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Championing creativity

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New Originals: introducing the London Rollergirls

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Sponsored / Miscellaneous Explore London’s diverse music scene through film, graphic design and photography sessions with Apple

To celebrate and shine a light on London’s diverse music scene, Apple are putting on a series of creative workshop sessions and special performances this June at its UK flagship store on Regent Street, London. Titled Sounds Like London the series features a schedule of curated, hands-on workshops across film, photography and graphic design.

Sponsored content — 12 June 2018
Sponsored / Miscellaneous It's Nice That's Ali Hanson on judging this year's CSM degree shows for the MullenLowe NOVA Awards

What do Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Jarvis Cocker, M.I.A and Antony Gormley have in common? Other than being internationally celebrated creatives, each of these big names was at one point a student at London’s world-renowned art, design and performance college, Central Saint Martins. With its long list of impressive alumni, it’s no surprise that the school’s annual degree shows attract a flock of art critics and culture journalists who seek to champion the school’s latest promising artists.

It's Nice That — 11 June 2018
Features / Miscellaneous A final goodbye to London's Wardour News from i-D, Dazed, Fantastic Man and many more

For any Londoner, or anyone visiting the capital, with a love of the printed page, Wardour News in Soho was the go-to spot to find the niche, interesting titles alongside the big hitters. It’s with a heavy heart that we use the word “was” as, at the end of last month, the newsagent closed its doors becoming the latest victim of rising rents in central London.

Ruby Boddington — 08 June 2018
Media Partnership / Miscellaneous "You have to hear this": Brian Shimkovitz tells us the story of Awesome Tapes From Africa

It’s Nice That returns to Field Day this year, partnering with the London-based music festival on its Moth Club stage. In the first article of our coverage of the two-day event in Brockwell Park, we tell the story of record label Awesome Tapes From Africa, whose artist Hailu Mergia will play on our partnering stage. Visit the Field Day website to get tickets for the weekend on 1–2 June.

Lucy Bourton — 08 May 2018
Work / Miscellaneous KesselsKramer scoff at the upcoming royal wedding with a series of satirical souvenirs

KesselsKramer has created a monarchy-focused farce in light of the upcoming royal wedding in May. Poking fun at the extravaganza in a medium the royals would want us to commemorate the event themselves, KesselsKramer are offering you the chance to bag alternative memorabilia in the form of plates and a football scarf.

Lucy Bourton — 11 April 2018
Regulars / Miscellaneous It's Nice That's Easter Break

We’ve got four days off! It’s the Easter Bank Holiday so we’ll be out of the studio, having a bit of rest and probably sheltering from the rain rather than walking around in the spring sunshine we’d hoped for. Even though we won’t be around to update you over the next few days, to keep you entertained we’ve chosen not only the most read articles from 2018 so far, but some of our personal favourites. From discipline-spanning long-reads to the finest graphic design, photography, illustration and animation, the team have hand-picked the articles we’re still thinking about months later for you to enjoy again.

It's Nice That — 29 March 2018

Work / Publication "A cover should mark what a magazine believes in": Riposte launch their tenth issue

For Shaz Madani, art director of Riposte Magazine, “it’s definitely the case of judge a magazine by its cover”. A cover should mark what a magazine believes in and Riposte, with their signature text and iconic portraits of women, adhere to this ideal.

Emma Latham Phillips — 22 June 2018
Work / Illustration Arabella Simpson’s colourful drawings fit together like a distorted Tetris game

Arabella Simpson’s colourful drawings fit together like a distorted Tetris game. Fascinated by “recycling, originality and copyright”, Arabella enjoys drawing immediately recognisable characters. “I want an image to communicate its meaning instantly”, she tells It’s Nice That. By using our eyes first, she feels that we then have time to “choose how we’d like to use our heads and voices”.

Emma Latham Phillips — 22 June 2018
Regulars / Friday Mixtape Friday Mixtape: the songs stuck in Jordy van den Nieuwendijk's head

Jordy van den Nieuwendijk is a name so often mentioned here at It’s Nice That that most people probably think he works here, but we just love him! And his work too, of course. Always full of life, colour and personality, we wanted to know the tracks that he’s bobbing along to while his painting and drawings are being made.

Lucy Bourton — 22 June 2018
Work / Publication Landfill Editions show us a bunch of its brilliant new illustration titles

When not publishing its brilliant magazine Mould Map, Landfill Editions are equally brilliant book publishers, working with illustration, graphic design and everything in between. With a stack of new titles for you to peruse, we caught up with the publishing house to see what has recently come back from the printers.

Lucy Bourton — 22 June 2018
Work / Art Strip clubs and bordellos: Tal R’s hypnotic paintings of sex shops from around the world

“For 10 years I tried to escape art. I thought I was no good at it. I thought it was pretentious,” Tal R admits during a phone call with It’s Nice That; “I tried to give up on art but art didn’t give up on me.” From London’s Victoria Miro gallery to Copenhagen’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Tal R’s artworks have toured the globe. Sexshop is Tal’s long-term project, which saw the painter visit strip clubs and bordellos across the world, transforming their facades into an emulsion of mesmerising shapes and rich colours.

Daphne Milner — 22 June 2018
Work / Photography Photographer Timothy Schaumburg takes us behind the scenes of plastic surgery prep

Last year, 17.5 million Americans underwent plastic surgery. The most popular procedures were breast augmentation, liposuction and nose reshaping. With lunchtime facelifts and cosmetic surgery loyalty schemes, it’s no surprise that the number of people going under the knife to “improve” their physical appearance has been steadily on the rise for some time.

Daphne Milner — 21 June 2018

Features / Illustration The Line King: A profile of Al Hirschfeld, on the prolific characterist’s 115th birthday

Sitting in an old barber’s chair, on the fourth floor studio of his townhouse on East 95th Street, New York, caricaturist Al Hirschfeld does with a quill and ink what a barber would do with scissors and a comb. Leaning over a drafting table, he first looks over his sketches; pages cluttered with frantic-looking marks. On a new piece of paper, he begins to draw. Streamlining chaos into clarity, he snips away the inessential, leaving just a few lines. The result? Marilyn Monroe. Charlie Chaplin. Ella Fitzgerald. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Orson Welles. Whoopi Goldberg. Luciano Pavarotti. Nat King Cole. Barbra Streisand. Sometimes all at once. With just a quill and some black ink, Al Hirschfeld brought to life some of entertainment’s most colourful characters. Over a career that lasted eight decades, Hirschfeld is said to have chronicled countless 20th century Broadway and Hollywood personalities for print and press. In 1956, he was the first to draw a caricature of Elvis Presley; to be “Hirschfelded” was a sign that you’d made it. His work has covered Playbill programs, film posters and advertisements, magazines like TIME and Life, newspapers (most notably The New York Times), albums for Aerosmith, and postage stamps for the US Postal Service. Almost every museum in the world has a Hirschfeld – such is the American artist’s ubiquity. He was even made the subject of his own Academy Award-nominated documentary film, ‘The Line King’. In 2003, Hirschfeld passed away, just a few months short of his 100th birthday. He worked for the likes of The New York Times right up until the day of his death. But he left an unparalleled legacy; an ineradicable mark on American theatre history, illustration and cartooning. So today, on what would have been Hirschfeld’s 115th birthday, we look back at the life and work of the affectionately dubbed, ‘Line King.’

Marianne Hanoun — 21 June 2018
Work / Publication Ditto publish 100 Club Stories in celebration of the iconic London venue

The 100 Club, tucked away in a doorway nestled between the high street shops on Oxford Street, London, is a venue in which many have had the best nights of their lives. This is something that applies to both tightly packed crowds and bands who have graced its stage. Getting tickets to a gig is an honour as it’s capacity is small, and if you’re lucky enough to be invited to play the honour is even greater. In celebration of the venue, Ditto has published a book displaying its history, character and anecdotes of its 75-year history.

Lucy Bourton — 21 June 2018
Sponsored / Photography Adobe Stock identifies 'multilocalism' as the next trend to shape visual culture

In today’s society it’s rare that someone is just from a particular city, country or even continent. The world is all the better for it too, merging cultural experiences in square miles rather than across oceans. In its third visual trend analysis this year, the Adobe Stock team believe, as a reflection of this, the concept of ‘multilocalism’ will be the next visual trend for creatives.

Sponsored Content — 21 June 2018
Work / Illustration “I want my work to function like a good book": illustrator Charlotte Ager

Charlotte Ager is no stranger to It’s Nice That; we have written about her idyllic illustrations time and time again. From Reykjavik’s beaches to Indonesian villas, it was her colourful drawings of landscapes that caught our eye this time.

Daphne Milner — 21 June 2018
Regulars / The Graduates 2018 "Even if you cover a shit in glitter it’s still a shit": top creatives show us their CVs

Making a CV is one of the most daunting tasks for anyone, and especially for graduates. Writing about yourself, your achievements and your interests always just comes across show-offy or just cringe-worthy in general. But everyone has to do it, so choke it up, open InDesign and bite the bullet.

Lucy Bourton — 21 June 2018
Work / Film Stephen Isaac-Wilson's new film for Boiler Room remembers Manchester's 90s queer clubbing scene

In the mid-90s, Canal Street was the flamboyant heart of Manchester’s gay scene. Home to the city’s queer party lovers, Canal Street existed outside Manchester’s world-famous club scene, until, that is, 1999, when the characters of Russell T Davies’ Queer as Folk swaggered onto TV screens and kicked open the doors of queer nightlife to wide-eyed viewers across the nation.

Bryony Stone — 21 June 2018

Work / Animation From Kanye West to Cartoon Network: Encyclopedia Pictura’s latest animations champion the power of DIY skills

Animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura is renowned for its work with the likes of Kanye West, Björk and Grizzly Bear, but its latest work diverges down a very different path, with a series of shorts for Cartoon Network. It comes off the back of the success of DIY.org, an online community started by one of the studio’s founders Isaiah Saxon together with Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein, where kids can learn new making skills and share their creations. Started in 2016, it now has over a million members.

Jenny Brewer — 20 June 2018
Work / Art Amad Ilyas’ Naach Girls project explores the portrayal of dancing girls in South Asia

New York artist and designer Amad Ilyas is exhibiting new work throughout the month of June on the White Pube website, an online space that breaks down the restrictions of the gallery space and creates a place to exhibit in the digital world.

Kieran Yates — 20 June 2018
Work / Illustration Haruna Kawai breaks down the boundaries between illustration and sculpture

Haruna Kawai’s illustrations are distinct in their simplicity. Her colourful portfolio of work is filled with drawings of abstract sculptural creations; whether it’s ceramic-like structures balance on three-dimensional triangles or padlock-inspired art objects, Haruna has a knack for illustrating minimalist constructions.

Daphne Milner — 20 June 2018
Work / Graphic Design Sam Jayne's abstract and psychedelic design portfolio is inspired by nature

“My biggest reference is probably nature,” Washington DC-based designer and art director, Sam Jayne tells It’s Nice That. “Aside from its natural beauty and obvious visual impressiveness, I think there’s a certain weird magic that happens in my work when I manipulate natural elements using software and end up with this strange digital imagery that feels totally disconnected from anything remotely organic.”

Ruby Boddington — 20 June 2018
Work / Illustration Catching up with Charlotte Trounce while on a residency in Japan

It will be no news to regulars readers that we have a bit of an illustration crush on Charlotte Trounce. The London-based illustrator has a knack for drawing pretty much anything — exhibition artworks, fashion collections or objects for children’s books — so we’ve regularly got an eye on what she’s illustrating. It was during one of these snooping sessions over on Charlotte’s Instagram that we noticed she currently isn’t in London, but on an envious trip to Japan.

Lucy Bourton — 20 June 2018
Work / Photography "I always seem to look for oddities": photographer Clark Franklyn on his dreamy landscapes

Imagine where you’d want to be right now. Strolling down the side of a bustling river? Walking through a field of flowers at sunset? Roaming through a forest draped in a thick layer of snow? Whichever place you’d chose, photographer Clark Franklyn has probably been there first and taken a dreamy picture to prove it. Clark has been on our radar for a while. Having worked on editorial shoots for Ukrainian Vogue and Odda magazine, and having photographed fashion “It girls” like Aweng Chuol and Emma Leth, the photographer’s pure and unadulterated aesthetic regularly strikes a chord with the It’s Nice That team.

Daphne Milner — 20 June 2018

Regulars / Bookshelf Parallel Practice's Bookshelf provides insight into its thorough understanding of graphic design

Prague-based design studio, Parallel Practice AKA Michal Landa and Jan Brož are a firm favourite of ours here at It’s Nice That. For years now, the duo has been impressing us with their eclectic designs which layer imagery and utilise type as a graphic element. From identities to posters, to album sleeves and publications, the studio can do it all with each design surpassing the previous.

Ruby Boddington — 20 June 2018
Regulars / Printed Pages Cover Stories: MacGuffin's Kirsten Algera on the magazine covers that left a lasting impression on her work

To celebrate the release of Printed Pages SS18, we’ve asked a selection of influential people in creative publishing to choose the seminal magazine covers that they loved, and made an impact on them and their work. The magazines could be from any time, place or niche of the publishing world. In this series, they’ll tell us why these particular covers left a lasting impression.

Jenny Brewer — 20 June 2018
Work / Art Miranda July’s latest work is a high-tech portrait of the Uber driver who took her to interview Rihanna

This article has been reproduced courtesy of Garage.

Erin Schwartz — 19 June 2018
Work / Art Léa Augereau's figurative paintings feature a diverse range of strong and confident women

Léa Augereau’s figurative portraiture features commanding women, “who drive their own lives,” says the artist. Her bold and vibrant paintings use block colours to depict a diverse range of females, often placed in positions of leisure, drinking and smoking. “I want to highlight the modern woman” Léa explains, “for lots of people, a ‘good girl’ can’t smoke or drink, the rules are much more flexible for men, and this makes me feel frustrated”.

Emma Latham Phillips — 19 June 2018
Work / Digital Artist Adam Ferriss' photography filters are better than any on Snapchat

From flower wreaths and love hearts to dog ears and a lolling tongue, filters that map and transform a face have become a common occurrence on social media channels. It’s a phenomenon artist Adam Ferriss draws on in his latest installation Likeness, which reimagines face-filtering and remoulds people’s appearances in real time. “The end goal was to take a person’s face, and make it appear as another – but not in a face-swappy kind of way,” Adam tells us. “This is a bit of a unconventional project in that I didn’t know what kind of output to expect until I was well into the making of the project.”

Daphne Milner — 19 June 2018
Work / Graphic Design Graphic designer Jaap Smit physicalises the web in his data-driven practice

“Structuring facts and data,” responds graphic designer Jaap Smit when asked about the focus of his creative practice. Based in The Hague, Jaap utilises freely available information and creates graphic parameters to structure it, resulting in methodically-made and often humorous work.

Ruby Boddington — 19 June 2018

Features / Photography How Alex Prager made the world stop and stare

There are numerous reasons why photographer Alex Prager has gained such success and adoration, but one standout factor is her ability to make viewers see the world for its busy but dressed-up glory. She does so by setting a scene, something similar to daily life but eerily unfamiliar. The photographer creates sets to do this, but it’s a set you’d unknowingly walk past, a bus stop or a cinema crowd cast full of friends, family and the famous. It’s this mix of the real and the staged that’s seen curators at the world’s largest galleries fall for Alex, alongside the rest of us. You can’t help but stop and stare at an image by Alex Prager.

Lucy Bourton — 19 June 2018
Work / Photography Photographer Louise Reinke's latest shoot is inspired by the legendary Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick’s charisma and elegance was at the forefront of photographer Louise Reinke’s mind when she shot her series Walk on By for Under Pressure magazine. The German artist first got interested in photography at the age of 13 when her father entrusted her with a camera, sparking a life-long fascination with the craft. “It was during my university studies that I understood a picture’s potential to depict a convincing version of reality in a stylised way,” Louise tells It’s Nice That. “University was also where I met various fashion designers and got hooked on the art form.”

Daphne Milner — 19 June 2018
Work / Photography Photographer Eli Durst's series Pinnacle Realty challenges stereotypes of suburban America

Whether it’s two Mormons sitting on the curb of a parking lot eating McDonald’s or it’s a man taking a picture of an abstract sculpture in front of a food mart, it’s no accident that Eli Durst’s photographs resemble stills from a film. “When I applied for my undergraduate at Wesleyan University, I originally wanted to study film,” Eli admits. “But the film programme was really industry-centric and that put me off. At the same time, I was taking photography courses in the art department. I was completely seduced by the freedom of making art — just me, the camera, and the world.”

Daphne Milner — 18 June 2018
Work / Illustration Grace Miceli’s bold and playful illustrations re-interpret brands in humorous ways

Grace Miceli developed her signature bold and playful style once she’d left Goldsmiths university. Wanting to “get over the expectation of what type of art [she] should be making and instead connect to a more genuine expression of self”, Grace’s child-like illustrations embrace a candid messiness and inaccuracy, which she feels is more true to her.

Emma Latham Phillips — 18 June 2018
Work / Graphic Design Tsto returns to design Flow Festival's identity, pushing and playing with its typography

Back in 2011, Helsinki-based studio Tsto designed an identity for Flow Festival featuring a bold typographic treatment that has become synonymous with the festival’s name. Over the next five years the studio continued to roll out the festival’s identity under this visual language, before taking a three year break. 2018 marks Tsto back in the graphic design driving seat, and pushing the identity further seven years later from when it first sat down to do it.

Lucy Bourton — 18 June 2018
Work / Illustration Rosie Yasukochi's vibrant comic reflects on post-generational trauma

Rosie Yasukochi’s work is accessible, skillful and highly political. The California-based artist’s ongoing illustrative project explores her dual Japanese-American identity, the history of both nations and how her heritage impacts Rosie today.

Daphne Milner — 18 June 2018

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