Hey Studio, Timi Akindele-Ajani and Alva Skog: Tickets are now available for October’s Nicer Tuesdays!

Getting excited for spooky season? Us too. But first things first, we plan to kick off October with a Nicer Tuesdays line-up that’s far from spooky. In fact, it’s really quite nice. So as the leaves begin to fall off the trees and the temperature starts to drop, let’s take a look at the creatives that are sure to brighten up the onset of the autumn months.

Taking to the stage will be Timi Akindele-Ajani, a photographer and filmmaker who will be talking about his moving and beautifully shot short film Guests, and Alva Skog, an illustrator renowned for their off-scale characters, with large hands and heads and buckets full of charm. And finally, what better way to continue the sunshine than with Barcelona’s most colourful studio, Hey. The studio founder Verònica Fuerte will be joining us all the way from Spain’s second biggest city to tell us all about creating a business from scratch, building a positive team environment, working with clients you care about and being a woman in a very male dominated industry.

October will also see the return of our art market, so get ready to be met with a bunch of brilliant creatives with handmade work that will look great on your mantelpiece, wall or even as part of your next favourite outfit.

The event will take place on 3 October with doors opening at 6pm. As this is an 18+ event, please bring ID with you to the venue. If you are in need of disability access, please make yourself known to a member of the EartH team on the evening or email hello@nicertuesdays.com so we can arrange assistance. Carry on reading to find out more about our incredible line-up of speakers.

15 years ago, the designer Verònica Fuerte started Hey Studio. For five years, the studio consisted of Verònica, and Verònica alone. Now, Hey has grown to become one of Spain’s most respected design studios – but it’s not been without dedication. Hey is founded on the principles of teamwork, community and leadership. On the visual side of things, Hey has a penchant for colour, vibrancy and pattern, with its unique style finding its way into all of its varied projects. Outside of Hey, Verònica is a vocal figure in the industry, leading her podcast Women in Work, which interviews women in design about their experiences. Safe to say, for anyone interested in starting their own venture, Verònica’s talk is set to be an insightful one.

Timi Akindele-Ajani is a creative who’s gone from strength to strength in the past few years. Whether he’s turning his camera to familiar scenes of his East London hometown, or using film to trace the history of Nubia Way – a Black-led self-built housing community in Lewisham – you can be sure he’s tracing the lives of people in the UK’s capital with care and thoughtfulness. In his upcoming BFI funded short film Guests, Timi tells the story of a Nigerian woman who hosts her English colleague for dinner, resulting in a powerful, beautifully shot film that “challenges our contemporary way of telling stories about racism”, and has visual echoes of Barry Jenkins’ 2018 film If Beale Street Could Talk. The culmination of four years of dedication and work, Timi’s behind-the-scenes insight won’t be one to miss.

When we first met Alva Skog, they had a few rules they maintained in their illustrations, one being “no tiny hands”. Later, they became one of our graduates of 2018, their disproportionate characters having won over our hearts. The illustrators’ career has skyrocketed since, and they’ve now created logos for London’s Design Museum, had their characters feature across WeTransfer’s interface, and has completed numerous editorial illustrations for the likes of The New York Times and The Guardian. At October’s Nicer Tuesdays, we’ll be finding out what it takes to forge your way in the world of illustration, how to create a distinctive style that still has flex, and maintaining authenticity.