Hello and welcome to the new look It’s Nice That

Hello and welcome to the new look It’s Nice That. Just over eight years ago we launched the first ever version of It’s Nice That. What started as a response to a university brief has seen many changes and iterations in its steady growth, and internally we’re referring to this redesign as version five – the most recent big change to the site being back in April 2012. A lot has changed since then and this redesign sees not only a change to our look and feel but also our editorial structure.

We have introduced a News category that needs little explanation, and there you can expect short, sharp and timely articles. Work articles should be the most familiar to our readers, championing the most exciting work from established and emerging creatives and giving you the context to better understand them. Finally, we have better signposted Features where we will showcase long-form interviews, essays and photo essays in an uncluttered, easy to read way. Many of these will also include commissioned creative from illustration, photography and film. We have also uploaded the back catalogue of Printed Pages magazine articles to give you an idea of what you can expect here.

All of this comes as we champion creativity to as big an audience as we’ve ever had. On Monday we broke our monthly record for unique visitors in a calendar month (with five days still to go). Our ambition is to continue to grow this audience and give more visibility to the incredible creativity happening across the globe to as many people. We’ve also renewed our commercial opportunities, placing less emphasis on display advertising and moving towards longer term partnerships with brands and providing our readers with complete transparency as to where content has come from.

Alongside our new site, we are also making a few small changes to the network of platforms It’s Nice That publish. Printed Pages, our printed magazine, will take the Annual under its wing to become a bigger biannual title showcasing the most interesting work and features we have run online, you can expect the next iteration towards the end of the year. Nicer Tuesdays and Here will continue to run and wherever possible videos of those talks will be available to watch in our aptly named Watch section of the site.

Before I sign off though there are naturally a few thank yous and credits to be given. This design is the first time we have worked with external expertise (and I think you’ll agree it’s for the best!) in Paul McGregor who has done a sterling job. We also worked with Dan Powell building front end prototypes and testing sites and of course With Associates (and Tom in particular) who built the back end of the site and have done so for the past six years.

Internally this is a team effort and everyone has played their part both past and present. We’ve been lucky to work with some amazing people over the last eight years and everyone has contributed to where we are today. Finally and by no means least we would be nothing without the great work we post every day and the creatives responsible for making it – keep doing what you’re doing!

Just like any eight year old though, we can just about dress and feed ourselves but there’s a long way to go and we’re still learning. If you have any feedback or suggestions please do get in touch — wh@itsnicethat.com.