Hasta La Ideas

This year Liverpool John Moores’ Graphic Arts graduates shunned the traditional gallery space in favour of a bar – London’s Social, just off Oxford Street. Here wall space was unavailable, so work was projected in a slideshow onto a screen. The course is multidisciplinary, and output falls broadly into the categories of graphic design and illustration. Here are some of the highlights:

Thomas Fowler‘s intricate pencil drawings showed an impressive balance between spontaneity and control.

Risograph printing (see CR Oct 2012) was very popular with the students this year. The catalogue (for which this was the launch) was printed Riso, as well as several of the projects. I particularly liked this two colour poster for Ping Pong Party II, by Rachel Davey.

This two colour Riso publication by Adam Ward appears to be inspired by Neville Brody’s early magazine work. It’s a bold response to the theme of Buddhism, using a self-generated typeface derived from circles in a nod to the symbolism of Zen.

Elsewhere Mark Frances displayed a canny eye for a striking poster with this beautiful series of modernist inspired tributes to europe’s footballing greats. Note the subtle allusion to the famous Cruyff Turn

There was more modernism on display in the work of Sam Howard. Especially notable were his posters for a lecture by Ken Garland, a long-time associate of the college who was also at the Private View.

Another style much in evidence was that of skate graphics, particularly the Robert Crumb influenced variety that seems popular in the north west at the moment (see our CR Liverpool special issue, Dec 2011). A memorable example of this approach is provided here by Rueben Barr, in a poster for James Randi’s Educational Foundation.

On a similar note, this poster for legendary Liverpool skate shop Lost Art by Aaron Givens was fun. You can never go far wrong with a giant robot in my opinion.

Overall, this was a strong year with a good variety of work. I expect to hear more from some of these names in the very near future.

See more at notjustaprettyface2013.co.uk

Paul Pensom is CR’s art director and a graduate of Liverpool John Moores University

Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.

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