He (Rankin) switched to a BA in photography. Typically, he skipped his final degree, "because I thought I was better and more capable than anyone who was ostensibly teaching me". By then, he'd met Hack, and the two worked on the London College of Printing's student magazine before starting Dazed & Confused with a loan from Rankin's father.
They lived hand-to-mouth for the first 10 years. When the big-time commissions started flowing in, "something happened to me that happens to 90 per cent of people in that position; I believed in my own hype and went out and did drugs and became a wanker."