Rich

Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Writer and Lecturer
www.terminalcondition.com www.deviantart.com
I DENY those who are not polite enough to MESSAGE
:inspirat(ion)
The sign has always read 24 hours. Trapped in a Hopper painting with traces of a naked lunch. No smoking. The design detective listens for one last beat; he hears the sound and pictures the scene; one eye on the past, one eye on the future...finger on the present. You suffer from 'Peter Pan syndrome'. Close your eyes and see all the things that have shaped you.
My work is personal, commercial and hopefully educational. Certain pieces are born out of self initiated projects or even those written for my students - maintaining traditional illustration and typographic techniques along with a good eye in photography and art direction. Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash are then used to refine spontaneity and enhance the final result. I enjoy the process of ‘crashing the paintwork’ and ‘spilling the pixels.’ The secret of any good graphic design is to hold tradition and technical skill together with the correct answer.
:obsess(ion)
To be the best at what you do is to immerse yourself in not just the discipline, but to put time aside and understand all the other experiences we can use to our advantage. Everyone has ideas, yet not all of us use them. Absorb. Obsess. Be a nerd. A compulsive disorder isn’t a terminal condition, but it is one of many starting points to becoming an effective designer. You can sort the nervous twitch out later.
:realisat(ion)
The late Alan Fletcher once asked the question; 'What is typography?' In which he answered: 'Letters suffering from a terminal condition'.
After analysing the question (and the more interesting answer), it seemed there was more than just one meaning behind it. Fletcher initially mean’t that they are letters that have been defaced, deformed and mutilated; literally looking like they are suffering from an illness. When you look at the full alphabet or simply A-B you think of reaching that predetermined destination; a ‘terminal condition’.
Graphic Design can also be about defacement, abstraction and in turn reaching the end result. Just how much depends on the market. How much we decide to challenge the consumer.
www.erthchronicles.com
PURCHASE NOW
Born on the flying city of Newton, Pirian Horncastle has always felt the weight of the Erth pulling him towards his destiny. He and his parents are among the very few inhabitants who remain free of the 'Dosage' - a controlling drug that turns most of the population into psychopaths.
When Pirian’s father, Jeradon Horncastle III, is falsely accused for the murder of their Emperor, both are outcast into the raging seas below. Washed ashore, they are brought to the attention of the Rojin; a spiritual people who Jeradon had once slaughtered. But in a twist of prophecy, their enemy and his son hold the fate of the Rojin people and the very soul of their immortal leader in the palm of their hands.
You can currently read sample chapters of my novel, The Enemy's Son HERE
Erth Chronicles is a blue print fantasy paying homage to those things that influenced me as a child of the 80s and have remained rooted in my subconscience ever since. As with most of my generation, I absorbed many classic saturday morning cartoons, along with films such as The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story and The Empire Strikes Back.
From the british weekly comicbook Battle to Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, Milton to Dante, Huxley to Orwell, Kurosawa to Eastwood - I have set about shaping these diverse influences into what I hope to be a series of novels. Erth Chronicles is my nod, my thank you letter to everything and everyone that has inspired me and more than likely yourselves.