"Ooh! I put on my shoes, and I'm ready for the Weekender" - Calvin Harris

“Scorchio!” is the word of the week for the Weekender. It’s been a joy to have the sun beaming down on us so perpetually, and to avoid wishing that heat away the Weekender is adopting a sensible summer regimen to get through it. This includes a daily dose of ice cream of your choice, the right to say “God it’s hot!” up to eight times a day and a uniform of loose-fitting bits of material that we can get away with calling “clothes.” If you want the same prescription as the Weekender read on ahead and come see us after – we’ll be melting in the park dreaming of paddling pools.

– One-of-a-kind photographer Juno Calypso’s new exhibition opens at London’s Flowers Gallery this week. This time around she spent a solo evening at the Honeymoon Hotel in Pennsylvania in the company of her alter ego, Joyce. The very best yet.

– This week we launched our annual student spectacular, The It’s Nice That Graduates of 2015, and what a talented collection they are. With 16 students spanning the disciplines of art, graphic design, illustration and photography, we show them off to their very best advantage here. You’d be a wally not to check them out.

– How about a 22-minute-long stop motion animation entirely knitted out of wool? Nudinits is a spectacular feat of woolwork set in the town of Woolly Bush and based around a community of nudists. Cue bush trimming, helmet polishing and Brit innuendo aplenty.

– Sam Kalda’s new series is the perfect tribute for the cat-loving man in your life – taking brilliant gents and their feline companions and preserving them in the form of illustration for posterity.

– This week the winners of D&AD’s New Blood Awards were announced, promising brilliant things for the future of creativity in the UK.

– We spoke to the founder of design blog Gurafiku about just what it is with Japanese graphic design that makes it so compelling – from the comparative shortage of Japanese typefaces which encourages designers to create custom type for every new poster or book project, to the legacy of woodblock printing. Have a read here.

– The new issue of Intern magazine is here! Staying true to its original aim – providing paid creative work for the most exciting new up-and-coming designers, illustrators, writers and photographers – this magazine looks at the theme of Education, and includes some stunning commissions, fresh new names, and some practical advice in the process.

– The new issue of The New York Times Book Review has just unveiled its first ever art issue in a long reign of 119 years, for which five contemporary artists have created visual book reviews. Not sure what we mean? Find out all about it here. We promise you, you’ll be glad you did.

– Mariette Pathy Allen spent nine years photographing members of the transgender community in New Orleans, establishing a close relationship which allowed her to create the most compelling, intimate portraits we’ve seen in the field.

– Sports photographer extraordinaire Emily Maye has had a busy couple of months, flying around the world to capture various events before descending upon the Tour de France next week for 15 days of cycling photography. We grabbed her in a rare peaceful moment to hear the story behind her photographs of Ivy League track for METER magazine.

- This week NPR had this great piece about one of Mary Ellen Mark’s most recognisable photographs, the one of the nine-year-old girl smoking while standing in a paddling pool and wearing fake nails, titled Amanda and her cousin Amy. In the article they track down Amanda, now 34-years-old and talk to her about the moment she saw the photograph 25 years later.

- Creative Review put up a handy list of Cannes Lions 2015 winners and it’s worth checking out to get a sense of the ad world right now. Eliza Williams also offers up some commentary of this year’s festival and questions the reasons why people are attending.

- Damien Hirst feels like he’s now lost the power to shock and in this Guardian article he talks about how he’s going to open his own gallery. It’s a fascinating read with the first few lines referencing a foreskin-based gag he used to do in his “glory years.”

- This week saw music mogul Will.I.Am bad mouthing Youtube ads on a panel of media and ad industry leaders, claiming no ones “paying attention to [them].”

- Dazed Digital gave us a run-down of the best trailers this month with all sorts of weird and wonderful motion pictures, so if you’re too hot to move just lay there and click.

Maisie Skidmore

“What’s an electric knife orchestra,” you ponder? I’m so glad you asked! It’s actually sixteen knives and one massive meat cleaver all brought to life to perform the Bee Gee’s 70s hit Stayin’ Alive, as thought up by artist Neil Mendoza. It’s a feat of sound engineering and of technical wizardry that turns the most terrifying and threatening of objects into harp-esque instruments. Watch and learn.

Beccy Fulleylove

This week I read a fairly lengthy article all about a particular piece of design in America that’s been plastered on paper cups, plates and other disposable finery since the early 90s. Months ago someone on Reddit (obvs) asked who designed it and this article tracks that first nugget of wonderment, all the way to actually speaking to the original designer, Gina Ekiss. It’s fascinating and weird to see the fanaticism that’s been built around this humble paper cup design.

Alex Hawkins

I have to admit I’ve yet to sit through an entire episode of Game of Thrones but some diehard fans struggling to fill their time now the most recent season has finished have recast Nicolas Cage as 30 different characters from the show in Cage of Thrones. After Nic’s one-man show I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch the real GoT, it just couldn’t ever live up to this.

Emily Gosling

Yesterday I learnt how to say “The Simpsons” in Arabic, so in celebration I’m going to share one of their finest musical moments: that time Homer was in a really cool grunge band called Sadgasm (which is way better than actual grunge band names, we’re looking at you TAD). The song is called Margerine (like Marge, geddit?) and it’s a masterpiece in dirty, distorted guitars lyrical wizardry like “I paid for her dreams, she taught me to cry, like watery knives, like rain from my eyes.”