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Apocryph Teodoru Badiu, otherwise known as Apocryph, is a Creative Media Designer based in Vienna, Austria. His dark and stunning montages, illustrations and Flash sites have been bookmarked by fans of the macabre for a while now, so it seemed high time that Pixelsurgeon had a chat with him...
 PIXELSURGEON: Your artwork seems to draw inspiration from artists as diverse as Hans Bellmer, Jan Svankmajer, the Brothers Quay, and Joel-Peter Witkin. Are there any other artists, illustrators and photographers you admire?
Sure, the amazing work of Hieronymus Bosch influenced me a lot in combination with the art of Magrite, Max Ernst, Giacometti and Alfred Stieglitz. I also have to name some contemporary artists like Dave McKean, Tim Burton, Chris Cunningham and David LaChapelle. Of course, these are just a few names that always came in mind when I am asked about this, but there are, for sure, a lot more artists who have left a track on my creative activity over the years from painters and illustrators to directors and photographers.
There is a dark, Gothic streak in your artwork that seems to be part of a rich European tradition; do you feel part of this praxis?
 I'm not sure if I can say that: like I have already mentioned, an immense impact on my creative being was the work of Bosch, but I don't think about a specific movements or traditions when I have an idea and I decide to realise it, I just follow my vision without thinking about those things. My work depends only from the way I see the image with my inner eye and the feelings I have at the time I work on a piece, thats all.
Do you have a morbid disposition?
Oh, not at all: on the contrary, I am quite a happy and funny guy! It's a mystery to me how that that dark part of me came out in my work. The people around me—my family and my friends—always wonder where all that came out. I don't even try to find an answer why it happens, or how it came to be, I take it as it is, as a part of me and I can live quite happily with it.
Do you have a collection of bones to photograph and scan for your artwork?
Of course, and not just bones. I collect all kinds of stuff: bones, feathers, decoration trees, wood pieces, paper from the street, puppets from the flea market, crosses, snail shells, bugs, butterflies, old toys. I also made my own stuff if I need, like sculptures using wire, wood or clay. I have a collection of stuffed birds and wings and so on. Everything that could be useful in some way or other in my work finds its way in my collection.
What got you interested in design and illustration?
I was always a visual type of guy and was interested in the arts so I went to Art School to learn about it and from then I started to draw and paint. It was in the late 90s when I discovered the Internet and from that moment on everything started to move in the digital direction. I started to work more and more with Photoshop, then came HTML, Illustrator, Flash and all the cool stuff and I started to become really interested in graphic design and illustration. It has been a continuous development, and this year it has reached a kind of milestone with me getting my Diploma in Creative Media Design from SAE College in Vienna.
Have you had a good response to your Photoshop tutorials for Raster, PSD Magazine and your own site?
 Yes, I am really happy that I decided to write those tutorials. The mail I get are a good reward for all the work and they give me the motivation I need to go further with it. I have already written a new tutorial for an issue of PSD Magazine, and another tutorial, for the following issue, is in works.
How do you see your artwork developing in the future?
I can't say how my work will evolve, but i am sure it will. One thing for certain is that in the future I will use a lot more 3D in my work, and I also plan to realise some animation ideas I have. But the future is an unknown terrain and that's good, so who knows what surprises it hides!
How do you think using 3D will change or liberate your artwork?
I don't think that it will be a major change, it will just add a new dimension to my work. It will open new methods of expression, new ways of working and create new perspectives. I just feel that it's time to go this way and I hope it will also help me get more work and make it more competitive.
Your commercial work is looks nothing like your personal work: are people surprised by the difference? Do you see any threads that link the two?
From time to time I get mail from people who can't believe that the work on theodoru.com is mine, but the biggest response I get from the work is totally normal, most people see it as it is: as creative work that has to be done in that style.
When you have an idea, a subject or a brief and you want to create an image based on that, you will choose the mood, look, tools and a way of working that gives the best results in order to create the image the way it should be. Creativity is not a one way road, and if I can't do something following a certain path, I just choose another. There is no need for a link between the two because it is the same work, the same person who made it, the same creative process and the result is always the same. It just looks different because of the initial idea or its individual requirements. The decision to split my work on two sites was an aesthetic one, and also to have a better control about reaching more people, who may have differing interests.
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