Magazine
PaperTrail OmniMedia
Above Second Gallery (Hong Kong)
San Jose Bike Blog
San Jose Mercury News
New American Media
The5thfloor (United Kingdom)
Format Mag
Cyclepedia Mag (Russia)
Star Fuckers News (Japan)