Hasta La Ideas

Nic Hughes was a designer, writer and educator who died of cancer in October, aged just 44. As well as fighting the disease, Nic’s last few months were also spent battling insurance company Friends Life which has refused to pay out on his critical illness policy leaving his family in great difficulty

Thanks to the actions of his friends and family, Nic’s case has been picked up on by the wider media, with supportive stories in the national press and on Channel Four News. A petition on Change.org asking Friends Life to pay out has now attracted nearly 58,000 signatures (details here).

As well as highlighting Nic’s case, we’d like to remember his work. Steve Collins, a friend of Hughes, has put together some examples of his work on a Flickr collection here. Steve has given us permission to reproduce the images in this piece.

In common with a great many designers of his age, Hughes created a lot of club flyers in his early career, especially for the London club Abundant, for whom he also produced a zine (below)

Logo for Grace church, with rejected work for dbass records above. 1996

Vaux flyer 1999

Vaux flyer, 1999

Projection for Vaux, 2002

In the late 90s, Hughes moved to the in-house design studio at Getty Images under the creative direction of Chris Ashworth. Among other projects, he worked on the book Soon, a visually-led investigation into the future of brands edited by former CR editor and publisher Lewis Blackwell.

Hughes also worked at Spin and at Saturday, after which he studied for an in MA Critical Practice at Goldsmiths which led to a teaching position at LCC. In 2011 he left LCC to join Andy Campbell at Norwich University College of the Arts, teaching on the Graphic Communication course. He also wrote frequently and intelligently on design via his Haunted Geographies blog.

Nic Hughes photographed in 2005.

Everyone at CR would like to pass on our condolences to Nic’s family and wish them all the best in their fight with Friends Life. To sign the petition, go here