OUGD502 - Studio Brief 1 - Guest Speaker - Connor from It's Nice That

Connor from It's Nice That 

Connor works for It's Nice That blog. It's Nice That aim to publish at least 13 articles everyday on a range of art and design subjects. Within the company they also have It's Nice That Anyways which is the design element and Lecture in Progress. It's Nice That write about everything creative. They meet twice a week to decide what they are going to publish. Printed Pages is their magazine which is published twice a year. 

They choose their best features from throughout the year to put within the magazine, which acts as a physical documentation of the year. The magazine always features  lesser known artist / designer on the cover. He suggested that when creating publications, printing out smaller versions of the pages then sticking them up allows you to easily rearrange the pages and see the flow of the magazine. 

Nicer Tuesdays gets creatives to talk about there work for 10 minutes.

How do they make money? It's Nice That work with big brands to create events and provide art direction.

Lecture in progress aims to bridge the gap between the student and professional within the industry and tries to focus on showing jobs that are quite niche.

Timex is a new watch that has been released that is the embodiment of It's Nice That.

Connor is an art director who did a mix of things during his degree. He was unsure what he wanted to do after university but got a job working for an audio company where he made instructions, photographed and designed packaging for products. 

He did an internship with It's Nice That where he did the branding for The Graduates. He had to learn how to do animation on the job to be able to animate the characters and identity for it. He suggested that making reference pages for commissions, which are simple visualisations of the idea, through things such as sketches and photographs. Mocking things up physically means you are better able to communicate an idea. He said that if the mock ups are good enough than you can win any pitch as it doesn't leave any room for the imagination.

Outside his work he has also done animations for record labels , making elements move within designs. 

Connor said it is important to keep learning new skills, moving on and changing. 
Applying for the Graduates is also a good idea.