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Championing creativity

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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

Miranda July’s latest work is a high-tech portrait of the Uber driver who took her to interview Rihanna 19 June 2018
Léa Augereau's figurative paintings feature a diverse range of strong and confident women 19 June 2018
Artist Adam Ferriss' photography filters are better than any on Snapchat 19 June 2018
Graphic designer Jaap Smit physicalises the web in his data-driven practice 19 June 2018
How Alex Prager made the world stop and stare 19 June 2018
Photographer Louise Reinke's latest shoot is inspired by the legendary Dionne Warwick 19 June 2018

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 / 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
Media Partnership / Illustration Patrick Kyle's helpful advice on how to start out at illustration fairs

Illustration, photography or design fairs, fairs of all kinds really, are some of our favourite weekends of the year. It’s a day or two where many of our beloved creatives are in town, travelling in with suitcases stacked full with prints and publications for us to pour over, and write about for you lot to see a couple of days later.

Lucy Bourton — 18 June 2018
Regulars / The Graduates 2018 "Don't drink and dance in front of your peers": ten creatives on their biggest mistakes

Art and design schools everywhere preach the importance of failure. Tutors encourage students to let go of any preconceptions of what their work should be and, instead, try everything under the sun, using their mistakes as a means to learn. James Dyson famously made his way through over 5,000 prototypes before discovering the solution for the modern-day hoover, for example. Creativity and the generation of new ideas seem to go hand-in-hand with making mistakes, with the best ideas the result of learning from one.

Ruby Boddington — 18 June 2018

Work / Art Rachel Louise Hodgson’s drawings challenge traditional ideals of beauty

Rachel Louise Hodgson’s drawings break from the ordinary. Their bright, sickly colours unsettle the viewer, challenging traditional conceptions of beauty. Rachel initially studied fashion photography at The London College of Fashion; where she tells It’s Nice That, “the teachers never understood my work, I stuck out and received a terrible grade”.

Emma Latham Phillips — 15 June 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Sam Conniff rouses the Nicer Tuesdays audience to Be More Pirate

In past lives, Sam Conniff was the founder of creative network Livity and media platform Don’t Panic, but recently he’s gone rogue with a new mission: to encourage everyone to Be More Pirate. Born from research into the radical strategies of Golden Age pirates, his new ethos and book of the same name (with an added explanatory strapline “Or How to Take On The World And Win”) adapts these strategies for 21st Century work and life, and aligns them with modern day innovators or “rebels” like Elon Musk and Malala Yousafzai.

It's Nice That — 15 June 2018
Work / Publication Koln Studio designs artist's catalogue using improvisation and fun

The work of Spanish artist, Eloy Arribas is energetic, using a multitude of materials and lines to explore the representation of an object and the materiality of the object itself. In their production, his paintings are “almost paleontological”, revealing themselves in a sporadic fashion to him as he works. It’s only right, therefore, that the catalogue to accompany his recent exhibition Niño Fósil / Fruta de Piedra reflected his energy and spontaneity.

Ruby Boddington — 15 June 2018
Regulars / Friday Mixtape Friday Mixtape: a collection of hits from music focused design studio Lost Art

This week’s Friday Mixtape is by Chris Hopkins, the creative director of Melbourne based studio Lost Art. The studio’s portfolio is full of amazing music campaigns, from creating artwork for The Avalanches for nine years and, more recently, working with Phoenix and David Byrne!

Lucy Bourton — 15 June 2018
Features / Publication Khichdi (Kitchari) brings together 846 photographs of India, and its people, taken over ten years

“I’m the first one in my family to be born outside of India so I’ve been travelling there my whole life,” American-born visual artist, Nick Sethi tells It’s Nice That. Having grown up in Floria, his family moved to India for a year in 2007 when he was 17. Despite his heritage, Sethi didn’t grow up speaking Hindi and so the move confronted him with things he didn’t understand but things he wanted to explore further nonetheless. “I started using photography as a way to interact with the country and people,” Sethi recalls. “2007 was a pre-mobile phone and selfie era so having your photograph taken was a bit more special, especially in a country like India.” It was during this trip that Sethi unknowingly began a decade-long project; one that charts the rapidly changing identity of a country through its people and their relationship to technology, gender and the influx of Western culture.

Ruby Boddington — 15 June 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Offshore Studio's Christoph Miler reveals the ideas behind Migrant Journal

Zurich-based graphic design studio Offshore is one of It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch 2018 and with good reason. Founders Christoph Miler and Isabel Seiffert are behind the design of Migrant Journal, for which the duo created a bespoke typeface and visually arresting design. Politically conscious, sensitive and striking all at the same time, it sums up the designers’ capability way beyond their years.

It's Nice That — 14 June 2018

Work / Illustration Benedikt Rugar’s illustrations for the German Design Glossary use elements of the surreal to tell a visual story

“I like to keep an open mind towards the ideas that I am asked to illustrate,” German illustrator Benedikt Rugar tells It’s Nice That, of his latest project with Lambl / Homburger studio for the German Design Glossary. “It’s how I usually like to work: first to sketch out what spontaneously comes to my mind in relation to the brief, and then to grow on this with the help of my image research so that I can gain confidence on the subject. It’s very important to start with these rough sketches so that I don’t get lost in the research later,” Benedikt explains.

Laura Isabella — 14 June 2018
Work / Photography Robbie Lawrence’s photographs beautifully capture the feeling of a particular moment

Drawing inspiration from the Dutch Masters, Robbie Lawrence’s images strikingly juxtapose light and shade. His photographs feature vibrant blocks of colour, which instantly steal your gaze. Throughout his career, Robbie has worked for an impressive range of clients, from the Wall Street Journal Magazine to The New York Times and the U.N, each one drawn to his ability to tell a compelling photographic story.

Emma Latham Phillips — 14 June 2018
Work / Photography Ryan O’Toole Collett’s portrait series in Kenya bridges the gap between photographer and subject

When one of photographer Ryan O’Toole Collett’s friends decided to travel back to his birth place of Nairobi, Kenya, Ryan and his group of mates decided to join him. It was Ryan’s first spontaneous photography project — no formal structure envisioned, just the open intention to capture this important moment in time.

Laura Isabella — 14 June 2018
Work / Publication Chris Harnan's World Problem Solution Book is a diary, but not in the traditional sense

World Problem Solution Book is a diary, but not in the traditional sense. Produced over two years, the book is a visualisation of sporadic moments, conversations and memories penned by illustrator Chris Harnan. “It’s a representation of a period of time in my life, for sure,” he tells It’s Nice That, “but one that has been bastardised and spoilt through re-evaluating the events again and again.”

Ruby Boddington — 14 June 2018
Work / Animation Greg Sharp animates a video that builds in momentum for the catchiest song of the year

Anyone who has had their ears switched on over the past couple of weeks will have heard a song so catchy, it’s probably starting to drive you mad by now. The tune is Hunnybee by Unknown Mortal Orchestra with a melody as sweet and as its title. Just as we thought we were sick of it, Greg Sharp’s come along and made the loveliest animated video for it that we can’t stop watching now either. For God’s sake.

Lucy Bourton — 14 June 2018
Regulars / The Graduates 2018 All internships are not created equal: how to spot the best opportunities and have the courage to reject the duds

Back in March Amalia Illgner wrote a long read on The Guardian describing why she is suing Monocle over her “dream internship”. The article pinpointed many of the issues of internships and how it “excludes the less privileged from the arts, media and politics”. Below, Amalia talks of her experience and the research she has found on the creative industries, providing some golden rules that graduates should be aware of.

Amalia Illgner — 14 June 2018

Features / Photography The porous and sometimes political work of legendary photographer Joel Meyerowitz

Having read so much about legendary photographer Joel Meyerowitz and his beginnings capturing the mean streets of 1960s New York, I am unprepared for the person I eventually hear down a phone line from Italy. I’m expecting to hear a voice with hard edges cut with a sharp tongue; instead I’m met with a languid, calm voice and an apology for having missed my first call.

Jenny Brewer — 14 June 2018
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Erica Dorn shares the intricate process behind the graphics for Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs

If you stopped to admire the incredible graphic details in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, you were most likely admiring the work of Erica Dorn. As the lead graphic designer on the film, Erica was responsible for bringing together everything from the Japanese woodblock-inspired artworks to printed documents, product packaging and signage, which added beautiful intricacies to the dystopian future world Anderson was creating for his canine stars.

It's Nice That — 13 June 2018
Work / Illustration Thibaud Herem gives an illustrated tour of his garden in Raising A Forest

Though widely known for his intricate architectural black and white illustrations, French artist Thibaud Hérem harbours an unexpected passion for gardening. His latest book Raising A Forest reveals so, and in turn uncovers an entirely different facet to his practice that sees his work break from the straight lines of brick walls and windows. Instead, the pages are filled with beautiful, delicate and colourful drawings of trees, leaves, plants and seeds, plus some gardener’s tools, laid out in a meticulous way that hints at Thibaud’s famous attention to detail.

Jenny Brewer — 13 June 2018
Work / Illustration Take a trip inside the cutely sinister world of illustrator Pablo Orrego

When asking Chilean illustrator and graphic designer Pablo Orrego (who goes by the name Peiper too), on what influences have informed his practice, the list is endless and maybe one of the most varied we’ve heard.

Lucy Bourton — 13 June 2018
Work / Publication Why counter-culture matters: Rough Trade launches publishing venture designed by Craig Oldham

Rough Trade has announced a new publishing venture, Rough Trade Books, embodying the “same original spirit and radical direction” that the independent label has cultivated over the past 40 years and counting.

Lucy Bourton — 13 June 2018
Work / Photography Max Miechowski's adept observations of light create honest and intimate portraits

At the age of 25, Lincoln-born photographer Max Miechowski quit his job to go travelling around south-east Asia with a group of friends. It was there that he began photographing en masse: “being in new and beautiful places, and experiencing different cultures, it felt really natural for me to photograph everything around me,” he recalls. Finding himself travelling to places specifically to photograph them, getting up early to capture the best light and take peoples’ portraits, he cut his trip short and returned to England, using the money he had left to buy a better camera.

Ruby Boddington — 13 June 2018

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