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There’s a suspension of reality that always seems to take place in airports –in a situation where everything is dedicated to transience, to impermanence the normal rules don’t seem to apply. That is, I believe, why so many people will have a pint before their plane no matter what time they’re travelling. This amazing new animation by Eoin Duffy encapsulates this weird otherworld perfectly; a quietly discombobulating few minutes following a lone traveller through his journey. Very, very impressive stuff.
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Have you ever arrived in a completely new place and felt oddly like you’d been there before? Because it’s exactly that weird déjà vu that Christopher Eyles looks to toy with. Through his arduously assembled photomontages, he creates stunning tropical rainforests and jungles which, familiar though they may seem, are in fact products of his own fantastical imagination. His island paradises often come complete with secluded sky-blue pools, overhanging luscious foliage and and dreamy mountain ranges as far as the eye can see.
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As if having the redesigned Aperture magazine promoting their discipline wasn’t enough of a thrill, photographers the world over can now relax, safe in the knowledge they’re being thoroughly represented by two beautifully-designed, tastefully-curated magazines (sure there’s more, but that doesn’t fit the angle of my introduction). Now in its fifth edition, Aint-Bad magazine takes a different thematic approach for each issue and cherrypicks some of the finest young practitioners into a luxurious showcase.
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Christopher Kane showed his spring/summer 2014 collection this week at London Collections: Mens, and by golly was it good. Influenced by 3D body mapping techniques, the designer took graphic prints of faces (and, ahem, some body parts) and blew them up in vibrant neon colours across shirts, hoodies and shorts to create yet another signature to be spotted on dedicated followers of fashion the world over. As for us, we’re just going to do a print-out of one of those fancy X-ray machines at the airport and staple it to our T-shirts (not really).
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We love Nat Russell over here at It’s Nice That. If you haven’t seen it before, Nat’s body of work is made up of fantastical paintings, prints and illustrations that are pretty hilarious on the surface, but are actually infused with a really strong sense of loyalty and love that is so rare in so many people’s work. It’s fascinating to have a peek into his shelves, and to see the corrrelation between his literary habits and the work that he creates. Welcome to Nat Russell’s incredibly dedicated fan-base, you’re going to like it here.
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Photographer Mohammadreza Mirzaei has a keen eye for spontaneous imagery. The Iranian MFA student is currently studying at the University of Pennsylvania and creating the kind of dreamy nightscapes and geometrically-focused street photography that only a natural talent could conjure with their lens. When he’s not creating fine art photographs he busies himself with the promotion of other Iranian photographers (an undoubtedly under-represented demographic) through his monthly magazine, Dide, a publication that’s definitely going to have an influence over some of the photography we feature over the coming months.
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In the ongoing battle to redefine and reimagine the act and art of publishing for the 21st Century comes this project from the fine fellows over at Artomatic. CONTAINER is a thematic collection of objects produced specially by the contributors to that particular “issue.” For the first one, based around the idea of “hot and cold,” the likes of Nic Roope, James Bridle, Daniel Eatock and Accept & Proceed have created a weird and wonderful selection of treats from takeaway forks to pine wood burners. Not only are the objects themselves really special, the project challenges our notion of publications and our increasing expectations of what is becoming a luxury rather than a staple of our everyday lives.
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Amid the pantheon of brilliant characters from The Simpsons, Troy McLure has a special place in my heart. From his love of Selma to his slightly disturbing obsession with fish, his presence enlivens any episode but of course he’s best known for his ridiculous CV. Now one Christopher Coleman has collected a bunch of them together to make this supercut which is guaranteed to perk up your day. Just imagine the writers sitting around trying to come up with these!
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You know when you make a telescope out of a rolled-up phone bill and look through it to find a whole different, smaller world? Well Luke Casey’s gone and made a really terrific project out of that very idea, but instead of using a boring A4 sheet of paper, he’s utilised ships’ portholes as his frame.
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The spring issue of Printed Pages was such a blast to produce we thought hey, you know what? Let’s ruddy well do it all over again. And so like that bit in The Lion King where the monkey holds up the newborn Simba for the animal kingdom to see for the first time, we dangle the summer issue of Printed Pages over a rocky outcrop for your delectation.
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Bernardita Arís is somewhat enigmatic when it comes to tracking her down on the internet, but if anything that just makes her beautifully composed collages all the more alluring. Simple and understated and yet curiously covetable, her often deco-based pieces are oddly reminiscent of my nan’s textured wallpaper, but I still want to be friends with her and to watch her diligently cutting around all the lines for one of her cutting-and-sticking masterpieces. We can’t wait to see more of her work.
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In an enormous new digital catalogue by the Memory of the Netherlands, 150 years worth of graphic design for the Dutch Post Office Board is now on display. Designs for stamps, the stamps themselves and posters created by a huge number of designers to suit the high-profile design policy of the postal service are all included, and they make for a fascinating timeline of graphic design. From the commonplace to the obscure, you’ll find some stunning typography and illustration at your very fingertips. Design geeks, go wild!
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It’s easy when illustrating children’s books to slip into the squidgy, saccharine realm of twee. But to remain intelligent and humourous while still maintaining an aesthetic that appeals to children and adults combined is tricky. Astrid’s got this down though and her zoological illustrations are the perfect mix of fun and truly giggle-worthy. The fact there isn’t a single whiff of patronising in any of her children’s publications is also a breath of fresh air, so we’re big fans. Astrid’s also a bit of a dab hand at logo design, some of which you can see over on her site.
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This has been blowing up on social media over the weekend and it’s not hard to see why. French photographer Léo Caillard has found a super-cheeky way of playing with our perceptions of past and present with his Hipster In Stone project. By depicting classical sculptures cloaked in the immediately recognisable garb of the flat-white-swilling, rolled-up-trouser-wearing archetypes, Leo has produced a series which is not only very funny, but leads us to question just how easily swayed we might be by someone’s outward appearance. Either that or ancient Rome was quite a lot like modern Dalston. You decide!
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We’ve featured Thomas Cristiani & Antoine Roux on the site numerous times, partly because they seem to be the only artists on this planet that genuinely do have access to Bernard’s Watch. Amid making spectacularly contemporary visuals that fall like a feather between the world of art and graphic design, the powerful duo can be found getting down and dirty with some good, old fashioned graphic design. They’ve cottoned on to the fact that bright colours and nudity are what we want to see, and by throwing in their truly impressive, classical design and typographical knowledge into the mix, they’re almost indestructible. Have catalogues for art shows ever looked so mouth-wateringly good?
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With more fantastically designed invitations flying through our door than we knew what to do with recently, we decided to compile a list of our favourite degree show identities for you all to feast your eyes on. From websites chockablock with GIFs and video clips to beautifully-made catalogues, an invitation which literally jumped out of its envelope and several vacuum-packed collections of oddities (a rubber nipple, anyone?) if the invitations are anything to go by, this year’s degree shows promise a feast of fresh new creative talent for you all to get your chops around.
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You may remember a couple of years ago that brilliant illustrator (brillustrator? Anyone?) Marion Deuchars tickled us every shade of pink with her Let’s Make Great Art book which revelled in the sheer ruddy fun of the creative process. That’s what sprung to mind on receiving a copy of the Conditional Design Workbook from the team at Studio Moniker. Designers Luna Maurer, Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters worked with artist Edo Paulus to produce this super-fun hands on guide to some of the ideas that underpin the Conditional Design manifesto.
