About

Intergalactico is a creative/multidisciplinary studio. We create things for people, businesses, art lovers and kids. Intergalactico is about establishing relationships in the world based on inspiration, exploration, discovery, conversation and storytelling. We work with people who want to invent new ways of seeing and being seen. We are connected with some of the best talent in many types of media and are always open to collaborating with creative individuals.

At the heart of Intergalactico is its founder, Chris Capuozzo. Chris is an internationally known artist and designer whose work has garnered both popular and critical acclaim. In 2000, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum exhibited an entire sketchbook of his drawings in the National Design Triennial. Subsequently, they acquired the book for their permanent collection. In 2004, the Sandra Gering Gallery hosted a solo exhibition of his work, titled "The Launching of the Dream Weapon." Chris's work has been featured in "Style Wars," the definitive documentary about New York graffiti from the mid-1980's. He has also had comics published in both the Philadelphia Independent and Paper Rodeo.

Chris was a founding member and creative director at the design studio Funny Garbage, where he helped create the Funny Garbage design style - an original and sophisticated aesthetic of combining elements from high and low culture. This style grew out of Chris's involvement with many different artistic disciplines, such as fine art, comic art, graffiti art, illustration, sound design and animation. Chris's work has won many awards, including the 2004 Webby awards in the People's Voice category for Noggin.com and the 2005 and 2006 Webby award in the school category for the School of Visual Arts website.

Chris was born in Staten Island, N.Y. to a family that has been in the New York label printing business for three generations. Founded by his great-grandfather in 1924, General Trade Mark was involved in developing the first adhesive product labels. When the factory moved from Prince Street in Manhattan to Staten Island, Chris started working there at a young age doing odd jobs on the weekends. Years later, this turned into a full-time job doing production art. It was through this experience that Chris came to understand and appreciate printed materials.

Chris's childhood was spent skateboarding, collecting comic books, building forts, drawing, snorkeling and collecting fish from the bays around the island. While attending the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, Chris became enveloped in the graffiti scene of the early 1980's. It was at this time that he started making large-scale, graffiti-style paintings on walls and subway trains around New York. He subsequently attended the School of Visual Arts and studied cartooning, illustration and fine arts with Harvey Kurtzman, Art Speigelman, Mark Marek, David Sandlin, Will Eisner, Marshall Arisman and Jack Goldstein. In 1987, Chris began working as an assistant in the studio of Jack Goldstein. For the next three years, he worked with Goldstein, painting, mixing colors, installing exhibitions, and doing image research. "Totems," a book of Goldstein's writings that Chris designed and illustrated, was published in 1991.

In the mid-1980's, Chris and his friend Peter Girardi self-published the underground comic-zines, "Nirvana Now" and "Funny Garbage." Both were filled with equal parts comic art, humorous satire and graffiti art. It was within these zines that the Funny Garbage aesthetic was developed. In 1997, along with Girardi and John Carlin, Chris formed Funny Garbage, Inc., the multimedia design and development firm. For over ten years, Funny Garbage has been an innovator in the world of new media and one of the premier digital and multimedia design studios in the world. Early web projects, like "Web Premiere Tunes" and "Cartoon Orbit" for Cartoon Network.com, predated the user-controlled entertainment and community aspects of YouTube.com and MySpace.com.

Chris currently teaches the interactive design class, "Crossing Disciplines," at the M.F.A. Design Department at the School of Visual Arts. The theme of the program is "Designer as Author" and the class supports this concept by asking each student to create an original interactive project. Chris enjoys the experience of bringing out students' "inherent voices", while working on the many different aspects of their projects. Through his own experiences in school, Chris has come to realize the value of a teacher being consistently supportive to young creative people. Communication, listening and involvement are key elements that Chris promotes in order to be able to create a valuable teaching and learning experience.

In 2008, Chris, along with his wife Denise, launched Intergalactico. It was the culmination of a dream to establish a multidisciplinary/creative workshop that blurs the boundries between commercial and fine art - high and low. Intergalactico is available to serve clients who have the need to communicate. Really, this could be anyone with an open mind and progressive vision. We emphasize sophistication, quality and meaning over style. We know that when people and companies feel good about the way they look, they are projecting something exciting and engaging to others. It enriches their business and personal expression and gets in touch with their inspiration, which is why they are in business in the first place.

Intergalactico exists to explore the juxtaposition between pushing the edge yet still providing an elegant, functional experience for an audience. We know that allowing for the experimental leads to innovative solutions. We also know that innovative design can change the world. What we offer is a deep relationship to the culture from high to low. We are a filter. We are curators and transformers of visual experience.

If you are interested in working with us, get in touch. We are available for consultation during conceptualizing and planning stages of a project as well as seeing a project through to completion and launch.