Costin Chioreanu is a Romanian complete visual artist (worldwide renowned graphic designer, painter, illustrator and video artist) and a multi instrumentalist musician / composer.
His passion for drawing and his interest in heavy metal music were juxtaposed in the mid 90’s, when he realized that the artworks found in his own collection of bootleg cassettes released in the post-communist era, had to be improved.
His first official works in terms of illustrations and designs related to the music are actually the cassette covers and logos created for his projects and bands’ demos between 1997 and 1999. Since then Costin remained a constant musician, releasing albums, singles and soundtracks, a thing which always offered him the maximum depth for understanding in full what a musician or a band needs in order to illustrate a musical work.
Specializing in Graphic Design, with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at the National University of Arts, in Bucharest, he started his graphic studio in 2003, under the name of TWILIGHT 13 MEDIA. Since then, he has been covering all types of expression regarding music illustration, from covers, posters, merchandise design to filmed or animated videos, live DVD’s, or full concert screenings. Over the years Costin worked with hundreds of bands, musicians and labels from all over the world. He gradually came to fit among the idols who write gloomy sounds which inspired him back in the day, and today we find him around the highest circles formed by musicians like Jethro Tull, Ghost, Soulfly, Emperor, Carcass, Wardruna, Arch Enemy, Hypocrisy, Ulver, Mayhem, Darkthrone, My Dying Bride, Lisa Gerrard, just to name a few . During this time, on top of his work as an visual artist, from behind the desk, he expanded the complexity of the artistic collaborations, by covering all kinds of visual expression, reaching even the shores of show productions and stage design, or amplifying the power of live performances through original and powerful screenings, animation movies, stage designs, live painting shows on the same stage with the bands, even becoming a part of the performance itself as an actor while the musicians were playing. In a way or another he literally become one with the music he loves to translate into images.
Costin Chioreanu is today a worldwide icon in visual art connected with music. In the last 20 years he build an unique solid yet versatile graphic style and he also invented a new style of video animation, highly acclaimed and used by many of the headliners of the extreme metal genre. Original yet consistent, highly inventive and intuitive, deeply philosophical and with a sharp mind and a fearless attitude of breaking the rules, Costin is one of the strongest characters of the musical art scene.