Hasta La Ideas

Liverpool School of Art and Design is hosting an exhibition and charity auction in memory of John Young, a graphics tutor at LJMU who died last year after suffering from cancer.

The auction takes place at 6.30pm on Friday and those who can’t attend in person will be able to place bids over email. Auction lots have been donated by Adrian Shaughnessy, Jonathan Barnbrook, Marion Deuchars, James Jarvis, Ian Anderson and Vaughan Oliver, and include a two-colour silk screen print by Deuchars (below), an ink drawing by Jarvis (bottom) and a signed copy of David Bowie album The Next Day, which was donated by Barnbrook.

Proceeds from the event will go to Cancer Research, and each of the designers and illustrators donating lots have a personal connection to Young: Deuchars attended the same school as him, Barnbrook was one of Young’s favourite designers and Jarvis was a personal friend and examiner on the graphics and illustration course.

An exhibition of finished and unfinished pieces by Young (top and below) will also be on display at the school’s John Lennon building until October 13. Young joined LJMU in the early 1990s after studying design in Dundee and Glasgow.

“John was the course’s graphic design pathway leader for many years – he was instrumental in shaping the structure, content and ethos of the course,” says Ian Mitchell, graphic design and illustration programme leader at LJMU and a colleague of Young’s.

“John always loved a great creative idea. He liked work to say something. But most of all he wanted students’s work to look beautiful. He knew exactly how to get the best out of every student he taught. He loved studio culture and spent many hours supporting students above and beyond their day to day studies, and he fiercely championed the careers of his graduates. He took much pride in the careers of Dean Langley, who was Art Director at iD magazine and Richard Turley, now at Bloomberg NY,” he adds.

An instrumental album that Young made while travelling in Tokyo will also be launched at the auction.

Fev Pehs opens at the John Lennon Art and Design Building, 2 Duckinfield St, Liverpool L3 5RD on October 4. To find out more visit fevpehs.co.uk