Renaissance Men

Designer Joe Perez has got some serious credentials and impeccable taste. Just ask the ever-so-fashionable (and controversial) Kanye West. In fact, Joe has been working for “Ye” for the past five years and recently designed his Cruel Summer album cover, which dropped September 14. “It’s a collaboration album with artists from Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music label,” Joe tells me in his home studio loft. The lights are dimmed and mellow music casts a chill vibe on the space. He’s dressed in black and white, with not a hair out of place.

After graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California – “the RISD of the West Coast” as he describes it – Joe designed and maintained websites, including two popular fashion blogs he created in collaboration with his brother. One day after having moved back East, his phone rang. Kanye was on the other line.

“When I first started working for Kanye, I did random odds and ends — maintaining his website and doing research for various projects,” Joe says. “If Kanye calls at 3am and needs something done by 6, that’s it — you just do it. He’s not only a musician but a fashion designer, a director and a fine artist. He’s a true Renaissance man and a creative visionary.”

After proving himself over time, Joe was given the biggest assignment of his life. From start to finish, it took Joe an estimated 700 hours to design and execute the album cover and packaging. “My art director, Guido Callarelli, and I worked directly with Kanye on the cover,” he says. The process was a complex one — beginning first with a female from a classic work of art and slowly chipping away at her, carving each cheekbone and every curve, as if she were made of digital stone. “Now she’s the perfect woman,” Joe says with a laugh. “I’m a Photoshop surgeon.” When creating a product for someone as detail oriented as Kanye West, perfection is a must.

Joe is a bit of a Renaissance man himself. Under Kanye’s DONDA design studio umbrella, he has cooked up t-shirts for the 2011 Watch the Throne tour Kanye headlined along with Jay-Z. As for that impeccable taste I alluded to earlier? Joe also designed custom furniture for his loft, including a sleek white coffee table on top of which rests a stack of books – an homage to fashion and photography – Helmut Newton and Louis Vuitton just to name two.

“People have preconceived notions [of Kanye] based on the media’s perception of people in the lime light. They usually have strong opinions and don’t hide what they think. It’s clear how much Joe respects the music mogul and the rest of the DONDA team, which includes creative director Virgil Abloh. “I’m grateful for all of the opportunities Kanye’s given me throughout the years,” he says. “As to exactly how many designs I’ve done, a gentleman never designs and tells.”