Features
Work
News
Nicer Tuesdays
Shop

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube

Advertising
Animation
Architecture
Art

Fashion
Film
Furniture Design
Graphic Design

Illustration
Interactive
Miscellaneous
Photography

Product Design
Publication
Sculpture
Set Design

It’s Nice That

About
Contact
Submit
Advertising Opportunities
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy

Network

Printed Pages Magazine
Here London Symposium
Nicer Tuesdays Event
Company of Parrots Shop
If You Could Jobsboard
Lecture in Progress
Anyways Creative Agency

All Sections

Features
Work
News
Opinion
Watch
Publications
Events
Partnerships

Regulars

Things
Bookshelf
Diary
Friday Mixtape
Monthly Brief
The Graduates
Review of the Year
Ones to Watch
The It’s Nice That Podcast

Editorial Staff

Bryony Stone
Josh Baines
Jenny Brewer
Lucy Bourton
Ruby Boddington
Jyni Ong

Social Media

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Pinterest
Tumblr
Soundcloud
Newsletter
RSS

Championing creativity

Advertising • Animation • Art • Graphic Design • Illustration • Photography •

View all categories

Work / Exhibition

Semblance

Words by Alex Bec, Friday 18 September 2009

This week HelloVon has made the long trip across the pond to open his new show in LA. Unveiling “Wispy, luminous, and waif-like portraits” that the man himself has become so renowned and respected for. The private view is tomorrow night (Saturday to avoid time zone confusions) and it’s safe to say that the west coast is in for a treat

www.semblance.hellovon.com
www.cerasoligallery.com

Most Recent

“Fear and desire for connection and the blocks to it”: artist Martine Syms on her exhibition Grand Calme 20 September 2018
Iggy Ldn captures beauty, power and pain in his short film, Velvet 20 September 2018
Art Bank Taiwan joins London Design Biennale this week, exploring cultural identity through political and social commentary 20 September 2018
Tiziana Jill Beck explores the identity of anonymous travellers through masks 20 September 2018
The new issue of Indoek brings America's oldest city to life 20 September 2018
Master of plasticine Kate Isobel Scott is back with a new animation 20 September 2018

More like this:

Sponsored / Exhibition Art Bank Taiwan joins London Design Biennale this week, exploring cultural identity through political and social commentary

Art Bank Taiwan will join the London Design Biennale for its final week this week at Somerset House. The exhibition will interpret the Biennial theme “Emotional States” in an exhibition titled Invisible Calls. The work will showcase contemporary work by acclaimed artists Cheng-Chang Wu and Che-Yu Hsu who both explore Taiwanese cultural identity through social and political commentary through an ‘invisible call’ to action.

Kieran Yates — 20 September 2018
Work / Exhibition New Good Press show Permission Slip is a masterclass in archiving and translating everyday chaos

Permission Slip, the latest show at Glasgow’s Good Press, is an exhibition of works by Landfill Editions’ Hugh Frost and artist Sean Roy Parker; who describes the show as being about “the debris of art-making, the capturing of waste thoughts or materials, and how they can become the scaffolding for one’s practice”.

Billie Muraben — 14 September 2018
Work / Exhibition V&A curator Marie Foulston wants us to look at video games through the lens of design

For too long now, Marie Foulston says, we’ve been thinking about video games the wrong way. “It isn’t,” she says to It’s Nice That over the phone a few weeks before the opening of the major new show she’s curated for the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), “a case of asking if video games are art. We don’t need to ask if all games are the Mona Lisa. We need to change that question. We need to ask, ‘are games craft,’ and we need to do that through the lens of design.”

Josh Baines — 05 September 2018
Work / Exhibition Typographic legend Ed Fella’s exhibition in Portland merges art and graphic design

Edward Fella’s whimsical and extremely detailed typography has had an important influence on contemporary graphic design. His signature deconstructive style, featuring colourful hand-drawn font, broke every rule in the hand-book. Fun, mad and eclectic, it is no wonder that It’s Nice That love him.

Emma Latham Phillips — 26 July 2018
Work / Exhibition Beci Orpin and Carla McRae’s exhibition, Out of Bounds, explores the notion of play

Beci Orpin and Carla McRae have collaborated on an exhibition at Boom Gallery that explores the notion of “play”. Play is an essential part of childhood — that “time spent without purpose in exploration, losing track of the hours”. However, as we get older expectation entails that we grow out of it. For their joint exhibition, Beci and Carla look to explore “the way that these spaces can be cultivated as adults and how we can tap back into those headspaces. Because they’re still there”, they tell It’s Nice That, “they’ve just shifted forms”.

Emma Latham Phillips — 11 July 2018
Media Partnership / Graphic Design Hope to Nope: exploring the "pivotal" past decade of graphic design and politics

Contrary to its distinctly present-day focus, the Design Museum’s latest exhibition, Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18, started off as a historical retrospective. Curator Margaret Cubbage and designer of the show, GraphicDesign&’s Lucienne Roberts, discussed beginning in the 50s and 60s, but then Brexit happened. Then Trump. And what was immediately evident was the seismic creative response to global crises. “We suddenly felt there was an urgency to respond to this,” Margaret tells It’s Nice That. “How pivotal graphic design had become to political movements, and how diverse and rich and democratic it was.”

It's Nice That — 27 March 2018

Features / Art “Fear and desire for connection and the blocks to it”: artist Martine Syms on her exhibition Grand Calme

“Where do I begin?” laughs American artist Martine Syms down a transatlantic phone line. She’s currently in New York, working on an upcoming exhibition, but we’re connected to talk about her latest solo show Grand Calme which recently opened at London gallery Sadie Coles HQ.

Bryony Stone — 20 September 2018
Work / Film Iggy Ldn captures beauty, power and pain in his short film, Velvet

How do you tell a story about knife crime without falling into tropes that demonise young people? It’s a challenge in the current social context, where the image of knife crime hinges on one-dimensional caricatures of young black men. See a news report about tragedy and you might hear the name “gang”, young men in hoodies, or worse, a moral panic about music like “UK Drill” at the heart of all violence in London. So what about the real stories? It’s a challenge that filmmaker Iggy Ldn has taken, to show the beauty of life beyond reductive headlines. His exquisite short film Velvet encompasses all the beauty and joy of life in abundance. The short takes us through a liberated, urgent, dance, showing hypnotising and powerful rising forms as Michael Junior Onafowokan body’s moves in times with music provided by Father and Kwabs. Iggy’s previous work is testament to taking a breath and reimagining visions of blackness — his stand out short film Black Boys Don’t Cry was a critically acclaimed look at the delicacy of black masculinity.

Kieran Yates — 20 September 2018
Sponsored / Exhibition Art Bank Taiwan joins London Design Biennale this week, exploring cultural identity through political and social commentary

Art Bank Taiwan will join the London Design Biennale for its final week this week at Somerset House. The exhibition will interpret the Biennial theme “Emotional States” in an exhibition titled Invisible Calls. The work will showcase contemporary work by acclaimed artists Cheng-Chang Wu and Che-Yu Hsu who both explore Taiwanese cultural identity through social and political commentary through an ‘invisible call’ to action.

Kieran Yates — 20 September 2018
Work / Illustration Tiziana Jill Beck explores the identity of anonymous travellers through masks

Paris-based artist, Tiziana Jill Beck is fascinated by the role masks play in society. Her practice blends contemporary concerns with the kind of energy that emanated from the kind of drawings that sat on the wall of prehistoric caves, only to be found millenia on. Tiziana’s work draws from daily observations as well as folk art, art history and literature which she transforms intuitively into new compositions to bring about unexpected surprises and new meanings.

Jyni Ong — 20 September 2018
Work / Publication The new issue of Indoek brings America's oldest city to life

St. Augustine is America’s oldest city. Tucked away on the northeastern tip of Florida, St. Augustine is more specifically the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a Spanish conquistador, willed it into being back in 1565. 452 years on, and surf-mad publication Indoek have celebrated all that’s good about St. Augustine with the second issue of its city-specific magazine. We now want to go to St. Augustine.

Josh Baines — 20 September 2018
Work / Animation Master of plasticine Kate Isobel Scott is back with a new animation

Anyone who has watched a stop-motion animation by Kate Isobel Scott will know she’s got a steady pair of hands and the utmost patience for plasticine. Her shorts are usually all made of moulded blobs of the material morphed into wide-eyed characters wibbling and wobbling through sets that also makes by hand. A process which takes time and a ridiculous attention to detail, Kate’s animated skill was recently picked up by New York-based street brand Knickerbocker to create a short focusing on a 1950s New York street scene with a skateboarder.

Lucy Bourton — 20 September 2018

Work / Graphic Design Johannes Schnatmann understands himself as an author as much as a graphic designer

For Berlin-based graphic and type designer Johannes Schnatmann, the internet is his main inspiration. Working alongside commercial projects, the designer has created his own publication Tempus Futurum which explores the idea of a utopian design process. Featuring over 20 contributions from designers, including It’s Nice That favourites Pouya Ahmadi and Jonathan Castro, each creative dissects the personal concept of Utopia following the publication’s premise that utopian design is impossible. Speaking to It’s Nice That Johannes explains how, “there should be no limit or point of restraint in a design process. Design is limitless”. For instance, “the design of a chair continues to prove that it is limitless. It’s design is still explored and reinvented. It is refused a point of utopia”.

Jyni Ong — 20 September 2018
Work / Film Filmmaker Samona Olanipekun explores innocence and loss in his love letter to the immigrant experience, Kindred

Samona Olanipekun talks to It’s Nice That about the thinking behind his short film Kindred, an eight minute dream-like journey into what it means to be a subject of a shifting cultural identity. “I really wanted to put across this idea of a collective journey. My parents moved to the UK in the 80s for education and to give us the best possible opportunity in life. For me, making this film was a way to explore what that meant”, explains Samona. The short is commissioned by the Barbican as part of their season titled The Art of Change; Samona was given the theme “Globalisation” to explore. “When I came across the brief I had already had a few ideas that revolved around the migration of people” he says. “In recent years I’ve had a huge fascination on the migration of people and the risks people take to venture into the unknown or the conditions that force people to take that risk.”

Kieran Yates — 19 September 2018
Work / Publication Beyond Heaven is a visual history of early Chicago house music

“The graphic elements — from typography to illustration, to the use of printing process with those gradients — all add up to a varied but distinctive aesthetic that visually represents this culture.” Brandon Johnson is talking about flyers. More specifically he’s talking about flyers for house nights. Even more specifically, he’s talking about the flyers that make up his wonderful new publication Beyond Heaven: Chicago House Party Flyers From 1983-1989, a 96-page collection of visual ephemera from one of the most significant periods in the history of nightlife and club culture.

Josh Baines — 19 September 2018
Work / Animation Dinner For Few is an allegorical animation depicting our society that benefits a select few

Dinner For Few is a ten minute CG-animated film depicting a sociopolitical allegory of our society. Directed by Emmy award-winning animation artist Nassos Vakalis, the animation is now available for online viewing on Vimeo. Following a narrative of a grand dinner hosted by gluttonous characters taking their fill of everything and anything in the surroundings, the film offers a nontraditional CG aesthetic using flat graphics and dark outlines as opposed to 3-dimensional realism, providing an appropriately harsh lens to the story of self-indulgence.

Jyni Ong — 19 September 2018
Work / Publication Grace Ahlbom’s publication Dreaming is Heavy Metal investigates new printing methods

Imaginative and diverse, artist-cum-photographer Grace Albohm has a self-proclaimed propensity to “romanticise the handwork, labour-intensive and traditional printing of photography,” she says. From curiously found fanzine images brought into the darkroom and made into cyanotypes, to shining a torch through pin-holes cut from cardboard, hers is a practice that opens up the oft-abandoned darkroom and turns it into a place of delightful happenings, and magic.

Laura Isabella — 19 September 2018
Work / Illustration Anna Gille’s evocative illustrations dissolve the barrier between the natural and the artificial

Berlin-based illustrator Anna Gille brings out the beauty of the natural environment through her illustration series Window (VPPB). The illustrator has been producing images of various landscapes for the past three years forming the basis of her Windows series, working from a large archive of digital photography featuring different kinds of landscapes including parks, gardens, nature reserves and zoos. She collects such photos alongside screenshots of digital simulations and computer game graphics, widening her archive to encompass a broad range of real and artificial topographic documentation.

Jyni Ong — 19 September 2018

Work / Photography Photographer Thurstan Redding’s project Castle Village portrays an optimistic and joyful view of old age

A retirement village in Berkhamsted might not be the first place you would imagine to find fashion photographer Thurstan Redding — who has shot for the likes of British Vogue, Arena Homme +, i-D, Dazed and Love — but it was here, in Castle Village, that one of his most unique projects thus far took shape.

Laura Isabella — 18 September 2018
Work / Publication Jay Cover and Brad Holdgrafer visually tackle the concept of walls through "playschool politics"

Walls, a recent children’s book made by illustrator Jay Cover and art director Brad Holdgrafer, is a literal depiction of the political situation in both the US and the UK, a metaphorical exploration of the concept of a wall, and a “playful look at the problem” for the kids it’s aimed at and the parents reading to them, too. It started as a pet project between the two, over Skype and e-mail the book, which combines a rhyming poem by Brad and Jay’s illustrations, was a cathartic exercise initially, until Princeton Architectural Press got in touch and saw its cultural and visual worth.

Lucy Bourton — 18 September 2018
Work / Graphic Design Emily Schofield’s graphic design practice balances function with irrationality and expression

London-based graphic designer Emily Schofield realised that her interests in fiction, contemporary culture, art and politics didn’t have to exist separately from her design practice. Her beautifully, crisp portfolio of work spans print, digital design and art direction demonstrating a delicate balance between creative expression and logical functionality. Speaking to It’s Nice That, Emily explains that in her creative process, “I need to be able to express something with my designs but when you become too focused on style and expression you often lose the bigger picture,” she says. “I only find meaning in my work when I see its larger role in society — whether that’s functionality, or an ability to provoke reaction, or simply to communicate a message”.

Jyni Ong — 18 September 2018
Work / Illustration Dairy drinks and cigarettes meet in Lucas Reis' illustrative evocations of Japan

When Lucas Reis was a kid growing up in Brazil, he had a Japanese friend. That friend was Lucas’ link to a country that has gone on to fascinate him ever since. The illustrator — who is also a creative at Mother — absorbed as much as he could from his playground pal. “As my taste began to develop in music, art, and design, I was always very aware of what was happening in Japan,” he tells It’s Nice That. “I tried to really understand what such a different mindset to my own could produce.”

Josh Baines — 18 September 2018
Work / Art Travis Alabanza’s radical performance practice is disrupting politeness and gratitude

London-based Travis Alabanza’s creative practice involves writing words and performing them. Their work has consistently challenged the distinguished art world from an artist residency at the Tate to starring in the acclaimed theatre show Putting words in your mouth at the Roundhouse. Travis’ unapologetically clear and poignantly, personal voice is working towards a new theatre show, Burgerz, debuting October 25 at the Hackney Showroom.

Jyni Ong — 18 September 2018
Features / Graphic Design “Go, go, go”: how DIA messed with design theory, only to improve it

Moving. This one word sums up everything New York-based design studio DIA embodies. Movement is in the neoteric, kinetic identity systems it creates and the processes it uses to construct them. Moving forward is in the ethos that drives its leaders Mitch Paone and Meg Donohoe to redefine with graphic design is. DIA is always moving and, in turn, its solidified itself as the master of typography in flux. It’s a studio which messes with design theory only to improve it, leaving the rest of us scrambling to catch up. Despite a somewhat-earnest façade, DIA is a studio built upon the interpersonal relationships it harbours, particularly between Mitch, founder and creative director, and Meg, managing partner. “We are on the same page with just about everything,” Mitch explains, “Same taste in design, art, food, architecture, vacations.” This “universal compatibility,” as he describes it, feeds through everything they do, in or outside of work, forming the basis of their collaboration. “Most importantly,” he continues, “there is a balance of our mindsets. Meg steers the ship with a long-term vision, whereas I am very much immersed in immediate creative tasks.”

Ruby Boddington — 18 September 2018

Work / Graphic Design Leonardo Pellegrino's soft and delicate graphic designs are inspired by his Italian roots

“I prefer working on projects where there is a personal connection, when I can actually relate to, and believe in, the project that I’m working on,” explains Italian graphic designer, Leonardo Pellegrino. A recent graduate of Central Saint Martins, Leonardo is currently working at Brave New World in London, developing a multidisciplinary portfolio which offers graphic design, filmmaking and art direction.

Ruby Boddington — 17 September 2018
Work / Publication Blessure magazine is an "ironic" publication that communicates through its anti-design layout

Blessure magazine, designed by France-based Chambre Charbon, is an alternative magazine drawing similarities between ten to fifteen different artists for every issue. ‘Blessure’ means ‘wound’ in French, referring to the novelist Jean Genet’s words on Giacometti. Genet admired Giacometti’s ability to capture the fundamental, raw essence of objects and people in his work, the encapsulation of a “secret wound” or “blessure secrète”. Similarly, in Blessure, the publication alludes to the sense of style and personality of each artist without text. The communication is solely through the artworks and the design.
 
The latest issue of Blessure focuses on the use of textures created by the computer, creating a new and contemporary language. There is no text, instead the images craft a unique narrative entirely subjective to each viewer. The tone of the artworks changes depending on the print layout and the other works they are interacting with. The 180-page publication features work from Brenna Murphy, core.pan, Deylan Seu, Everest, Jamie and Rickie McNeill, Marine Léauté, Marvin de Deus Ganhitas, Nicolas Sassoon, Sabrina Ratté, Ulysse C. Müller, Ville Kallio, Yannick ValGesto and Boris Détraz.
 
“I quickly made the decision to never feature the same artist twice, so that the magazine can mutate as quickly as possible”, Chambre Charbon tells It’s Nice That. Inspired by publications such as Weird magazine by Noel Freibert and Mould Map published by Landfill Editions, Blessure’s objective first and foremost is to focus on the artwork, secondly, on an anti-design aesthetic. Chambre Charbon describes the design as “pretty direct and oddly neutral”, calling itself a magazine in an “ironic” way and purposefully adding no value to the print run by choosing not to use risograph printing or spot colours.

Jyni Ong — 17 September 2018
Work / Graphic Design Play on Play on the nostalgic references that inform its forward-thinking practice

Melbourne-based studio Play on Play has carved out a reputation as the go-to for film titles with substance, finesse, and – as the name suggests – playful humour. Founders Naomi Akikusa-Dawber and Lucy Fry draw inspiration from shop windows and heavy metal album artwork; old horror novels and erotica; ghost signs and vernacular typography; as well as movies “from a time when the titles couldn’t rely on technology”.

Billie Muraben — 17 September 2018
Work / Animation Glasgow’s VAJ.Power is transforming club nights into multi-sensory experiences

Holly McGowan and Sofya Staune created VAJ.Power in Holly’s bedroom in Glasgow as a way to share each other’s knowledge of digital technology. Initially supplying visuals for events from Glasgow to Moscow, the duo now put on their own events, >Fuse, revolutionising the traditional club night into a multi-sensory, accessible event. Their creative process revolves around a process of learning, “we became very interested in why working in 3D animation, modelling and coding are so inaccessible and how to make it more open to all”, VAJ.Power tells It’s Nice That. As a result, >Fuse also hosts workshops in digital technology, investigating the relationship between music and moving image.

Jyni Ong — 17 September 2018
Work / Digital Studio Hyte's identity for iiii Magazine examines the characteristics of type, code and interaction on the web

“Combining a self-aware sense of humour, with a love of expansive cultural ephemera,” iiii Magazine is an independent arts and culture publication, based in London and Manchester. Started by Jordan Harrison-Twist and Chris Samuel, its content sets no limit on matter or form and it publishes a range of content from incisive criticism, personal essays, humour pieces and “odes to oddities” – all connected by a passion for language.

Ruby Boddington — 14 September 2018
Work / Animation New animation Leather “marries the loose and scribbly with the technical and obsessive”

From stacks of drawings of cut, falling hair; plant roots and wilting flowers; built up and sliced through black masses; and a flailing puppet who comes to a sticky end, Leather, is an animation by London-based artist Chris Smith. A video accompanies the track from post-punk band Sauna Youth’s 2015 album, Distractions, Leather took years of drawing, testing and animating, and has been released with Deaths, the final part of their trilogy of LPs. “It grew from a very rough three-second version of the haircut sequence” Chris says. “I developed the character of the scissors and the theme of cutting as a destructive act. The scissors are a malevolent and disruptive presence, although you could say that they create as well as destroy, but it’s not a happy ending for the puppet.”

Billie Muraben — 14 September 2018

Regulars / Friday Mixtape Friday Mixtape: The Honey Hahs' mix of songs to get ready to, or if you're just feeling dancey

Last Friday South-London based band, The Honey Hahs released their first record Dear Someone, Happy Something. It’s a very sweet record, gentle, happy and joyful and is the result of Sylvie (11), Robin (12) and Rowan’s (16) joint and solo songwriting.

Lucy Bourton — 14 September 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Luke Evans' honest and emotive talk on the journey his practice has followed

At Nicer Tuesdays August we had the absolute honour of revealing a new project by photographer Luke Evans. A firm long-time favourite of ours Luke took to the stage at Oval Space to introduce his work to those who may not of known him, but they definitely love him now.

It's Nice That — 14 September 2018
Work / Graphic Design Swedish design studio Amanda & Erik avoid the tropes of minimalist, Scandinavian design in their practice

Swedish-based duo Amanda Berglund and Erik Kirtley have been collaborating for almost a decade on their graphic design and illustration practices. Currently, the studio is working on a variety of projects including a community-based project designing vinyl wrap design for a mini-van, this will function as a mobile youth centre in a nearby rural municipality. Amanda & Erik spoke to It’s Nice That about their vibrant design practice, discussing two, recent print-based projects that showcase the studio’s intellect and innovation.

Jyni Ong — 14 September 2018
Work / Exhibition New Good Press show Permission Slip is a masterclass in archiving and translating everyday chaos

Permission Slip, the latest show at Glasgow’s Good Press, is an exhibition of works by Landfill Editions’ Hugh Frost and artist Sean Roy Parker; who describes the show as being about “the debris of art-making, the capturing of waste thoughts or materials, and how they can become the scaffolding for one’s practice”.

Billie Muraben — 14 September 2018
Work / Art “A space with no rules”: stylist Ibrahim Kamara on his latest collaboration with Kristin-Lee Moolman and Gareth Wrighton

Before Buffalo, fashion stylists were considered dressers, not artists in their own right. Enter Ray Petri, and the ‘80s youth culture movement he spearheaded together with photographer Jamie Morgan. Together, with the help of a tribe which included Mitzi Lorenz, the Kamen brothers, Mark Lebon, Cameron McVey, the duo blended together art, fashion, photography and music, shaking up London’s subcultural scene from grassroots to high fashion and elevating styling into an art form. Pairing kilts with MA-1 flight jackets and Armani suits with Dr Martens, stylist Ray Petri created genre-defying looks that still possess a punk sensibility over 30 years on.

Bryony Stone — 13 September 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Charlotte Mei talks through the processes that inform her multidisciplinary practice

Charlotte Mei is an illustrator and artist known for wearing various creative hats. Some fans adore her ceramics or attend her classes; brand art directors commission her illustrations; and a variety of international mags are often filled with original Mei’s. Her working process is one that varies in terms of application and point of view, and she took the Nicer Tuesdays audience through how she gets it done at the August event.

It's Nice That — 13 September 2018

Keep up to date with It’s Nice That — Sign up for our daily newsletter and follow us on social media

Daily Round-Up
Weekly Top-Ten
Nicer Tuesdays
Printed Pages & Shop
Here

Please select the newsletter categories you'd like to recieve

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Pinterest
Tumblr
Soundcloud

21 Downham Road,
London, N1 5AA, UK

@itsnicethat
+44 (0)20 7739 5222

Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy

We use cookies on this website to analyse your use of our products and services, provide content from third parties and assist with our marketing efforts. Learn more about our use of cookies and available controls: cookie policy.

Please be aware that your experience may be disrupted until you accept cookies.

I accept It's Nice That's use of cookies