Interviewing the "Paul Rand of Metal"

Christophe Szpajdel, the "Paul Rand of metal," says he's designed logos for more than 7,000 death- and black-metal bands. Vice's Klaus Pichler met up with the 37-year-old Belgian, who seems a bit oblivious to his interviewer's jokes:

So do you sit alone by candlelight in the uppermost chamber of a castle and draw sinister things all night?

No. Besides drawing logos, I am a forestry engineer and I have a regular job as a customer-service assistant in retail. I need a job to support my artistic activity.

[...]

So you work in forestry engineering. Isn’t it contradictory to work for the protection of the environment while at the same time supporting music that wishes to lay waste to the earth until it’s a stinking heap of sulfur and bones?

I wouldn’t say so. In fact, it is some kind of a yin-yang. There are bands that make extreme music but lyrically deal with the purity of nature. They offer the perfect fusion between my fascination with nature—especially mountains—and metal. But a lot of extreme metal bands deal with the destruction of mankind, which I think is needed...

Via Emvergeoning.

Earlier: Arthouse filmmaker rock logos and the heavy metal band names flowchart