News / Animation

Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies aged 82

Words by Daphne Milner, Friday 06 April 2018

Isaotakahata-spiritedaway-studioghibli-animation-itsnicethat — Still from Spirited Away

Oscar-nominated Japanese anime director Isao Takahata has died at the age of 82. Takahata, the co-founder of the celebrated Studio Ghibli, received international acclaim for his astonishing 1988 film Grave of the Fireflies, with his latest film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya earning him an Oscar nomination in 2015 for best animated feature.

Takahata was born in Mie, a prefecture of central Japan, in 1935 and began his film career in 1959 at Toei studios after passing the company’s entrance exam. It was during this time that Takahata met long-term collaborator and iconic director Hayao Miyazaki. The two founded Studio Ghibli together in 1985, a now world-renowned animation studio. Eight of Studio Ghibli’s films are among the 15 highest-grossing anime films in Japan, including the global hit Spirited Away.

Takahata and Miyazaki’s animations are known for their hand-drawn aesthetics, an increasingly rare style as digital filmmaking becomes more accesible. Their films cover a broad range of important topics, from environmentalism to war. Grave of the Fireflies, for example, tells the tale of two orphans during the second world war and was described by critic Roger Ebert in 2000 as “an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation.”

More like this:

Work / Animation Jon Frickey animates the Kafkaesque tale of a dad who discovers his son is in fact a cat

“In actuality, the film started out as a silly joke,” says Hamburg-based animator Jon Frickey about his sweet and dryly funny animated short Cat Days, which follows a father as he discovers that his visibly human son is actually a cat. Unwell, the child Jiro is taken to the doctors by his doting dad, where he’s diagnosed with cat flu and is subsequently reclassified as feline. “I soon realised that the idea could be turned into something somewhat deep if I stuck to the Kafkaesque element of everyone accepting the doctor’s unreal diagnosis,” Jon tells It’s Nice That, after we spotted the film at Pictoplasma. “To me it was clear, this is about gender. But I am very fine with people not seeing it that way.”

Laura Snoad — 30 May 2019
Media Partnership / Animation The Glastonbury of moving image: It’s Nice That’s week at Pictoplasma

A few weeks back now (although we assume most of its attendees and speakers have only just recovered), we took a trip to Berlin to visit Pictoplasma, an international festival of character design and art. What we discovered, however, wasn’t your usual conference spent slouched and half-listening to talk after talk, but a literal festival that included exhibitions, workshops, screenings – and karaoke. There’s also a giant, bumbling, fluffy mascot which will wander around during the day and hug you, or pour you a shot of vodka in the evening.

Lucy Bourton — 29 May 2019
Work / Art Humans since 1982 collect the uncollectible concept of motion

Traversing art, design and technology, the artist duo known as Humans since 1982 is in fact, founded by two artists born in the year of 1982. Bastian Bischoff and Per Emanuelsson met as postgraduate students at HDK Göteborg. Upon realising a shared curiosity to make sense of the world through art and design, the pair began collaborating; creating an array of hypnotising and experiential installations which combines engineering with playfulness and meticulous process.

Jyni Ong — 28 May 2019
Work / Graphic Design Graphic designer HeeJae Kim uses personal projects as an opportunity for “fun and growth”

Korean American graphic designer HeeJae Kim’s portfolio is one full of colour and personality. While some familiar elements do appear across his designs, HeeJae’s work is always underpinned by an attitude towards graphic design that sees typographic elements handled in an illustrative manner, a fact that’s inspired by his initial studies in illustration.

Ruby Boddington — 24 May 2019
Work / Animation For Alice Monvaillier, animation is a "pretty magical process"

Recently exhibiting at Pictoplasma festival in Berlin a couple of weeks ago, Alice Monvaillier showcased her new film, created specifically for the festival. “I was totally free to show whatever I wanted and decided to make an animation because I’ve always loved making experimental shorts, but never had the chance to develop a fully-fledged project," she tells It’s Nice That.

Jyni Ong — 20 May 2019
Work / Animation Daria Kashcheeva combines stop motion, documentary-style filmmaking and painterly techniques

To evoke the complexity of human emotion via the manipulation of non-human objects is one of the great challenges in animation. In her BA graduate film, FAMU animation student Daria Kashcheeva manages not only to immerse her audience in the fraught relationships that make up her family drama, Daughter, but also to ground the perspective from which the film is shot firmly in the immediacy of human experience by mimicking the viewpoint of a hand-held camera.

Rebecca Irvin — 16 May 2019

Work / Photography Photographer Svetlana Bulatova documents the environmental trauma of the Chechen wars

“I wish to explore the bond between human and nature,” says St. Petersburg-based independent documentary photographer, Svetlana Bulatova. Svetlana embarked on her career in photography as part of a charity foundation, and is a current member of Women Photograph, an international organisation for promoting the work of female documentary journalists.

Rebecca Irvin — 14 June 2019
Work / Art From designer to full time artist, Caroline Walls on her gestural paintings

After working for a number of years as a designer and art director at fashion and lifestyle brand agencies in New York and London, Caroline Walls moved back to her native Melbourne to pursue her own artistic practice. She tells It’s Nice That, “After ten years of working in the industry, I craved some creative autonomy and felt a real yearning to explore my own art practice away from the restrictions of clients and design briefs.”

Jyni Ong — 14 June 2019
Work / Digital Benjamin Muzzin on how digital art needs to be “shaken up badly”

Growing up in a small town in Switzerland, as a young boy Benjamin Muzzin found solace in the computer. “It was a great window into knowing what was going on abroad and the only way to feel part of a subculture for a while as I wasn’t really interested in what was going on in the mainstream media,” he tells It’s Nice That. Years later, Benjamin went onto study media and interaction design at ECAL, experimenting with CGI, 3D and video mapping softwares, which were still pretty new back then in 2010.

Jyni Ong — 14 June 2019
Work / Illustration Choose Your Fighter: illustrator Kevin Sabo’s queering of hyper-masculine gaming culture

Illustrator Kevin Sabo is a self-confessed “fanatic” for gay pop culture. “I know way too much about the shit that doesn’t make me any smarter,” he says, “but I’m so addicted to it anyway. I believe there is a purpose in my addiction.” With his new series, Choose Your Fighter, currently on display at the Well Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, Kevin invokes a host of visual and conceptual femme-pop references to combat the typically overtly masculine overtones of gaming culture. In Kevin’s words: “You’ll find fashion inspiration from Lil Kim or the Spice Girls. You’ll find colours and fonts that are inspired by movies like Kill Bill. Janet Jackson’s ‘Velvet Rope’ era definitely infiltrates my style – that album contains so much raw vulnerability mixed with sex mixed with truth mixed with anger mixed with a persistence to find peace.”

Rebecca Irvin — 14 June 2019
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Matthew Jones gives insight into Accept & Proceed's work for Nasa

Matthew Jones, the creative director of Accept & Proceed, left the designers in the room squirming with jealousy after giving insight into the studio’s work for Nasa during his talk at last month’s Nicer Tuesdays. Accept & Proceed is a graphic design agency based in East London’s Hackney Downs but as a team, Matthew told us, “we come from all over the world”.

It's Nice That — 14 June 2019
Work / Illustration Illustrator Jordan Awan on fulfilling his childhood dream

As a child, Jordan Awan spent hours diligently studying his parents’ anthology of New Yorker cartoons. They say the apple rarely falls far from the tree and, in Jordan’s case, this is undeniably true: many of his ancestors were themselves renowned artists, including Rea Irvin, Otto Soglow, Saul Steinberg and Charles Barsotti. It was, however, during a family outing that Jordan decided on a creative career. “My parents took me to a Keith Haring show in DC in the early 90s, maybe 1992; seeing his work is what made me want to be an artist,” Jordan recalls. 20 year later, Jordan fulfilled his childhood dream and became art director at The New Yorker.

Daphne Milner — 14 June 2019

Work / Publication Nansen magazine emphasises the shared experiences of migrants

Fridtjof Nansen was a Norwegian explorer and humanitarian whose life-long project involved orchestrating relief for refugees after the First World War. For example, he created what became known as the Nansen Passport, a document that allowed stateless refugees safe passage into other countries. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for such philanthropic endeavours. Almost a century on, and his name has been taken up by Nansen magazine, a publication about migrants and their shared experiences like learning a new language or trying to build up a network.

Daphne Milner — 14 June 2019
Work / Graphic Design Swans, Lamborghinis, Indian luxury and Wild Wild Country inform Futur Neue’s new font

“My primary role is to answer communication problems” says Alex Dujet, co-founder of Futur Neue. The independent Geneva-based design studio is known for its sleek editorial graphic design as well as its experimental type design, research and interactive work for a variety of clients. Additionally co-founded by Constance Delamadeleine and Sébastien Mathys, the studio prides itself on its multi-disciplinary output for a number of cultural institutions and businesses alike.

Jyni Ong — 13 June 2019
Work / Illustration Illustrator Faye Moorhouse has made a trilogy of zines about her cat

We love Faye Moorhouse’s illustrations – we love the weird humour of them, we love their naivety, and we love the craft that goes into their making, which employs an extensive range of materials, including gouache, acrylic, pencil, ink, ceramic, collage and digital software. In her words: “My style is very immediate and messy. And hopefully funny – and a bit dark!”

Rebecca Irvin — 13 June 2019
Work / Photography This Fan Girl and Jackson Bowley document today’s authentic female football fan

Football fever is back and this time it’s taking the form of the most exciting Women’s World Cup to date. The audiences – both in the stadiums and behind the screen – are bigger than ever and there’s an air that women’s football is finally getting the attention it deserves. This atmosphere was only furthered by Nike’s announcement earlier this year that, for the first time ever, it was going to produce 28 kits (one home and one away for all 14 federations it supports) specifically for women. Gone are the days of buying an England shirt that doesn’t even fit you and paying extra to get “CARNEY” printed on the back!

Ruby Boddington — 13 June 2019
Work / Illustration Ilya Milstein's illustrations exist in the intersection between language and art

It is the intersection between language and illustration that inspires Ilya Milstein’s delicate illustrations. From detailed drawings of crowded libraries to romantic depictions of grape pickers, commissions for the The New Yorker to Red Bull, Ilya’s portfolio covers a broad range of subjects. “I’m trying to develop an efficient style that is inobtuse and highly legible, almost closer to writing than image-making,” Ilya says. “I think this is the greatest asset of my way of drawing, and one that’s entirely particular to this visual medium.”

Daphne Milner — 13 June 2019
Work / Graphic Design Tyler Spangler tells us about his transition from psychology to therapeutic typography

After initially studying for a degree in psychology, California-based artist Tyler Spangler started exploring visual mediums for creative expression. It was his work on flyers and other music-related promotional material during a brief stint running an illegal punk venue that got Tyler interested in graphic design. He attended Art Center in Pasadena for a year but, as he says, “dropped out due to boredom and finances”. He now works as a freelance typographic and graphic collage artist, sharing his creations with his extensive Instagram following.

Rebecca Irvin — 13 June 2019

Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Photographer Bex Day is “interested in the human condition”

Taking to the stage at last month’s Nicer Tuesdays was London-based photographer Bex Day. A 26-year-old, self-taught fashion and documentary photographer, she began by explaining: “My work focusses on identity, diversity, freedom of choice and gender equality. I’m interested in challenging rigid beauty ideals and stereotypes within my work.” She continued on to say that “I essentially want to take people out of boxes constructed by society which tend to enhance narrow-mindedness,” before preceding to introduce to project she was here to talk about: Hen.

Its Nice That — 13 June 2019
Regulars / The Graduates 2019 "Life is not about speed, but direction": Comforting tales from top creatives' first year out of art school

Many people (myself included) placed a great deal of pressure on the first year out of art school. Amidst pangs of anxiety around how to generate dat P, the recent graduate experience can be a very trying time. It’s hard to know what path to go down, especially as the options are mind-bogglingly varied. Should I move to the city? Should I go freelance? Will I even get some bloody work?

Jyni Ong — 13 June 2019
Regulars / Bookshelf Mother Design's team pick out the books that keep them inspired

Mother Design is an agency that needs little introduction. But, in case you need a little catching up, Mother Design is a branding and design studio founded in 2006 and has since grown to include an office in New York. Its team is known for completing some of the most recognisable work in the world of design for clients including BBC, New York Fashion Week and Nike.

Ruby Boddington — 12 June 2019
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Kirsten Algera on running MacGuffin, “a design magazine that is not about design”

Kirsten Algera, editor-in-chief of MacGuffin magazine, joined us at May’s Nicer Tuesdays to talk us through the biannual design and crafts magazine’s seventh issue: The Trousers. “MacGuffin is a design magazine that is not about design,” Kirsten announced. Rather, the publication was born out of “a desire to combine in-depth research and visual appeal”. Inspired by the MacGuffin technique, a term popularised by Alfred Hitchcock, which assigns significance to an object according to its effect on the characters and their actions, MacGuffin magazine is likewise a platform that is less about objects and more about the stories they tell.

It's Nice That — 12 June 2019
Work / Photography Alex Huanfa Cheng photographs the beautiful contradictions of contemporary China

Paris-based photographer Alex Huanfa Cheng was born in a small, rural village in the province of Hubei in central China. He explains that “life there is very conservative and poor” and that because of this, “my parents expected me to be an office guy and have a stable life.” Having worked hard throughout his education, Alex was admitted to study engineering in Beijing, but he found that the course bore little relation to his interests and personality. “I hated what I was doing,” he tells us. “I thought I had failed to follow the real me.”

Rebecca Irvin — 12 June 2019
Regulars / Ones to Watch 2019 Natsai Audrey Chieza explains her latest bio-fabricated installations

It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch shines a light on 12 emerging talents who we think will conquer the creative world in the coming year. Over the coming months, we’ll be catching up with creatives from our 2019 selection to see what they’ve been up to. Ones to Watch 2019 is supported by Uniqlo.

Daphne Milner — 12 June 2019

Work / Illustration “It’s the only thing that makes me feel alive”: Cindy Kang on her emotive illustrations

Born and raised in Seoul, along with a couple of other stints living in New Zealand, Australia and the US growing up, Cindy Kang eventually moved to the big apple with hopes and dreams of becoming an illustrator. She studied illustration at New York’s School of Visual Arts, pursuing an interest in storytelling through heartwarmingly atmospheric drawings. Currently represented by Bright Agency and with a number of commissions under her belt, Cindy’s American dream is gradually being realised; one painterly illustration at a time.

Jyni Ong — 12 June 2019
Work / Sponsored Content Made in Fukushima visualises the decontamination of rice fields in the wake of nuclear disaster

Made in Fukushima is the product of a collaboration between US-German manufacturer of sensors for agriculture and environmental science METER, communication agency Serviceplan Innovation and digital design studio Moby Digg and photographer Nick Frank, all based in Munich. METER’s mission bridges science and humanitarianism to provide sustainable solutions to issues related to climate change and the detrimental impact of human intervention on the natural landscape.

It's Nice That — 12 June 2019
Work / Illustration From arachnologist to full-time creative: Emma Roulette tells us about her illustration work

Emma Roulette, a full-time illustrator and teacher based in Barcelona, had a somewhat unusual introduction to the creative world. Yes, like most creatives she’s “been drawing or keeping a sketchbook since as early as I can remember,” but it was while pursuing a career as an arachnologist – that’s the study of spiders and related animals, by the way –that she first got paid to draw.

Ruby Boddington — 12 June 2019
Work / Photography Caleb Stein spent four years photographing the small town of Poughkeepsie

Over a four-year period, photographer Caleb Stein has been documenting life in the small American town of Poughkeepsie, where he studied and lived for six years. The recently completed series, Down by the Hudson, earned Caleb the Gomma Grant in 2018, and was included in this year’s Palm* Photo Prize exhibition.

Rebecca Irvin — 12 June 2019
Regulars / Nicer Tuesdays Johnny Kelly chats through the particularities of making puppets into believable characters

Despite admitting that he was “slightly queasy” about being stood in front of the Nicer Tuesdays audience last month, Johnny Kelly went on to give a blinder of a talk, detailing the process behind his recent series of ads for Cheerios.

It's Nice That — 11 June 2019
Work / Illustration Jan Robert Dünnweller's uses varying styles of illustration to display personality and point of view

Working out of Passau, a small town in south Germany nestled between Munich and Vienna, illustrator Jan Robert Dünnweller has been working away on thoughtful, flowing illustrations since 2013.

Lucy Bourton — 11 June 2019

Work / Photography Cengiz Yar documents the de-mining efforts in the city of Mosul

Photographer Cengiz Yar has been covering the conflict in Iraq since 2015. Originally from Chicago, Cengiz documented the lead up to the battle at Mosul for several news agencies, magazines and newspapers four years ago. “I was advancing and embedding with Iraqi troops and covering the humanitarian crisis as well,” explains Cengiz on his journalistic venture covering Iraqi forces attempting to rid Mosul of Isis.“Whatever was expected regarding what Isis had done with IEDs and mines in the area came to fruition and if anything, the damage was even worse than expected.”

Jyni Ong — 11 June 2019
Work / Publication Issue two of Partners Magazine shows the importance of communication in interpersonal relationships

Now in its second issue, Partners Magazine delivers a series of interviews that delve into interpersonal relationships and connections – whether they be romantic, platonic, familial or professional. Editor in chief Takuhito Kawashima states: “I came up with the concept while in a long distance relationship. My girlfriend was living in Berlin, I was living in Tokyo. Keeping in touch was easy: we could FaceTime, chat on messaging apps, talk on the phone or on Skype. However, as soon as we hung up, I would feel really lonely. The distance was suddenly real. Technology makes communication extremely easy but it can alter the ‘reality’ of a relationship. This is the principal idea behind Partners: modern relationships and bonds between people.”

Rebecca Irvin — 11 June 2019
Work / Graphic Design Laura Prim's posters for Rosenberg Kollectiv combine graphic shapes with expressive line work

Having founded her own studio in her hometown of St Gallen in 2014, Swiss graphic designer Laura Prim has created posters, book covers and visual identities for a range of exhibitions, festivals and events. Her work takes place predominantly in the cultural sector, in conjunction with galleries, museums, institutions and arts venues.

Rebecca Irvin — 11 June 2019
Work / Graphic Design Graphic designer Shamma Buhazza amalgamates the East and West to explore cultural identity

Originally from Abu Dhabi but now living and working (at Adidas) in Germany, graphic designer Shamma Buhazza’s portfolio is an amalgamation of cultural references. Through typography and editorial design, she brings together her times in the East and the West to explore cultural identity, nostalgia and the unfamiliar.

Ruby Boddington — 11 June 2019
Work / Illustration Jun Cen’s soothing illustrations explore loneliness in the modern era

The Chinese artist Jun Cen possesses an enviable clientele list that any illustrator would be happy to adopt. He’s been commissioned by the likes of The New York Times, The New Yorker (several times) as well as WeTransfer, Anxy magazine, Wall Street Journal and Vogue to name a few. At the forefront of editorial illustration, the New York-based artist moved to the States to study an MFA in illustration in Maryland, having previously studied printmaking in his native city of Guangzhou, China.

Jyni Ong — 11 June 2019
Work / Photography Macaulay Lerman photographs the retired nomad community of Fritz Creek Alaska

Roaming is central to photographer Macaulay Lerman’s way of understanding the world and his place in it. He speaks of the “endless hours spent reading The Lord of the Rings and gallivanting off on epic quests of my own in the woods behind my family’s home” as a child, and, later, how he “began travelling in slowly expanding circles away from New England.” Having spent much of his young adult life hitchhiking, driving in vans and riding freight trains across Canada and the US armed with a journal, his current photographic practice continues to draw on his capacity for documentation and storytelling, for the tracing of a journey through narrative.

Rebecca Irvin — 10 June 2019