Lauren Doughty: Paintings

Illustration: Colour! Fun! Waterparks! Meet illustrator Lauren Doughty

Posted by Liv Siddall, Wednesday 04 September 2013

Another fantastic illustrator fresh out of the doors of Camberwell University and out into the rabid dog bed that is south east London. Embarking on a lifetime of freelancing doesn’t seem to be getting Lauren down, probably because she knows she’s so good that it’s gonna be a total breeze. Her illustrations are whimsical, pastel treasures that narrate sunny afternoons, abstract objects with satisfying sweeps of paint and new-abstract-esque dots and zig zags. Someone that can make a simple picture of a man looking out of a window cheer you up completely probably has some sort of white magic in her fingers, and she’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

Lauren Doughty: Paintings

Lauren Doughty: Paintings

Lauren Doughty:

Lauren Doughty: Man from the South

Lauren Doughty: Orange Game for Anorak Magazine

Lauren Doughty: Tornadogenesis

Lauren Doughty: Internet

Lauren Doughty: Sketchbook

Lauren Doughty: Paintings

Posted by Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and is now one of our editors. She oversees itsnicethat.com and has a particular interest in illustration, photography and music videos. She is also a regular guest and sometime host on our Studio Audience podcast.

ls@itsnicethat.com • @LivSiddall •

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Photography
Arthur Drooker's photographs of an American mermaid convention, Merfest

Liv Siddall • 22 January 2015

Cool Hunting used to be a place of current art and design, expensive watches, exclusive booze bottles, leather mountaineering accessories and cars you will never be able to afford. Nowadays it’s a place of exotic content nestled snugly in a brand new redesign that’s pretty ahead of the game. Recently it’s been championing the work of an American photographer called Arthur Drooker, largely focusing on his series entitled Conventional Wisdom. Arthur is something of a curiosity-lover, and his wild, weird series are the visual result of him being unable to resist the pull of “Bronies,” ventriloquists, clowns, re-enactors and taxidermists.
Graphic Design
Wonderful head shots of hand models in M.G.T-designed book

Emily Gosling • 14 January 2015

From the dainty digits that show off wedding rings to the Marigold-clad hands that demonstrate the power of toilet cleaners to the precious paws that poke at futuristic gadgets, it’s easy to forget that the hands that advertise are attached to bodies and heads we seldom see.
Graphic Design
More sublime graphic design work from Comet Substance

Billie Muraben • 22 January 2015

We’re big fans of Comet Substance, graphic designer Ronny Hunger’s poster-producing alter-ego. Since we last featured him back at the tail end of 2013 Ronny has shifted from the Xerox collage aesthetic to slicker lines and high production values, without losing any of the depth or attention to idiosyncratic details of his earlier work.
Web
Wesley Verhoeve's portraits of lesser-known American creative cities

Rob Alderson • 23 January 2015

I don’t mean to show off, but I’ve met quite a few Americans, and I often ask them about the creative scene in the USA. More specifically I’m interested in whether it’s possible to elucidate any recurring themes or general characteristics in such a huge, diverse country. Most of them, bluntly but politely, say that no, no it’s not. What a ridiculous question. Get out my car. So to study American creativity is actually to study its individual outposts, and that’s where Wesley Verhoeve’s One Of Many project comes in.
It's Nice That x Squarespace
Our third online portfolio advice guide looks at copywriting for creatives

Sponsored Article • 21 January 2015

All this month we’re partnering with popular website-building tool Squarespace to look at creative portfolio sites and sharing some hints and tips about how to make the most of your online presence. The first two articles dealt with the basics, and explored documenting your work, and this week we’re turning our attention to copywriting.

Film
Petra Collins turns to filmmaking with this dreamy portrait of life in LA

Maisie Skidmore • 29 January 2015

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Graphic Design
Logo book author Michael Evamy on what makes great logo design

Emily Gosling • 29 January 2015

If Pentagram’s Micheal Bierut reckons a book can “make better designers of all of us,” its likely to be a pretty useful tome. The designer was heaping praise on Logo: The Reference Guide to Symbols and Logotypes by Michael Evamy, which is just about to launch its new mini edition with publisher Laurence King.
Photography
Jake Singer went on holiday and all we got was this sassy lookbook

Billie Muraben • 29 January 2015

Jake Singer is an artist predominantly interested in architecture and how people interact with built space. Just on the side of this practice, he’s also knocking out some great fashion photography. Describing this work as “just really fun and casual,” and mostly projects he does with friends, Jake’s photographs combine high production values with wit that plays up the “blue steel” tradition so prevalent in collection lookbooks.
Graphic Design
Fons Hickmann m23 create some seriously striking work for Greenpeace

Maisie Skidmore • 29 January 2015

A couple of weeks back we had Fons Hickmann, founder of the eponymous design studio Fons Hickmann m23 in Berlin, talk us through his favourite publications, so that we could get a bit of an insight into his taste, influences and inspirations. In the process, we found out that the studio has recently begin working on Germany’s Greenpeace Media. “For Greenpeace Media we design magazines, posters and even packing tape,” the studio’s website explains. “Working with political and social topics has always been important and close to the heart of m23.”
Animation
Chopping chickens and boolin' with slimes in Ruffmercy's new video

James Cartwright • 29 January 2015

The past twelve months have been busy for Bristolian animator Ruffmercy as he’s knocked out video after video for the likes of Lily Allen, Run The Jewels, Danny Brown and Wiley, enticing them with his unique concoction of live action and hand-drawn animation. The latest addition to his stable of excellent videos is for Young Thug track Old English which sees him dispense with the live action altogether, going hell-for-leather on the animation in a disorientingly fast-paced spot. It’s a lyric video but not as we know it, with scraps of slang flying up on screen in a brightly-coloured, childlike scrawl. And while I don’t actually have a clue what “slimes,” “boolin’” or “Mollies” are, I get the impression – and you will too – that the subject of the song is drug-related. Chop that chicken down!
Opinion
Rob Bye explains why it's (sometimes) ok for interns to do crap jobs

It's Nice That • 29 January 2015

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Illustration
Proper weird illustration from the sensationally strange Penelope Gazin

James Cartwright • 29 January 2015

Weird is a word that’s applied lazily to anything that’s even vaguely out of the ordinary. You start chatting to a stranger on the bus: “Weird!” You have a dream where you’re in your house, and it doesn’t look anything like your house, but all your family live there and you have your own room so it must be your house: “Weird!” You take a new route on the walk home from work for no particular reason at all: “Weird!” None of these things are weird you damn fools. Weird is MUCH more exciting than that.
Photography
Lark Foord’s witty photographs bring suburban vehicles to life

Billie Muraben • 29 January 2015

Lark Foord photographs details, whether they be the back ends of rusty old bangers, suburban hedgerows or the textures of buildings and street furniture. His project Parts is like a visual record of the glory days of the automobile industry. There are station-wagons, hand-painted hoods depicting beach scenes and love-worn racing numbers, matte gold paint and a general air of the 70s.
Illustration
Spectacularly strange collaged comics by enigmatic illustrator Samplerman

Maisie Skidmore • 29 January 2015

Yvan Guillo is not an illustrator who is about to be held back by traditional practices. One day while he was sampling the tonal background of vintage comics to create a more retro feel in his own panels, he accidentally selected an area with a character in it, and his crazy new mash-up technique was born. He has continued creating works using these techniques under the pseudonym Samplerman, posting them on a Tumblr of the same name to create an extensive series. Even better, he created the word “procrastinatic” to describe such an activity. Making up formats and adjectives? Who is this enigmatic creator?
Photography
Baker & Evans photograph abstracted sleeves for great new COS campaign

Billie Muraben • 28 January 2015

We’ve been big fans of photographic duo Baker & Evans since their inaugural collaborations in 2011. There were zines with encouraging quotes surrounded by men dressed in foliage, celebrations of wet-look hair gel and more recently, photographs of Lernert & Sander’s mayonnaise dumbbells. You’d think after that run they’d have to retire, but Baker & Evans just keep pulling great work out of their seemingly bottomless bags.
Graphic Design
Frankfurt studio Arndt Benedikt and its joyous poster designs

Maisie Skidmore • 28 January 2015

Scrolling through Frankfurt-based design agency Arndt Benedikt’s website, I get the impression that somebody in the studio is sneaking off every half an hour to immortalise some of the fantastic design work they’re creating in poster form. Or maybe managing partners Felix Gross and Falko Ohlmer are just really into posters – in which case, hurrah! Alongside remarkably advanced work like this campaign for Greenpeace, and some mature corporate design work they make these: bright, dynamic and joyous posters, for everything from a spell teaching at the University of Applied Sciences Mainz to an open air party in Hamburg. They’re informative and really nice to look at, which is all we need from our large-scale printed matter.

Illustration
Spectacularly strange collaged comics by enigmatic illustrator Samplerman

Maisie Skidmore • 29 January 2015

Yvan Guillo is not an illustrator who is about to be held back by traditional practices. One day while he was sampling the tonal background of vintage comics to create a more retro feel in his own panels, he accidentally selected an area with a character in it, and his crazy new mash-up technique was born. He has continued creating works using these techniques under the pseudonym Samplerman, posting them on a Tumblr of the same name to create an extensive series. Even better, he created the word “procrastinatic” to describe such an activity. Making up formats and adjectives? Who is this enigmatic creator?
Illustration
Proper weird illustration from the sensationally strange Penelope Gazin

James Cartwright • 29 January 2015

Weird is a word that’s applied lazily to anything that’s even vaguely out of the ordinary. You start chatting to a stranger on the bus: “Weird!” You have a dream where you’re in your house, and it doesn’t look anything like your house, but all your family live there and you have your own room so it must be your house: “Weird!” You take a new route on the walk home from work for no particular reason at all: “Weird!” None of these things are weird you damn fools. Weird is MUCH more exciting than that.
Illustration
More brilliant illustration from former student of the month Janne Kokkonen

Emily Gosling • 28 January 2015

We’re benevolent old things here at It’s Nice That – so much so that illustrator Janne Kokkonen reckoned that being one of our students of the month in 2013 was “one of the nicest things that had happened to me during my studies.”
Illustration
Margherita Urbani on her love of comics and collaborating with Andy Rementer

Maisie Skidmore • 26 January 2015

Being huge fans of Andy Rementer’s cheeky work we’ve seen illustrator Margherita Urbani’s name bandied around a lot over the past few years, whether in credits in Apartamento or The New York Times, but it wasn’t until last week that we thought to look up exactly what she does. Which, as it turns out, is quite a lot.
Illustration
Illustrator Matt Panuska walks us through the weird worlds of his subconsious

James Cartwright • 26 January 2015

In ancient times Matt Panuska would have been some kind of shamanistic guide, plying his wards with ayahuasca and leading them through their subconscious with a gentle hand. Unfortunately he lives in modern-day Brooklyn, where DMT-related healing is positively discouraged, so Matt makes his living drawing images that seem born from an altered mind.
Illustration
Illustrated tips on making a Furby beer can holder. Thanks Brandon Celi!

Emily Gosling • 26 January 2015

Covering beer-holding Furbys, flaxen-haired Nickelback chump Chad Kroeger and laptop Scrabble, Toronto-based illustrator Brandon Celi’s subjects are as varied as his work is brilliant. He works in paint to bring to life hilarious scenarios including a reimagining of the Wizard of Oz scene where the wicked witch is crushed by a house, but this time targeting surely the most evil (aesthetically, at least) of all footwear: Crocs.
Illustration
Lots of wisdom from Christoph Niemann's brilliant Reddit AMA

Rob Alderson • 23 January 2015

Christoph Niemann is one of our creative heroes, an illustrator and artist whose talent, imagination and sense of humour puts him smack bang in the top drawer. So imagine our excitement when we found out he was doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit yesterday, where he held forth on all manner of topics, from serious illustration insight to his love of butter. Here’s some of the wit and wisdom he shared…
Graphic Design
The invariably stylish work of art director and illustrator Charlotte Delarue

Maisie Skidmore • 22 January 2015

Illustrator and art director Charlotte Delarue’s varied work shows her to be an uncommonly talented illustrator, conjuring incredibly realistic portraits out of paper and pencil safe in the knowledge that she doesn’t need to do anything more to make them impressive. Her art direction is of another ilk entirely, however – she works with the likes of electro acts Chromeo, Justice and Kavinsky to draw up impactful logotypes and album artwork concepts that can be spotted from miles away, from the golden legs which reappear on almost every Chromeo album cover to Kavinsky’s mysterious blue-tinged scenes.
Illustration
Jiggling eyeballs, monsters and trousers populate Sophy Hollington's new work

Billie Muraben • 22 January 2015

Sophy Hollington has been busy making some sassy new printed matter. With fan art, band T-shirts, record sleeves and commissions from The New York Times and Japanese gallery Parades, Sophy’s detailed, lino-cut and Risograph printed work is gorgeous, varied and often rather strange.
Illustration
Brilliant New Yorker cartoonist Joe Dator talks about his life and work

Liv Siddall • 20 January 2015

Interviewing cartoonist Joe Dator is a real honour, because he’s a total hero and also a spectacular interviewee. Listen to him talk about his working life: “Everything revolves around Tuesday. The New Yorker cartoon meeting is on Tuesday, so that’s the day we all submit our new ideas to the editor…I usually work over the weekend and by Monday night I’m in full-on lockdown to get my batch of ideas ready. Wednesday is a day off. If you ever want to socialise with a New Yorker cartoonist, Wednesday is the day to do it.”
Illustration
Wonderfully loopy comic collages from Adult Swim animator Ben Mendelewicz

Billie Muraben • 20 January 2015

New York-based illustrator Ben Mendelewicz draws comics, illustrates and animates for the likes of Adult Swim, Stussy and Funny or Die. He has contributed to Mouldmap, Happiness and Weird with comic horror stories of white collar jobs with fragmented scripts of bastardised professional jargon.
Illustration
New editorial work from London-based illustrator Rob Pybus

Liv Siddall • 19 January 2015

It’s great to see Rob Pybus’ work again after a little bit of a break. Like many illustrators at the moment, Rob has been unable to resist the allure of GIFs, and has clearly been spending a lot of his time recently turning his marvellous, perspective-skewing illustrations into mini films. Rob’s also been busy working for a whole bunch of exciting new clients such as Wired, The New York Times, Jacobin and Original Source, among others.
Illustration
Meet the founders of young, independent Scottish print studio Workhorse Press

Liv Siddall • 19 January 2015

When we were up at Graphic Design Festival Scotland last year we met two nice guys called Dominic Kesterton and Orlando Lloyd who were assisting people in their design dreams by showing them how to make their own riso prints. A fantastic illustrator and designer respectively, Dominic and Orlando started up a small printing press, Workhorse Press, during their time studying in Edinburgh. We wanted to talk to them about why they’re still at it, the difficulties they face, and why Scotland’s print, design and illustration scene would be lost without them. Here they are…