Work / Uncategorized

Jeremy Deller, Clip Art and the It’s Nice That annual in this week’s podcast

Words by Liv Siddall, Friday 05 December 2014

This week we chat about the It’s Nice That Annual, Jeremy Deller’s encounter with Andy Warhol and waving a sad goodbye to the much-loved Microsoft feature: Clip Art.

As ever you can listen using he SoundCloud embed below or subscribe via iTunes here.

Int_cop2_grande — The It’s Nice That Annual 2014

Jeremy Deller and Andy Warhol. Photo courtesy of The Guardian

Most Recent

Lucia Sekerkova documents the rituals of Romania’s social media savvy witches 24 April 2019
Charlie Roberts' paintings are inspired by hip-hop culture, sports and screenplays 24 April 2019
In Whispering Blooms Jack Orton documents the eerie perfection of the town of Poundbury 24 April 2019
Studio Nuno Fontes on its clean and ordered work for the cultural sector 24 April 2019
Darren Shaddick illustrates his version of “the ultimate cool person” 24 April 2019
Team Thursday's Bookshelf is full of souvenirs, zines and exhibition catalogues 24 April 2019

More like this:

Work / Uncategorized My 2014: Print Editor James Cartwright sums up the best bits of his year

This year feels like it was over before it even began – which is a total cliché but it’s God’s honest truth. It feels like just yesterday I was launched blinking and hungover into the first days of 2014 and now I couldn’t really tell you what I got up to. Anyway, it was a whirlwind, a rollercoaster ride full of emotional ups and downs, physical highs and lows, triumphs of spirit and ingestions of spirits. Yeah 2014, you were alright, I liked you, though at times you were a bit of a t**t.

James Cartwright — 19 December 2014
Work / Uncategorized ECAL's website MAAD is a comprehensive archive of their MA in Art Direction

You could be forgiven for taking a cursory glance over the MAAD site, as I did, and assuming that it was dedicated to a design collective more diverse and comprehensive than we’d ever even seen before. Because that it kind of what it looks like. In fact, MAAD stands for Masters in Art Direction and belongs to ECAL, aka the Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, in Switzerland, and the website serves as both a pamphlet for prospective students and an archive for the projects of previous ones, making it one of the best thought out university sites that we’ve ever seen.

Maisie Skidmore — 04 November 2014
Work / Uncategorized We love Tom Sewell's lunar calendar for his residency over on Post Matter

The difference between artists and normal proles is shown in the ease at which an artist can convey a very simple idea with visuals to make it shine. For instance this new work by our much-loved local artist Tom Sewell, in which he created a 31-day lunar chart when asked by digital art blog Post Matter to take part in a month-long residency. To me, Tom’s work is like having a toe constantly submerged in anonymous, otherworldly fluid – he takes the online world and melts it down until it resembles pools of history, typography and coding all glooped together into one. This series of serene planet GIFs gives me the same ambient pleasure as my desktop Mountain, and I’m going to keep up with this lunar July calendar even though it’s August tomorrow.

Liv Siddall — 31 July 2014
Work / Uncategorized Japanese artist Ryo Kuwabara's incredible eye-popping poster design

Ryo Kuwabara is a master colour coordinator and a geometric genius: scrolling through his Tumblr page, it’s kind of unbelievable when you realise that he has designed every single one of the decorative, eye-popping posters in the spectacular online portfolio. His work is space age but also early computer age, composed out of highly artificial patterns and rounded shapes that contain just a hint of Keith Haring. I’m not entirely sure what the posters are for, as the only English words that I can decipher are “Circuit Disarray” and “Blink” and “Symphony of the form,” but I do think that all of these words are very evocative of Ryo’s fantastically playful designs.

Madeleine Morley — 25 June 2014
Work / Uncategorized The new issue of art, culture and surfing magazine WAX has launched with a bang!

You don’t get much cooler than a fluorescent publication about art and surfing produced in Brooklyn, but luckily WAX magazine has proved itself not to just be another trendy rag, but a bonafide pleasure for all who see it. Take, for example, Printed Pages editor James Cartwright’s reaction when it plopped into the It’s Nice That offices the other day – he squealed like a little piggy and ripped off its plastic binding to flick through its fresh, untouched pages.

Liv Siddall — 19 June 2014
Work / Uncategorized Graphic Design: Kigi combine design and illustration to create great identities

Kigi are a graphic design company based in Tokyo, Japan, who combine two of our absolute favourite things: design and illustration. Their identities for bottled products are sparse, playful and eye-catching, so that they become the things that you find really hard to throw out of your bathroom cabinet when all of the product’s gone. Some of the designs for the little jars and vials make them look like they belong on an alchemist’s shelf, and we particularly like Kigi’s logo for a line of natural face products that’s been inspired by the Rubin vase. Kigi have also designed the fabric prints for Liberty, and they started off by making big pointillist posters out of monochrome stickers, but what we like most about them is their incredibly tactile and imaginative approach to design.

Madeleine Morley — 19 June 2014

Work / Photography Lucia Sekerkova documents the rituals of Romania’s social media savvy witches

“I love the strange split between the old and the new world, as well as between magic and the internet,” says photographer Lucia Sekerkova about her four-year project capturing the vrăjitoare, or witches, of Romania’s Wallachian Roma community. Working with ethnologist Ivana Šusterová, the pair have documented how ancient traditions have transitioned into the modern world, through savvy social media promotion and live-streamed rituals.

The Wallachian Roma people were formerly nomadic groups who moved across Europe until it was made illegal, explains Lucia. Once banned by the communist regime, a vrăjitoare’s work is defined by fortune-telling and spell-casting and has seen a distinct upsurge in Romania in recent years. Working with Ivana, an expert in the everyday life and culture of Wallachian Roma people, was a huge boon to the project, especially given her language skills. “This group has many traditional norms, specific forms of behaviour and its own community rules and laws. I think that people should know about them and respect them before they just demand something from them,” says Lucia.

Laura Snoad — 24 April 2019
Work / Art Charlie Roberts' paintings are inspired by hip-hop culture, sports and screenplays

Born and raised in Kansas, artist Charlie Roberts later relocated to Oslo after studying at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. Working between various mediums, and different modes within those mediums, he often switches between wood carving, ceramics, painting on canvas and watercolour on paper, and between monochromatic drawing, relief sculpture, flat cartoonish figuration, and a more fleshed out and shaded figuration.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 24 April 2019
Work / Photography In Whispering Blooms Jack Orton documents the eerie perfection of the town of Poundbury

Brexit, we know you’re tired of everyone and their mum weighing in on the topic, but hear us out, this one’s interesting. Titled Whispering Blooms, a series by photographer Jack Orton aptly encapsulates the utopian (or dystopian, depending on which side of the fence you’re sitting) ideals that many have about the hotly-discussed, ever-extending Article 50, and the world that potentially awaits us on the other side.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Studio Nuno Fontes on its clean and ordered work for the cultural sector

“Graphic design’s most extraordinary work is often the result of amazing partnerships between client and designer,” explains Nuno Fontes. Heading up his own multi-disciplinary studio in the small Portuguese town of Santa Maria Da Feira, for Studio Nuno, it is essential that “every project in our studio starts with dialogue.”

Jyni Ong — 24 April 2019
Work / Illustration Darren Shaddick illustrates his version of “the ultimate cool person”

Despite being based out of the “sticks of Devon” where the illustration scene is not as fully flourished as some other regions of the UK, freelance illustrator Darren Shaddick is proof that you can still acquire clients such as the likes of giffgaff and Ralph Lauren, and not live in London.

Jyni Ong — 24 April 2019
Regulars / Bookshelf Team Thursday's Bookshelf is full of souvenirs, zines and exhibition catalogues

Every other Wednesday we bring you a selection of books owned and curated by a different creative. Limited to just five – a near impossible task for many – we ask them to choose a line-up of titles which have been influential or important to their practice in some way. This week, the responsibility lies with Loes van Esch and Simone Trum, founders of design studio Team Thursday. Based in Rotterdam, the studio has spent a significant amount of time in Seoul and is well known for its bright, colourful, Risographed aesthetic.

Ruby Boddington — 24 April 2019

Work / Animation Truba Animation reimagines behind the scenes anecdotes from Game of Thrones

Truba, the animation studio behind not one but two of our favourite music videos of 2018 – Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Honeybee and Feels Like Summer by Childish Gambino – has now created an animated tale imagining behind the scenes of Game of Thrones.

Lucy Bourton — 24 April 2019
Work / Publication Pedro Destefani explores the relationship between Stan Smith the man and the brand

In a recent personal project, the designer Pedro Destefani explores the relationship between Stan Smith, the man, and the brand he has become synonymous with over the past few decades. Arguably best known today for his name’s attachment to a particular Adidas trainer, Stan Smith was in fact a world-famous tennis player back in the 1970s and 80s. In this self-initiated editorial project (which is not affiliated with the sports brand), Pedro looks at the man on and off the court, as well as that famous shoe.

Jyni Ong — 23 April 2019
Work / Photography Xiaopeng Yuan reinterprets the Chinese fable, The Butterfly Lovers, in a series for Télévision magazine

Whilst working as part of Same Paper, Xiaopeng Yuan keeps up his own photographic practice. We’ve covered some of his work in the past, and so when we saw the newly-released issue of Télévision magazine, the cover of which features a new story shot by Xiaopeng, we had to find out more.

Ruby Boddington — 23 April 2019
Features / Film Creativity and control: Stanley Kubrick's obsessiveness and the meticulous films it produced

Bobby Fischer sat forward, his hand covering his mouth and his elbow resting on the table in front of him. His eyes firmly fixed down on the chequered surface below, the American leant forward out of his black leather chair and moved his Bishop from E6 to D7. Across the table from him sat Boris Spassky, a Soviet. They were engaged in the 21st game of their World Chess Championship match, in the Laugardalshöll arena, Reykjavík and with that move, Fischer emerged as the world’s 11th chess champion. It was a politically charged win, which humiliated the country that had gone undefeated for 24 years, and was dubbed “The Match of the Century”.

Ruby Boddington — 23 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Oscar Maia translates the essence of his native Porto into a new publication

“I have learnt to see graphic design as a kind of puzzle,” explains Oscar Maia. Based out of the historic city of Porto, Oscar has been practising for more than a decade in some of the romantic city’s renowned studios. From Atelier Martino&Jaña to the White Studio, Oscar has honed a career specialising in design in the cultural sector which he continues today as a freelancer.

Jyni Ong — 23 April 2019
Work / Art Louise Bonnet paints exaggerated bodies as symbols of melancholy and loneliness

“I am interested in the body. In what having a body feels like, or how we try to hide the way it feels. To contain it or control it. How it brings shame and humiliation because we cannot control it,” says artist Louise Bonnet. “I am fascinated by the ornamentation of it, the extreme ways of hiding our primal origins with all this external stuff. For example, with the Hitchcock Blonde, or the renaissance portraits, where any sign of wildness is eradicated. I love all the intricate techniques used to achieve this. It’s so prevalent and all-encompassing.”

Daniel Milroy Maher — 23 April 2019

Work / Illustration Mathieu Larone illustrates the "elusive liminal space between the cryptic and the understandable"

Describing, his drawings as falling into “a grey zone between cartooning and colour based-rendering”, illustrator Mathieu Larone says he is able to morph his practice depending on the project he’s working on. “I’m also hellbent on exploring the limits of what can and cannot be understood in an image, and using the practice and form of illustration to communicate in subtle and nonlinear ways,” he adds.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 23 April 2019
Regulars / Ones to Watch 2019 Micaiah Carter interprets Uniqlo’s linen range with a sultry sun-drenched shoot

One of the unique strengths of young American photographer Micaiah Carter (who we picked as one of our Ones to Watch earlier this year) is his ability to conjure a rich mood, an evocative atmosphere, in a straightforward studio setting. His shoots often feel like a heady distillation of the last days of a long summer – there’s a lot of warm sunlight on skin, deep blue and purple-hued skies, and clothes that flow breezily off radiant bodies.

Matt Alagiah — 23 April 2019
Features / Miscellaneous We take a look back at the best stories of the year to date

The Easter weekend here in the UK has given us at It’s Nice That the chance to put our feet up for a few days, but we still want to provide you with your regular dose of creative ideas and inspiration. So we’ve decided to pull together some highlights from the year so far, including a handful of the most popular articles of 2019 and a few of the team’s favourites as well. From an in-depth study of the benefits of boredom (worth reading if you’re heading out of town to visit the family this weekend) to a story about Michael Bierut’s fresh identity for Mastercard, we’ve got all angles covered. There are even a few alpacas thrown in for good measure, courtesy of photographer Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek. Check out all this and more below.

It's Nice That — 18 April 2019
Work / Graphic Design Atelier Brenda and Amélie Bakker create “squidgy” identity for Beursschouwburg

Squidgy, unicorn-coloured lettering, holographic foil and some hand-drawn illustrations that look like the inner workings of a particularly puzzled psyche – there’s a lot to love about Atelier Brenda’s identity for Beursschouwburg’s Spring programme Normal Schnormal. Working with Amélie Bakker, the Belgian studio has developed a “playful and abstract approach” for the Brussels cultural house’s programme of music, performance, art, screenings and talks, which aims to analyse, question and dismantle the idea of ‘normality’.

Laura Snoad — 18 April 2019
Work / Photography Thomas Pratt photographs the effects of religion, natural disaster and globalisation on an island community

I think you need a relationship with what you’re shooting in order to get something honest,” begins photographer Thomas Pratt. “To seek out things of interest and beauty.” Travelling to Long Island in the Bahamas in 2011 for a fishing trip, this is exactly what the London-born and based photographer discovered. The humble beginnings of a project that would last eight years and is still ongoing, Thomas found himself in the midst of the small local community, but more specifically, the Fox family.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 18 April 2019
Work / Photography Viacheslav Poliakov shoots the “folk-baroque-industrial mess” of Ukraine and Poland

Viacheslav Poliakov is a Ukrainian photographer deeply interested in the public spaces of small, provincial towns. What particularly excites him are objects and structures that seem to lack a conscious author, or have been created without concern for their visual appearance. “You can call it a melting pot, you can call it chaos, but here [in Ukraine] we live in a visually strong, vivid and uncontrolled space,” Viacheslav tells It’s Nice That. “There can be an abandoned Soviet factory used as pasture next to medieval castle turned into a warehouse, and that will be surrounded by a market made of cheap glossy colourful plastic, with a golden church on the left side and just empty area with mud and puddles on the right.”

Laura Snoad — 18 April 2019

Media Partnership / Advertising “Even bad pizza is kind of good”: Five life lessons from David Droga

David Droga knows a thing or two about one of the world’s more complex industries. A former Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi in London, the Australian advertising superstar has been based in New York for just shy of two decades now, and back in 2006 he launched his own agency, Droga5.

David Droga — 18 April 2019
Sponsored / Events Join Cachetejack and Dropbox for a collaborative workshop at OFFF Barcelona

From 25-27 April, Barcelona is set to be taken over by creatives of all disciplines at annual conference, OFFF. Alongside the jam-packed line-up of speakers including Edel Rodriguez, Kelly Anna and Man vs Machine, Dropbox is running a series of workshops for attendees.

Sponsored Content — 18 April 2019
Work / Film Men of Maize explores the preservation of Mayan culture in Guatemala

The legend of Popol Vuh can be traced back through the generations of Guatemala, reaching back through its citizen’s ancestors rich Mayan culture. The creation story reveals how the first humans were made of corn and the story survives, to this day, as a reminder of the unbreakable bond that connects descendants of the Maya with the ancient rituals performed by their forefathers.

Jyni Ong — 18 April 2019
Work / Publication “The time just feels right”: Stuart Brumfitt and Mirko Borsche, editor and designer of The Face, on its relaunch

The Face is a magazine that needs little introduction. From a pale, red-eyed McQueen to a grinning, young Kate Moss to Kurt Cobain in a onesie, it produced some of the most recognisable imagery in the worlds of fashion and culture during the 1980s and 90s. Started by Nick Logan, the former editor of Smash Hits, The Face employed and worked with a team who, although trailblazers at the time, are now considered some of the biggest names in the creative industry.

Ruby Boddington — 17 April 2019
Work / Art Philip Gerald's lowbrow, crude paintings are a reflection of his views on the art world

I’ve always been fascinated with crappy digital aesthetics. I think my style is actually a direct response to my ability and maybe some of my views on art in general. I think art should be somewhat easy. You can try, or you can not try,” says artist Philip Gerald. “I chose not to try that hard because I didn’t know if I was going to keep painting. So, instead of trying to get better, I thought I should just lean into the fact that I wasn’t going to be blowing people out of the water with mad painting skills any time soon, or ever – I just wanted a reaction.”

Daniel Milroy Maher — 17 April 2019
Work / Photography Jack Davison delves into a world of miniature cityscapes in his latest shoot

It’s a monumental moment when a photographer gets to create a shoot they’ve been talking about for years. Though it happens rarely, when it does, it usually amounts to something rather special, as seen through Jack Davison’s latest shoot for Modern Weekly China. The It’s Nice That favourite, previously of Ones to Watch 2016 fame, has graced our screens many a time. His portfolio boasts brooding landscapes and sultry portraits, but most recently, a shoot inspired by old Japanese monster movie sets?!

Jyni Ong — 17 April 2019

Work / Graphic Design Ony Agency on the rebrand of AZ Museum in Moscow

In the heart of Moscow lies AZ Museum, a private museum founded in 2015 dedicated to one man’s collection of over 2000 works. The man is Anatoly Zverev, cofounder of the Russian Expressionism movement in the 60s and a member the non-conformist art movement; a retaliation from the idealised, socialist realism of the time. His extensive collections of unofficial Soviet artworks are now housed in the AZ Museum. Named after the founder’s initials, the museum and its collection represent the free movement of artistic expression under the rule of tyranny, and not wholly indifferent to the current political situation.

Jyni Ong — 17 April 2019
Work / Film Castells is a gripping short film about the Catalonian tradition of building human towers

Opening on a dramatic sunset over a mountain, London-based production company Autobahn’s new short documentary, Castells, is an emotionally-charged, beautifully shot depiction of a centuries-old Catalonian tradition. “We see films as a carrier of emotion, so many of our choices favour emotion over information,” explains Pedro de la Fuente, the studio’s co-founder. As a result, the film is full of mood and atmosphere, focussing on the breath-taking, nerve-racking spectacle that is a castell.

Ruby Boddington — 17 April 2019
Work / Illustration Ganmu's illustrations and animations look at the relationship between emotions and the objective world

Stark in their simplicity yet full of character, Ganmu’s work perfectly exemplifies the idea that, sometimes, less is more. Relatively anonymous settings and nondescript characters make up her subject matter, but the consistent aesthetic and reoccurring elements of her work evoke a sense of familiarity with the characters. We watch as they navigate seemingly quotidian situations, made comical by Ganmu’s subtle injection of humour, exaggerating boredom or intrigue.

Daniel Milroy Maher — 17 April 2019
Work / Animation Animator Matthieu Garcia Marin captures the longing and anxiety of coming out

When you’re a teen, telling someone you fancy them is hard enough but if you’re not even sure they’re queer, it’s a whole other level of trepidation. Are they going to laugh, or out you to your friends, or tell your parents? And if so, will all these people disown you? It’s a risk that in those formative years can seem insurmountable. Matthieu Garcia Marin’s animated short, Dissonance, captures all the longing, anxiety and loneliness of fancying the pants off someone from inside the closet – in just 60 seconds.

Laura Snoad — 17 April 2019
Work / Digital Max Colson satirises post-Brexit UK in a 3D-modelled animation

Brexit really has brought out the worst in people. The rhetoric spewed by certain right-wing politicians has allowed blatant racism to ooze out of hiding, revealing a cesspit of empire-loving xenophobes that wouldn’t know what makes Britain “Great” if it smacked them in their bland food-loving faces. But with that rather enormous caveat, it’s also been an utterly fascinating time for people-watching. If you’re interested in the idea of ‘Britishness’, like artist Max Colson, the past three years have been a revelation. Via nostalgia for a Britain of the past (in many cases a fictional country that never really existed), there’s a tonne of insight into the values, fears and neuroses motivating us Brits.

Laura Snoad — 16 April 2019
Partnership / Dropbox: Call for Collaboration Call For Collaboration: your chance to work with Actual Source on a series of graphic stamps

Call for Collaboration is an It’s Nice That x Dropbox Paper project connecting creatives from across the world to collaborate on fun, fully commissioned creative projects. Each month we’ll spotlight the projects on It’s Nice that and show how Dropbox Paper helps these great ideas come to life.

Lucy Bourton — 16 April 2019