Nicer Tuesdays: A look back at our look back at the creative highlights of 2013

Date
18 December 2013

Last night we hosted our last Nicer Tuesdays of the year and took the chance to look back at some of our favourite projects of 2013. In the excellent surroundings of Mother London we heard from four creatives whose work dazzled and delighted us these past 12 months.

First up Alec Dudson, founder and editor-in-chief of the much talked-about Intern magazine shared with us his journey from disgruntled barman to exciting young publisher. Through his own internship placements he formulated a plan for a magazine that would champion this sector of the creative industry and add a new voice into this increasingly fractious debate. He spoke about the frustrations of minutiae (particularly around the foil block cover of issue one) and the immense satisfaction of seeing young talent he and his team championed picked up by the biggest newspaper in Spain.

Next up was Alex Chinneck, the artist with a taste for weird and wonderful public artworks. He feels his sculptures have a “responsibility” to be accessible and spoke in depth about how he made the facade of a house seemingly slide off. As well as sharing some of the behind-the-scenes technical challenges he faced, Alex also spoke honestly about putting together a “package of partners” to help make it happen, a sobering reminder of the realities of the art world circa 2013. “I asked them if I could have a house I could rip the front off, and I made it very difficult for them to say no…”

After the break we were joined by Amy West, a recent graduate whose final project saw her set up a fake studio to lampoon the online world’s fixation with style over substance. With charm and honesty she explained how initial plans to build a turd polishing machine moved onto an obsession with online trend generators that reduced visual communication to its lowest common denominator. At her degree show she was approached by a man who asked if she could make a website for him. “I laughed and explained what the project was,” she told us. “He laughed too, and said, ‘But can you make a website for me?’”

Our final speaker of the night was the inimitable French illustrator Jean Jullien. He uses his personal work to “create a discussion he could not have in the commercial space” but denied that his brilliant show Allo? was a “a deep critique of social behaviour.” Rather they are everyday observations he makes with humour simply to raise certain questions; as he admits “I am as bad as everyone else. I take photos of my food and reply to texts when I am in bed with my girlfriend.”

Thanks to all our speakers who have joined us across the year and everyone who has supported our events programme. Nicer Tuesdays will be back in 2014.

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The crowd gear up for the evening’s talks (Photo by GT)

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Intern magazine’s Alec Dudson during his talk (Photo by GT)

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The crowd look through the festive pop-up shop during the break (Photo by GT)

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Amy West talks us through her Grafik BS fake studio (Photo by GT)

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Jean Jullien rounds off the evening in style (Photo by GT)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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