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Work / Events

Somerset House Studios launches its first public programme

Words by Bryony Stone, Thursday 01 December 2016

Somerset’s House Studios’ first public programme has been announced. The programme, including events, performances, guest curations, critical discussions and artist-led trips, will launch next week with performance interventions from experimental performance groups Forest Fringe and Fuel Theatre.

To celebrate its tenth birthday, artist-led Forest Fringe are leading a three-day gathering on “memory, survival and resistance”, while theatre producers Fuel will present The Situation Room, a space where “artists, musicians and academics can engage with current issues”.

Having remade what were Inland Revenue offices into eclectic studios for “artists, makers and thinkers” in October, the Somerset House Studios project has already proved itself. Among the impressively diverse roster of creatives holed-up in the Studios are experimental musician Graham Dunning, designer Charles Jeffrey and Minimaforms, an art, architecture and design practise. Want to be a part of it? Applications to join the community are open until 7 December.

www.somersethouse.org.uk

Most Recent

An eye for the uncanny: Viviane Sassen on her concurrent exhibition with Lee Miller 25 June 2018
Lucy Hardcastle’s sculptural forms poetically abstract Uniqlo’s AIRism range 25 June 2018
Kristin Texeira’s abstract paintings recall the essence of moments through colour 25 June 2018
Photographer Charlotte de la Fuente transports us to the seductive world of Macau's gambling scene 25 June 2018
Carlos Saez's textural digital collages reimagine the human form 25 June 2018
Nicholas Blechman on applying subtle redesign tweaks to The New Yorker 25 June 2018

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Work / Events From being bad to burping glitter: things we learned at The Adobe 99U Conference

Last week I was in New York at Adobe 99U, a conference which brings together a selection of the best creative leaders from the industry to share new ideas. The talks explored how to be a creative leader today, from the design process to directing a team and everything in between. It also, refreshingly, featured one of the widest ranges of creative voices we’ve seen at this type of event, which made for an inspiring, interesting and original few days. Below, we share a few learnings from the week on how to become a better creative leader and practitioner.
h3. It’s ok to be yourself at work

Ellen Turnill — 16 May 2018
Media Partnership / Events 180 Creative Camp offers a week of creative collaboration with leading artists

Each year for one week in July, the Portuguese city of Abrantes begins to buzz with creative collaboration as the 180 Creative Camp takes over, shaping the city into a joyful, inclusive and international camp bursting with artists from all disciplines.

It's Nice That — 14 May 2018
Media Partnership / Events Back from The Future: ideas, tech and trends that will shape design in years to come

The Future had its inaugural event from 3-4 November in Dublin, organised by the former co-director of creative festival Offset, and its remit was simple: to explore the ideas, attitudes and innovations that will affect the design industry in years to come. Around 70 speakers took to four stages, ranging from design studios – many from Ireland and others further afield – to trend forecasters, ad agencies, and big name designers like Stefan Sagmeister and Paula Scher, plus It’s Nice That founders Alex Bec and Will Hudson, to share their take on the future. Interpretations were eclectic but generally offered a refreshing point of difference to typical talks that focus on existing work and hindsight, with many presenting analysis and predictions for the shifts in creativity and wider culture. Here we’ve picked out a few highlights and interesting takeaways.h3. Lorna Ross, Fjord Dublin

Jenny Brewer — 09 November 2017
Sponsored / Events It’s Nice That and Camden Council host evening of talks by LGBTQ creatives

Throughout 2017, Camden Council have been running a programme of cultural events to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act (1967), which saw the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in the UK. To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with Camden Council and asked four brilliant LGBTQ creatives to join us for 50 Years On: one night at Central St Martins, Granary Square on Wednesday 1 November to speak about their work across art, design, fashion and film through the lens of their personal experiences, asking what it means to identify as LGBTQ in the creative industry in the UK – and wider world – 50 years on.

It's Nice That — 17 October 2017
Media Partnership / Events AGI Open Paris uses the theme of borders to "redefine what design could offer the world"

At a time where the world is full of uncertainty, the design industry has an opportunity, and a certain obligation, to voice views through creative language. The Alliance Graphique Internationale displays this ethos in an upcoming conference, AGI Open Paris, featuring 30 international design speakers under the theme of Borders.

Lucy Bourton — 29 August 2017
Work / Events Beyond Dementia exhibition features artworks and curation by people with the condition

Dementia has dominated the UK news agenda over the past couple of weeks, with Teresa May reversing her so-called manifesto “dementia tax” plan and, last week, the BBC publishing news of a study which looked at nine lifestyle changes which could lessen your risk of dementia.

Bryony Stone — 27 July 2017

Features / Photography An eye for the uncanny: Viviane Sassen on her concurrent exhibition with Lee Miller

Lee Miller and Viviane Sassen’s work, intentions and verve crossover in ways that may be unexpected considering the close to a century’s gap between their births. Both started out as models: for Sassen, her shift to photography was initially driven by a desire to show a kind of sexuality that was different from that created by the male gaze, “one that’s more fractured and disjointed”; for Miller, it was frustration with the passivity of life in front of the lens. In a manuscript from the archive found and maintained by her son, Antony Penrose, she’s reported by The Guardian as having written: “I looked like an angel, but I was a fiend inside”. For both women, the move from simply being seen, to being the authors of their own image, was soon recast as an opportunity to convey their ideas and experiences, and to show the distortions inherent to subjectivity. In concurrent shows at the Hepworth Wakefield – Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain and Hot Mirror – Miller and Sassen’s affinity with the surreal will take centre stage. Having played model and muse for a number of Surrealists, Lee Miller went on to become an accomplished artist in her own right, and alongside her art practice, she set up a portrait studio in New York and was instrumental in the invention of “solarisation” – a technique that involves the reversal of tone in photographic prints, creating a silvery aura. As a London correspondent for Condé Nast, she worked first as a fashion photographer before moving on to war reportage. Her eye for the uncanny continued to influence her practice – framing photographs of bomb-sites in ways that distorted their form and challenged perceptions of scale and tone – until the playfulness that defined the Surrealist approach no longer seemed appropriate, with the impact of WW2 unravelling as she followed the German retreat through Europe.

Billie Muraben — 25 June 2018
Regulars / Ones To Watch 2018 Lucy Hardcastle’s sculptural forms poetically abstract Uniqlo’s AIRism range

As part of our Ones to Watch 2018 campaign, It’s Nice That is working with Uniqlo to explore a variety of its products through a series of creative commissions. The first in the series, launching today, sees visual artist Lucy Hardcastle interpreting the technology of AIRism in a new perspective.

Ruby Boddington — 25 June 2018
Work / Art Kristin Texeira’s abstract paintings recall the essence of moments through colour

Kristin Texeira’s abstract paintings pay “homage to the past”, by recalling the “essence of moments through colour”. Kristin paints to remember; she wants to “provide proof — for myself and others — of existing in certain moments in time”. “Without art, I don’t know how else you would hold onto memories”, the artist tells It’s Nice That, and it’s through painting that she keeps her past alive.

Emma Latham Phillips — 25 June 2018
Work / Photography Photographer Charlotte de la Fuente transports us to the seductive world of Macau's gambling scene

“Macao exists because of the dream of making it big,” says Danish photographer Charlotte de la Fuente, whose series A Chinese Game of Luck captures the heady rush of Asia’s gambling capital. A Portuguese territory until 1999, Macau is now a Special Administrative Region where, unlike mainland China, gambling is legal. Its recent history has been dominated by a transformation into a Vegas-like hub, leading the hopeful to flock there with visions of leaving considerably richer.

Laura Snoad — 25 June 2018
Work / Digital Carlos Saez's textural digital collages reimagine the human form

Morphological freedom is the engine behind Carlos Saez’s digital collage series, Human Appearance Optional. Inspired by the post-humanist idea that the choice to alter or modify a body through the use of medical technology should be considered a civil right, Carlos has sourced a series of body-related imagery in order to create an anatomical mosaic using the technologies available to him.

Daphne Milner — 25 June 2018
Work / Publication Nicholas Blechman on applying subtle redesign tweaks to The New Yorker

Earlier this month Nicholas Blechman, the creative director of The New Yorker, introduced a redesign to one of the magazine’s regular features, ‘Goings On About Town’. A redesign, however small, is a rare occurrence within The New Yorker’s pages in comparison to the regular shift other publications apply to its design. Below, Nicholas talks us through the reasoning behind the most recent design tweak, as well as an overview of The New Yorker’s layout design history.

Nicholas Blechman — 25 June 2018

Work / Illustration John Molesworth’s vivacious artworks hit you in the eyes like “a wild, visual guitar solo”

John Molesworth describes himself as an artist with “fingers in many pies”. Since It’s Nice That last spoke with him, John has illustrated the cover of Vanguards Magazine, delved into ceramics and started selling his drawings at Liberty London. Describing his work as “perhaps now closer to ‘art’ than ‘illustration’, John’s pieces, with their bold and vivacious colours, hit you in the eyes like a “wild, visual guitar solo”.

Emma Latham Phillips — 25 June 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

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