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Championing creativity

Advertising • Animation • Art • Graphic Design • Illustration • Photography •

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Work / Art

Zander Olsen

Words by Alex Moshakis, Thursday 01 December 2011

Channelling the great walker-scupltor Richard Long, Welsh-born artist and photographer Zander Olsen is slowly wrapping the UK’s woodland in white material. Tree, Line, Olsen says, not shy of a pun, is “an ongoing series of constructed photographs rooted in the forest” – one that explores the relationship between “tree, not-tree and the line of horizon.” A frustratingly focussed website suggests Olsen has all of his time wrapped up (sorry) in this one project, but that’s fine – these images are cool as hell!

www.zanderolsen.com

Most Recent

Yuri Suzuki on how the key design tool is always communication 14 December 2018
Anna Sullivan creates a look back at the fascinating tradition of stilt walking shepherds 14 December 2018
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared to debut at Sundance Film Festival 14 December 2018
Director Angela Stephenson documents Manila's defiance for creative freedom in the narco-state 14 December 2018
Friday Mixtape: Anthony Naples takes us from the party to the after party 14 December 2018
Yung Hua Chen’s photography is effortlessly glamorous 14 December 2018

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Work / Art Evan Roth's latest artwork gets to the bottom of the internet's deep roots

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Josh Baines — 04 December 2018
Work / Art Studio Swine’s multi-sensory installation takes viewers back to primordial Earth

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Jyni Ong — 03 December 2018
Work / Art Hormazd Narielwalla explores identity through geometry and geishas

We don’t often find ourselves shuffling down Savile Row here at It’s Nice That. Known the world over for the immaculate suits hand-cut by the dozens of tailors who toil away in this particularly swanky slice of Mayfair, the street is synonymous with a particularly well heeled kind of affluence. Artist Hormazd Narielwalla hopes his latest publication, Paper Dolls will help viewers see Savile Row in a more artistic light.

Josh Baines — 03 December 2018
Work / Art Jordy van den Nieuwendijk's first-ever UK solo show opens tomorrow

Regular readers of It’s Nice That will know that pretty much since we settled in this corner of the internet there’s been one artist who has always sat with us: Jordy van den Nieuwendijk. Despite the countless times we’ve written about the Dutch artist from our London base, however, he’s never had an exhibition here – until this week. Opening tomorrow (28 November) at Public Gallery in east London, Jordy will quite rightly have his very own first UK solo show titled, There’s A Snake In My Boot.

Lucy Bourton — 27 November 2018
Features / Architecture Navigating a new space between science and art: Forensic Architecture on the agency's Turner Prize nomination

In today’s world of contemporary art where anything can be deemed art as long as enough people say so, the ever-blurring boundaries of the subject are becoming fuzzier by the minute. If one end of the spectrum sees art reaching its metaphysical heights, at the other there are organisations like Forensic Architecture, which works to uncover the truth of real events in minute detail. Although the London-based research agency seems far removed from today’s general perception of contemporary art — a world filled with eccentricity, concerns of gallery representation and commercial sales — Forensic Architecture is nonetheless nominated for this year’s prestigious Turner Prize. Having just won the Beazley Design of the Year award, the agency is treading new territory, navigating between the spheres of science, architecture and now, art, to provide justice for some of the world’s most underrepresented communities.

Jyni Ong — 26 November 2018
Work / Art Artist Bradley Kerl on swapping his Texan surroundings for Tuscany

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Lucy Bourton — 22 November 2018

Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Yuri Suzuki on how the key design tool is always communication

Joining us at Nicer Tuesdays November was Yuri Suzuki, shortly after the designer’s slightly surprising announcement that he was the newest Pentagram partner. Even Yuri notes how the decision for him to join the design partnership was a surprise to himself, recalling how when the initial conversation began his first question was “Why!?”

Its Nice That — 14 December 2018
Work / Photography Anna Sullivan creates a look back at the fascinating tradition of stilt walking shepherds

A little while ago, art director Anna Sullivan spotted an old vintage postcard featuring stilt walking shepherds. Stilt walking shepherds! Curious, as anyone in their right mind would be, Anna started digging into why these shepherds were atop stilts — which we now only associate with childhood games and circus performances — to herd sheep.

Lucy Bourton — 14 December 2018
Work / Animation Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared to debut at Sundance Film Festival

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Jyni Ong — 14 December 2018
Work / Film Director Angela Stephenson documents Manila's defiance for creative freedom in the narco-state

Boiler Room is yet again shedding light on important social issues in a part of the world that is little known to us. The second film for its Contemporary Scenes series is To Live & Die in Manila and sees music orientated artists from the Filipino capital emotively express their frustrations under the bloodbaths incurred by the president of just over two years, Rodrigo Duterte.

Jyni Ong — 14 December 2018
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Josh Baines — 14 December 2018
Work / Photograhy Yung Hua Chen’s photography is effortlessly glamorous

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Jyni Ong — 14 December 2018

Work / Graphic Design Design studio Julia on a decade of turning complex ideas into graphic symbols

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Regulars / Review of the Year 2018 Photographer Tyler Mitchell talks us through a momentous year in his career

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It's Nice That — 13 December 2018
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It's Nice That — 13 December 2018
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Regulars / Review of the Year 2018 Sophy Hollington on learning to be creatively fulfilled while earning a living in 2018

During parts of 2018 it almost felt like you couldn’t look at a magazine, bookshelf or website without spotting the work of illustrator Sophy Hollington. Her body of work — one that’s elevated the art of linocutting beyond hazy memories of art classes into a sought after stylistic medium — has the ability to transform any written piece it often seems to accompany. This is down to Sophy’s illustrative talents of course, but also her consideration of the task at hand, steeping her process in research, thematic influences and a genuine interest of exploring what visual imagery can do.

Lucy Bourton — 13 December 2018

Work / Ones To Watch 2018 Same Paper and KangHee Kim's latest book is a golden journey from dawn to dusk

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Ruby Boddington — 13 December 2018
Sponsored / Found in Adobe Stock We ask Duncan Cowles to create the ultimate Christmas ad, using only Adobe Stock and some expert advice

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Lucy Bourton — 13 December 2018
Work / Graphic Design Studio Albert Romagosa’s publication designs are uncomplicated yet intelligible

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Jyni Ong — 13 December 2018
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Ken Kirton — 12 December 2018
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It's Nice That — 12 December 2018
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Work / Illustration Seo-Young Kwon actively records thoughts and ideas that otherwise might float away

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Jyni Ong — 12 December 2018
Work / Animation Dante Zaballa's animation of Japan morphs through bullet trains and karaoke bars

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Ruby Boddington — 12 December 2018
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Ruby Boddington — 12 December 2018
Work / Graphic Design Blok rethinks the design of cannabis after its legalisation in Canada

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Jyni Ong — 12 December 2018
Work / Publication Peer behind the curtains of Christmas cinema with It's a Wonderful Lifetime

Christmas is the most sedentary of the holidays. This, obviously, is a good thing. After all, the occasional brief Boxing Day stroll aside, who wants to do much more than sit solidly on a sofa for what feels like an eternity, living off Maltesers, small bottles of living room temperature beer, and the saccharine sustenance that only Christmas films offer?

Josh Baines — 12 December 2018
Work / Publication “I’m a believer in form”: Geoff McFetridge on his new book of introspective drawings

Anyone who knows Geoff McFetridge’s work will know that his unique use of colour is often what makes his paintings particularly striking. Yet it turns out that reaching that final expression actually takes a lot of work involving very little colour at all. “The process for making the paintings involves doing a lot of work on paper,” the Los Angeles-based artist tells us. “The images are developed on paper by doing many drafts of the same images. So once I start to paint I am no longer thinking about the image, the entire focus becomes about colour.”

Matt Alagiah — 11 December 2018

Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays A rundown of our Nicer Tuesdays highlights of 2018

On the last Tuesday of every month this year, we and 400 other creative fanatics headed down to Oval Space in East London to watch four practitioners tell us about themselves and their work. With 44 talks done and four more to follow next week, this year’s Nicer Tuesdays has been full of often hilarious, sometimes serious but – ultimately – always insightful talks.

It's Nice That — 11 December 2018
Regulars / Review of the Year 2018 Eight creatives from around the world tell us what made their city tick in 2018

Here at It’s Nice That, we’re dedicated to keeping our approach to creativity resolutely global. As societies at large start to feel increasingly unstable, uncertain, and atomised, it is more important than ever to consider how to foster a sense of likemindedness across the creative industries, remembering that borders don’t have to exist in the way we’re told they do.

Josh Baines — 11 December 2018
Work / Illustration “Are we all avatars now?” asks digital painter Zak Keene

London-based illustrator Zak Keene trained as an architect and consequently has self-professed “OCD compulsions”. In architecture, “everything has to be precise to the millimetre”, Zak tells It’s Nice That. If measurements aren’t accurate, somewhere down the line “it could lead to big complications and the builders could call to say the staircase doesn’t reach the second floor!” Zak has become obsessed with the smallest details in his illustration work. His hyperreal digital drawings utilise architectural ratios that see the work totally to scale. When working, Zak asks himself, “am I drawing a 1:1, intimate close up of a hand clutching an object? Or am I drawing a zoomed out elevation encompassing an entire scene with figures against a landscape?”

Jyni Ong — 11 December 2018
Work / Photography Mohamad Abdouni on documenting an “important time in Arab queer culture”

“The way it currently stands, we as queer Arabs don’t have extensive (if any) documentation of our queer past and tend to refer to the West for reference and history,” explains Beirut born-and-raised photographer, filmmaker and editor-in-chief of Cold Cuts magazine, Mohamad Abdouni. Through both his commissioned and personal work, Mohamad is looking to change this fact, documenting the community he is apart of, and the culture it is beginning to thrive within.

Ruby Boddington — 11 December 2018
Sponsored / Product Design MUJI talks us through the brand’s famously minimal design aesthetic

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Sponsored Content — 11 December 2018
Work / Graphic Design Hitesh Malaviya on the challenges of designing type for an Indian audience

“I think India is the most diverse country in the world”, says freelance type designer Hitesh Malaviya. “We have 29 states and almost every state has a different language and culture. People in India currently speak about 780 languages, written in 11 different scripts.” Compared to type designers dealing with latin glyphs, designers like Rocky — as Hitesh is known to his friends — who design fonts for an Indian audience face the challenge of perfecting around 750 to 800 glyphs in each font and weight.

Jyni Ong — 11 December 2018

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