Deaf Harrogate artist, Luke Christian, is one of eleven artists picked to design homeware and clothing for Comic Relief.

Mr Christian was born deaf and, since setting up his fashion brand, Deaf Identity, in 2019 has been passionate about using his creative talents to break down barriers surrounding the deaf community.

He was first approached to work with Comic Relief in July 2021 and thought the email was spam and said “it didn’t feel real at the time”.

His designs will be printed and embroidered onto homeware and clothing and sold online and in store at TK Maxx.

Other artists including Gok Wan and Supermundane have been picked.

Mr Christian’s design shows the word ‘love’ in British Sign Language in a simplistic, modern, line drawing. He said:

“The charity said they wanted to work with 11 designers/artists in total that had special backgrounds to what they do and with me being deaf and raising deaf awareness, this is why they approached me.

“At first it didn’t feel real, but now that it’s sunk in I just feel extremely grateful to be able to show everyone what a positive thing being deaf really is and I want to be able to use this opportunity to empower other deaf people to run their own businesses and to not allow society to tell us ‘you can’t do this because you’re deaf’.”

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The deaf gene runs in Mr Christian’s family so his mum and sister are also deaf. He said growing up he was often told he doesn’t sound or look deaf and felt like he didn’t fully belong in a hearing or deaf world.

He said one of his biggest motivators behind his brand is to show that every individual defines their own deaf identity adding “there’s no right or wrong way to be deaf”.

He was brought up oral and went to a hearing school until year 9 before moving to a deaf boarding school. He began learning British Sign Language (BSL) three years ago to help him communicate with other deaf people. He added:

“This opportunity is helping me to share more of who I am and why breaking down barriers surrounding the deaf community is so important to me.

“We can do anything!”

A charity supporting people with disabilities is offering members of the deaf community the opportunity to work in its cafe next year.

Artizan International is a Harrogate-based charity offering art and crafts workshops for differently-abled people. It also sells crafts made by disabled artisans in Ecuador and Peru in its Oxford Street store.

In Spring 2021, the charity has plans to open a cafe offering supported internships to members of the deaf community. Those involved will be trained in barista work and general hospitality.

The hope is the training the interns receive will allow them to pursue a career in the catering industry. The long term visions is for the cafe to be completely deaf run.

Artizan International isn’t able to run its usual workshops during the pandemic.

“At Artizan as we look forward, we want to create valued opportunities for those living with disabilities in our community. The cafe would be an ideal opportunity for those in the deaf community to either train and volunteer or develop the experience further into potential careers in hospitality locally.”

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Susie Hart, the charity’s founder, opened a cafe run by the deaf community in Tanzania previously so has experience in running similar projects successfully.

The charity opened its shop three weeks before lockdown two hit but it says it has stayed “busy” with online orders and prepping new products for the shop when it is allowed to reopen next week.