Gareth Rice

I was born the grandson of a minister, and the son of conservative and very grounded parents, and very quickly became the bain of my older brother’s life...taking way too much pleasure out of terrorising his cats and destroying his caterpillars (strange combination...hmm).

These religious beginnings got me questioning my own existence, and challenging the beliefs of those around me from a very early age. I definitely preferred drawing frenzied scenes of aliens attacking and destroying the earth, than filling in the spaces on the religious colouring books we were given in bible class. My 'art' was never really appreciated back then. I still question my surroundings and myself, and that attitude manifests itself through my work, usually self-portraits. My girlfriend thinks I'm self obsessed and she's probably right but the point is more to look at who I am and the process of achieving what I want.

In my late teens I started up a band, with dreams of becoming a modern day Talking Heads, but this failed miserably as I only ever learnt 3 chords...badly. I graduated from AUT, young and with huge amounts of enthusiasm and naivety. I built up strong relationships with several clients and started up a tee shirt company. Alas money and time got the better of me but fortunately I earned a huge amount from this and headed off to Melbourne to start working for an advertising/publishing agency.

Initially been stuck in a studio with two slightly deranged and emotionally unstable seniors had its ups and downs but it completely changed my understanding of design and creativity for the better.