In his Lynda.com interviews, Rick Morris repeatedly mentions the connection between the graphic, the physical, and the architectural. These three elements represent his design aesthetic, very shape and form-driven. His current project is very representative of this approach, focusing on the human and the graphic. The forms he plays with are not just the human body, but the things we create (buildings) and the graphic element ties the two together. Morris says he is inspired by the idea of flow, and often listens to music while working because he will be intrigued by a certain passage of music and can set it to loop and use that to inspire flow in his work. The piece he shows is very much centered on this idea of flow; it moves even though it is a still (though it will become a motion graphic) through the changing of shapes from linear to organic and back to linear.
This flow even drives the development of his pieces. Morris says that the different parts of a piece give it direction: what works, what the music behind the piece will be. It’s like he’s describing a living organism, rather than an inanimate object of his creation. Flow gives his work not only motion, but life. Finding this connection between life and human-ness to the graphic, architectural world of design is what makes design worthwhile, and it is clearly what motivates Morris.