Who is Nightmare Sugar?

I’m Nathan Spence. My career started when I was a child with drawing dinosaurs and designing my own board games. That interest in creating and problem-solving took me to university to study Fine Art and Graphic Design.

My goal was to work in the music industry, so I pursued an internship at the London studio Stylorouge with creative director Rob O’Connor. The experience prepared me for a role at Mainartery, where I collaborated with Jo Mirowski to design album covers and posters for Repertoire Records and SPV Records.

After two years in London, I joined Phelan Barker, a branding studio in Essex. I applied my illustrative skills to logos, websites, and publications, and I specialized in building entire brand identities for start-ups. In 2013, I took a year to travel. Nightmare Sugar started somewhere in the middle of all that.

I tattooed for a couple of years and may go back to it. Right now I’m deep in two tabletop board game projects. If you’re a creative person or a small business with something worth making, get in touch.