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Championing creativity

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Lewis_herizondatropica_int_top — Lewis Heriz: Ondatropica (crop)

Work / Art + Music

Brilliant album sleeve designs from Lewis Heriz

Words by Emily Gosling, Wednesday 18 March 2015

Friend of the site and fab illustrator Emily Evans recently got in touch to tell us about how brilliant designer and illustrator Lewis Heriz is. And we gotta hand it to the girl, she’s right. Lewis makes colourful, inventive sleeves that pay homage to the music of yesteryear, and he’s worked with the likes of Stonesthrow, Soundway and Now Again. In the words of the other Emily, “His record cover output is crazy large and amazing!”

In his work as an illustrator, designer and art director, Lewis is credited by many as helping move imagery for “world music” away from tired old tosh and into something smart, beautiful and relevant. You can see it for yourself here digitally, but you can also have a chance to meet Lewis IRL if you happen to be in east London on 9 April. He’ll be chatting at the Cover Club event which invites the best contemporary music artwork designers to talk about their work, and all for free.

Souljazz-solidarity — Lewis Heriz: Souljazz, Solidarity

Haiti-direct — Lewis Heriz: Haiti Direct

Art + Music

This month we will be looking at the infinite, somewhat holy connection between art and music in all its different genres. Spanning an enormous amount of ways music and art come together, this feature will take a closer look at stage design, record sleeves, music videos, zines, rock star painters, band merchandise, music at fashion shows and much, much more. Now put your hands together for Art + Music.

www.acehotel.com/calendar/london/cover-club
www.lewisheriz.com

Words by Emily Gosling, Wednesday 18 March 2015

Most Recent

Artist Olivié Keck explores South African youth culture through a vibrant VR video 25 April 2018
Crossing dimensions: digital artists Wang & Söderström turn Klas Ernflo's illustrations into a 3D still life 25 April 2018
Studio Creme's 3D scanned campaign film for Heresy is inspired by "mysticism and folklore" 25 April 2018
Designer Carolien Niebling wants you to meet the meat we eat 25 April 2018
Franziska Morlok and Miriam Waszelewski's Bookshelf explores the most interesting and unique bookbinding techniques 25 April 2018
Duncan Cowles' new film explores the panicky feeling that a creative idea might not be amazing enough 25 April 2018

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Work / Art + Music The Clash's Paul Simonon on painting outdoors and sketching in museums

If you have a dig about on some Clash fanblogs, you can find illicit, well-zoomed-in fan photos of a man painting on a large canvas in various spots around London. That man in Paul Simonon, Clash bassist turned fine artist and motorbike enthusiast. Almost entirely self-taught, Paul picked up his draughtsmanship skills by spending hours at the British Museum with a pencil and sketchpad and taking canvases out and about London to capture the ever-changing city.

Liv Siddall — 17 April 2015
Work / Art + Music First Aid Kit talk band merch, album artwork and tour posters!

Some bands are happy to leave the creative direction of their gig posters and visuals up to their labels, but others, and these are often the more special of the bunch, put as much care into their visual representation as they do their music, carefully building a coherent image with every photo shoot, illustration and album sleeve. First Aid Kit is one of the latter. The Swedish sibling duo has accrued quite a roster of preferred illustrators and photographers to design their posters, channelling their one-of-a-kind amalgamation of Scandi heritage, folk symbolism and references into each one. We spoke to Johanna and Klara about the process of commissioning their posters, their favourite illustrator to work with, and keeping creative disagreements in the family.

Maisie Skidmore — 16 April 2015
Work / Art + Music Todd Terje interviews the creators of his new animated video!

What a treat this is! We have for you today a special conversation between bearded electronic wizard Todd Terje and two very talented illustrators Espen Friberg and Bendik Kaltenborn about the fantastic new music video they have been working on. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s a hilarious whirlwind of illustrations painstakingly animated together frame by frame, and something the three of them have been working on since October.

Liv Siddall — 15 April 2015
Work / Art + Music George Salisbury reveals the hidden creative secrets of The Flaming Lips!

Most of us have favourite bands; artists we love irrationally, inexplicably and would kill to get tickets for their shows. But there are very few fans out there with the commitment of George Salisbury, whose dedication to The Flaming Lips goes beyond simple fandom – it’s more like a life-long obsession. He met them age 16, harassed them into giving him a job and has been part of their entourage ever since, working on album covers, tour visuals, T-shirts, films and a whole range of weird objects that the band once produced on a whim.“I met Wayne a long, long time ago in the 1980s. He was playing a show here in Oklahoma City at a place called The Blue Note and the band was under a different name then – I think it was The Chrome Leeches," says George. "They we opening for a guy name Eugene Chadbourne who would put a pickup on a rake and play the ceiling. He was crazy! Anyway, that show they had a motorcycle on stage in an enclosed room, and they were gunning it. It sounded awesome but everyone in the crowd was getting close to passing out from the carbon monoxide fumes.”

James Cartwright — 14 April 2015
Work / Art + Music Otherworldly album artwork from designer Robert Beatty

If they’re lucky, Robert Beatty’s succulent, airbrush-like artworks can sometimes grace the covers of bands’ albums, thus making them cool, successful and lucky in love and good fortune forever. Robert’s magic touch is a unique style lifted from way back when life on earth was cooler, and from some cauldron of fluid in his brain from which he draws impressive draughtsmanship and weird ideas. Robert’s in psych band Hair Police himself, and goes by the name of Three Legged Race when performing solo. He said once in an interview on Pitchfork that he creates artwork in the same way he makes music, by letting his body and his brain begin to create something and see where it takes him.

Liv Siddall — 14 April 2015
Work / Art + Music Rob Alderson on why festival posters fill him with dread

During an elongated period of singledom, I developed a fairly acute understanding of the kind of things that are not ok to say on dates. The admission that I don’t really like music is very near the top of that list. That’s actually not quite true; I don’t actively dislike music, it’s just a cultural form that I don’t really engage with in any way, like Flemish theatre or zorbing.

Rob Alderson — 13 April 2015

Work / Digital Artist Olivié Keck explores South African youth culture through a vibrant VR video

South African artist Olivié Keck’s latest project Long Distance Caller is a patchwork of digital tales about self-doubt, love, loss, regret and infatuation. The virtual reality video explores South African youth culture in the 21st century through the lens of the artist’s vibrant and dynamic aesthetic. “I relish loud colours, juxtaposing ideas, jumbled associations and subverting expectations. I tend to use a variety of mediums to estrange people from the commonplace narratives,” Olivié tells It’s Nice That.

Daphne Milner — 25 April 2018
Partnership / Dropbox: Monthly Poster Crossing dimensions: digital artists Wang & Söderström turn Klas Ernflo's illustrations into a 3D still life

For this month’s Dropbox poster collaboration, Copenhagen/Malmö-based digital artists Wang & Söderström worked with Swedish illustrator Klas Ernflo in a cross-dimensional merge of talent. Working via the Dropbox Paper platform, Klas, Anny Wang and Tim Söderström found a way to blend their different approaches – Klas’ flat ink paintings and Wang & Söderström’s hyperreal 3D renders – in a truly unexpected way, via that most classic of artistic compositions, the still life. The poster will be given out to every Nicer Tuesdays attendee on 1 May.Given the brief to explore a loose theme of April, Anny and Tim thought of two events during the month – Easter and Siblings Day – with a unifying symbol, the egg. “We think the egg shape can really communicate these themes and fit our organic shape language,” they explained to Klas. Bouncing around ideas, they talked about “nest-like” compositions customised with patterns, bringing in a mixture of 2D and 3D abstract shapes from “both the Klas and the W&S universe,” and possibly mapping Klas’ illustrated patterns on to 3D eggs. For all these concepts, the duo shared tests, sketches, collages and swatches to show Klas how it could happen.Though the two studios work in very different ways, they found common ground in their use of shape – abstract, globular, amorphous forms that could visually tie to both their work, to make the final poster truly collaborative.

It's Nice That — 25 April 2018
Work / Animation Studio Creme's 3D scanned campaign film for Heresy is inspired by "mysticism and folklore"

We’ve seen our fair share of lookbooks and campaigns in our time. However, we’ve yet to see one that is completely fabricated in a fantasy 3D world, with models wearing the actual clothes 3D scanned and incorporated in that world. However, this is exactly what London-based Studio Creme has created for clothing brand Heresy’s S/S 2018 campaign.

Ruby Boddington — 25 April 2018
Work / Publication Designer Carolien Niebling wants you to meet the meat we eat

“About four years ago, I read that we are eating too much meat and that we are doing irreversible harm to our planet. I wanted to approach this problem in a creative and openminded way that involved the industry’s butchers rather than propose alternatives,” Dutch graphic designer Carolien Niebling tells It’s Nice That. Carolien recently completed her master’s at ÉCAL – where she now works as a teaching assistant – and specialised in food-related design. Her latest publication, The Sausage of the Future, is a vibrant and immaculately curated publication that traces the various building blocks of sausage-making and explores the moistness, flavouring, glue and preservation of different types.

Daphne Milner — 25 April 2018
Regulars / Bookshelf Franziska Morlok and Miriam Waszelewski's Bookshelf explores the most interesting and unique bookbinding techniques

This week’s Bookshelf has been hand-picked for you by Franziska Morlok and Miriam Waszelewski who, on Monday (23 April), released Bookbinding: The Complete Guide to Folding, Sewing & Binding. With 400 illustrations included within its pages, the book is an essential guide for designers (and anyone obsessed with print) explaining industrial bookbinding techniques and packed full of insights from experts.

Ruby Boddington — 25 April 2018
Work / Film Duncan Cowles' new film explores the panicky feeling that a creative idea might not be amazing enough

Following on from Duncan Cowles’ brilliant Taking Stock film at the end of last year, the director is back with a new film which again uses generic stock footage to piece together a very relatable narrative. Where Taking Stock touched a nerve with freelance creatives through Duncan’s own tale of trying to make a side hustle from selling stock footage online with little financial success, It’s Not Amazing Enough, commissioned by Ted, explores the panicky feeling of worrying your work might not quite be up to scratch.

Lucy Bourton — 25 April 2018

Work / Photography Jack Latham uses photography to explore stories untold

“I’ve always used photography as an excuse to explore things I wouldn’t normally,” documentary photographer Jack Latham tells It’s Nice That. “To date, I’ve made work exploring the remnants of the Oregon Trail, tracking down my childhood pen pal in Sierra Leone, and investigating an alleged double homicide in Iceland, in which 6 innocent people were convinced they were the ones that committed the act. The stories I’ve heard are all incredible in their own way.”

Laura Isabella — 24 April 2018
Work / Graphic Design Designer Jay Vaz combines his love of music and analogue art in a colourful and textural portfolio

For 20-year-old Londoner Jay Vaz, music and design have always been inexplicably linked. His early years, exposed to “amazing jazz and soul music” has influenced and informed his career which sees him producing music and DJing as well as creating visual matter for gigs, nights and festivals. Jay’s portfolio is packed full of exciting and vibrant work, made all the more impressive when you consider how young he is.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2018
Work / Publication Joey Yu and Wilson Oryema create a paperless zine for Earth Day

When one of It’s Nice That’s illustrator-loves Joey Yu posted about a “paperless” zine she had worked on with poet and model Wilson Oryema for Earth Day it’s fair to say we were more than a little intrigued. Joey – who has rapidly made waves in the creative-sphere as an illustrator, animator and curator through projects with the likes of Nike and pieces featured in independent publications such as Hard Ears – has been on our radar for a while now and as It’s Nice That love to actively celebrate pro-environmental causes and innovative work, a zine both paperless and with the aim of being a “gentle reminder to be gentle to our home” had us sold.

Laura Isabella — 24 April 2018
Work / Photography Lukas Wassmann turns his lens on the well-groomed animals of the Swiss Alps

The majority of upscale fashion campaigns feature the same supermodels again and again – or rather, feature Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid again and again. However, Berlin-based photographer Lukas Wassmann’s shoots do not. In Lukas’ latest series for Garage Magazine, he turns his lens on the well-groomed goats, pigs and chickens of the Swiss Alps, all of which are accessorised in the most expensive jewellery money can buy.

Daphne Milner — 24 April 2018
Work / Graphic Design Graphic designer Virgile Flores on custom typefaces and visualising statistics

Paris-based graphic designer Virgile Flores is a typeface specialist. Two of his latest text-heavy projects, the immaculate Twelve Angry Men publication and the sleek Pirelli typeface, are just the tip of his font fascination. Design, however, wasn’t always on the cards for Virgile who completed his undergraduate degree in sports studies. After realising that athletics weren’t for him, Virgile took a year out of education to reconsider his choices only to return to university to study graphic design. “I started focusing on type design last year. I felt that I needed to be better equipped at choosing typefaces for my projects. I also wanted to create my own letters and customise existing ones for logotypes. There is a real synergy between graphic and type design. It is also very satisfying to use text that has been drawn by yourself,” Virgile tells It’s Nice That.  

Daphne Milner — 24 April 2018
Work / Illustration Sam Taylor's World Cup gifs portray “the agony and the ecstasy” of the game

Illustrator Sam Taylor has created a collection of football fanatic gifs for Giphy ahead of the 2018 World Cup. Pitching the idea to Giphy himself after working with them previously, the opportunity developed when the illustrator noticed that “there weren’t really that many good football gifs in their database to put in my Instagram stories,” he tells It’s Nice That. “So I wanted to create a set a remedy this.” A green light from Giphy soon followed and now his set is available to use!

Lucy Bourton — 24 April 2018

Work / Publication Schick Toikka's beautifully designed (and printed) collaborative celebration of its fifth birthday

What better way could there be to celebrate the fifth anniversary of your the foundry than to release a beautifully designed (and printed) collaborative look back at the work you’ve created so far? In Merged Contours this is exactly what type design duo, Florian Schick and Lauri Toikka have done, with the help of nine of their favourite designers, illustrators and artists.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2018
Work / Publication In celebration of his new book 2017, Bráulio Amado picks out the work he loves from last year

“I first met Bráulio as an international exchange student in my class at the School of Visual Arts, in New York City, which I taught with John Fulbrook,” reads Pentagram’s Luke Hayman’s introduction at the start of Bráulio’s Amado’s latest book, 2017. “Bráulio was possibly one of the most enthusiastic students we taught during my seven years at the school. Certain students come with a commitment and eagerness that makes teaching worthwhile and benefits the whole class. He did well.”

Lucy Bourton — 23 April 2018
Work / Opinion Environmental Activism: Why We Need To Shake Up the Visual

Graphic designer Claire Matthews founded independent campaign group Clean Air Now alongside Vasilisa Forbes in 2016. Clean Air Now advocate for positive environmental change in London and across the UK, through billboards, subverts, videos and street art placement.

Claire Matthews — 23 April 2018
Media Partnership / Illustration Charlotte Dumortier on her identity for this year's ELCAF and what she's looking forward to most

From 22 — 24 June a global range of illustrators and comic artists will descend on London, filling The Round Chapel and The School Rooms in Hackney for the annual East London Comics and Arts Festival. 2018 marks the seventh edition of ELCAF, a weekend packed with a programme of talks, workshops, masterclasses, screenings, installations and exhibitions, as well as some of the world’s most exciting illustration focused artists selling their goods too. Tickets are now available in advance of the weekend in June and more information is available here.

Lucy Bourton — 23 April 2018
Work / Digital Google Fonts Korean becomes interactive by manipulating path data

Initially launched in 2010, Google Fonts is an online collection of fonts available for designers and web developers to embed on their websites, for free. Until very recently, the collection was unable to support Korean. However, Google has now devised a more efficient means of serving Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) font files, which have very large character sets, resulting in large file sizes.

Ruby Boddington — 23 April 2018
Work / Photography Photography series Metamorphosis reimagines iconic female characters as 21st-century women

We don’t remember reading the part that depicts the Virgin Mary as a tattooed matriarch with a nose ring and knuckle dusters? Or the painting that shows Venus to be a body-building athlete with groomed hair down her legs? These representations may not have made it into our history books, but Amsterdam and London-based photographer Lois Cohen and New York and Amsterdam-based stylist Indiana Roma Voss have given the female protagonists centerstage in their latest series Metamorphosis. Together the duo reimagine female archetypes from a range of geographical areas and cultures and place them in recognisable contexts in order to transform them into 21st century women.

Daphne Milner — 23 April 2018

Work / Publication National Geographic’s creative director Emmet Smith on the publication’s redesign

A long-established and highly respected staple of the newsstands, National Geographic, has been redesigned for its May issue. Released on 24 April, the rethink of the magazine and “the most significant overhaul of content and design since 2000,” builds upon the magazine’s successes, creating even more exploratory visual storytelling. Debuting new paper stock, design, updated sections and specially created typefaces, the redesign is revealed at a time when the publication has a particularly strong reputation and readership.

Lucy Bourton — 20 April 2018
Work / Photograhy Leon Mark’s refined and infinitely stylish photography

Leon Mark’s photographs are refined, graceful and infinitely stylish. The London-based photographer has worked with the likes Vogue Italia and Chanel, cementing his name across the fashion industry. This is partly due to Leon’s ability to capture the distinct personalities of his sitters, extracting their idiosyncrasies with his lens. “I got into photography by studying film and cinema. I’ve always been interested in fashion and art so I started to focus more on the mise en scène of cinema which pushed me towards photography. That, in turn, let me to fashion photography,” Leon tells It’s Nice That. Working mainly across Europe and the US, Leon shoots both film and digital, and is currently working on short fashion films.

Daphne Milner — 20 April 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Sophie Harris-Taylor shares anecdotes and insights from her photo series, Sisters

In her portraiture, photographer Sophie Harris-Taylor has a knack for capturing personality and dynamics in a beautifully natural way. This is exemplified in her series Sisters, which saw her shooting 80 pairs and groups of sisters over two years, and in turn depicting their unique and intimate relationships.

It's Nice That — 20 April 2018
Work / Graphic Design Designer Anatole Couteau's technical approach lets him communicate simply and precisely

For Anatole Couteau, communication always manifests itself in the simplest and most precise forms. With a portfolio spanning graphic and type design, his work is satisfyingly direct, combining monochrome elements with a variety of custom typefaces in a precise and astute manner.

Ruby Boddington — 20 April 2018
Work / Illustration A peek inside Hicham Amrani's trippy new comic Svend & Xanax

“I have been drawing since I was little. I wasn’t very attentive in class – like most creatives I know – so I would spend the time drawing in my notebooks instead. My parents ended up enrolling me in drawing classes to calm me down,” Strasbourg-based illustrator Hicham Amrani tells It’s Nice That. This instinctive creative energy Hicham describes clearly manifests itself in his busy, dynamic drawings. His latest project Svend & Xanax tells the humorous tale of Svend, the protagonist, who takes a strong Xanax only to be transported to a surreal, at times disorientating, world. Hicham even compares Svend to “the Joker in Batman” saying, “the more I drew, the darker the story became.”

Daphne Milner — 20 April 2018
Regulars / Friday Mixtape Friday Mixtape: The Orielles mix for "good times with good people"

Arguably releasing one of the most joyful records of 2018 so far, The Orielles are this week’s Friday Mixtape! Halifax-based trio Sid, Esme and Henry have made use of a mix of songs perfect for if you need a pick me up and ideal as the days are getting warmer.

Lucy Bourton — 20 April 2018

Work / Film Rod puppets in intricate felt sets profess The Need to Be Alone for Alain de Botton

Not long out of Kingston’s Illustration and Animation course, Tom Fisher and Catherine Prowse have directed a charming and impressively detailed short film for The School of Life, made entirely from hand-stitched felt. Featuring a cast of rod puppets shot in a live action format, The Need to Be Alone stars a red-spectacled, introverted protagonist called Alan – a tribute to its writer and narrator Alain de Botton. Throughout the film, Alan navigates a series of potentially awkward social scenarios as Alain professes the importance of having time alone to process these interactions.

Jenny Brewer — 20 April 2018
Work / Animation The Art of Shinkansen animated gif series celebrates the Japanese bullet train

The Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) has launched a series of 15 short gif animations by various Japanese and international artists to celebrate the bullet train or Shinkansen. The Art of Shinkansen project heralds the iconic trains’ perpetual movement, innovative technology and impeccable service, specifically the original line joining Tokyo and Osaka, in an eclectic range of animated artworks spanning illustration styles and subject matter.

Jenny Brewer — 20 April 2018
Work / Illustration Furniture obsessions and oranges with acid rainbows: new personal work from Julian Glander

Julian Glander is no stranger to It’s Nice That. We’ve written about his gifs, his 360-degree videos, and even his favourite books. Despite all this great stuff, we’re still managing to find new bits and bobs to bang on about.

Ruby Boddington — 20 April 2018
Work / Photography Jocelyn Lee's first UK solo exhibition surveys The Appearance of Things (NSFW)

Jocelyn Lee has a very certain way of looking at people. Her work is often driven by themes of “sexuality, family, death and ageing,” and in turn, there is an eeriness to her photographs that viewers just can’t help looking at.

Lucy Bourton — 19 April 2018
Work / Photography Okobo is photographer William Ukoh's mesmerising tribute to his grandparents

William Ukoh, also known as Willyverse, is a Toronto-based photographer whose style spans genres. From still lifes to fashion shoots, categorising William as a specific type of photographer would be reductive. Instead, he uses his skills as a means of self-exploration and communication. “My sincere interest in photography developed about nine years ago. I was introduced to the DSLR, decided to acquire one for myself, and began exploring all the possibilities it allowed for self-expression,” the photographer tells It’s Nice That. William is undeniably a visual thinker, his photographs seeped in mesmerising colours and satisfying textures. His series Okobo is no different and sees William look back to his Nigerian grandparents and their culture as a source of inspiration.

Daphne Milner — 19 April 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Alex Norris tells the story of his "Oh No" comics and its “badly drawn blob” star

If you’ve not seen Alex Norris’ hilariously relatable panel comics then where have you been? Readers of It’s Nice That will recognise the “badly drawn blob” character of his series Webcomic Name for his punchline “oh no”, and the inevitably disappointing situations it gets itself into. At Nicer Tuesdays, Alex took us back to the beginning of his comic work, and the ideas and inspirations that led him to where he is now.

It's Nice That — 19 April 2018

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