Lotta Nieminen: Cook in a Book Event Recap
Lotta Nieminen’s work spans a variety of mediums: from graphic design and branding to illustration and product. For her first publication with Phaidon, she designed and illustrated a series of interactive children’s books that presents young readers with a visual introduction to recipes and cooking. In our pane — with her Phaidon publishing team — she discussed the process and inspiration for this unique collaboration as well as introduced Pizza!, the second release in the Cook In A Book series.
The following is a brief recap of the panel discussion on creating the Cook in A Book series, as well as creating children’s’ books in general.
Moderator:
Julia Rothman, Illustrator
Panel:
Lotta Nieminen, Illustrator, Graphic Designer and Art Director
Cecily Kaiser, Publishing Director, Children’s Books at Phaidon Press
Meagan Bennett, Art Director of Children’s Books, Phaidon Press
Julia: How did the partnership come to be?
Meagan: I had tried to hire Lotta for a project that didn’t work out, but since then, she had always been on the radar. This particular idea [Cook in a Book] was being tossed around and she seemed like the natural fit for what they were envisioning for these books to look and feel like. The idea came first then we figured out what we wanted it to look like and who to execute it.
Cecily: How can we take the Phaidon brand, and it’s strong suits, into children’s’ books? The idea of this book is that children can cook in a book without help — many cook books aren’t for children, they’re for adults teaching children.
Lotta: I was going through a work related existential crisis, particularly with illustration. I was building cityscapes with illustrations but was hitting a dead end, feeling like that work was exhausted. I stopped taking on illustration work, but was taking on graphic design commissions. I was intrigued with the Phaidon request because I didn’t know what it was about. My first question was: do I have to draw buildings? Very rarely do I get commissioned outside of this work [buildings], so I understand why a portfolio of that draws that kind of work. But, I was interested in doing something different. This project ended up being so much more about shape and color and composition, and not a million little details. It felt like it was a perfect marriage of graphic design and illustration. But this also made me more excited about the cityscapes in the end because I explored a new direction.
Meagan: The one rule was no beige!
Cecily: We realized that a lot of these elements had the feel of a beautiful play kitchen, I don’t know how many people know novelty books, but most are super ugly. They are really just not considering the art or style and the books turn out looking very, very commercial. We wanted to elevate the whole category, but couldn’t be too sophisticated. Had to have youthful energy. We work with a lot of artists who haven’t done children’s book, so they create this new style they think is what we want. No, we hired you for the style you do already!
Julia: In terms of simplicity, or color, is there things that need to be in there based on child development?
Cecily: We always choose an age-range, but when we go out into the world we know there will be kids outside of that range. So we need to keep that in mind so we know who to make this for. You can’t make it too busy, they have to know what to do. High-contrast is essential for little kids, but as they get older they start to see everything. You have to try not to overwhelm them. A lot of other books do that, and their brains can’t handle that.
Lotta: I didn’t think about the kids when I was making this, but I do think that the same visuals that appeal to an adult would appeal to kids, and under no circumstances did I want to dumb it down. Like “kids don’t appreciate color, etc.” The child aspect was more on Phaidon’s shoulders.
Julia: What kind of references did you have growing up in Finland?
Lotta: Tove Jansson and Moomin books. There’s a joke in Finland, “Why is the Moomin so fat? Because Jansson forgot to draw a butthole.”
Julia: Once the look was determined, how did you decide what was going to be mechanical?
Meagan: We worked out the storyboard on each page and then brought it to Lotta. But for Pizza! we brought Lotta in earlier and that worked out much better. She helped conceive each movement and the novelty on the page.
Julia: The design references real packaging, were you actively looking for these popular brands?
Lotta: Less looking in my cabinet, but more on Google image search. What is [packaging] most commonly perceived as baking power? Sugar? Obviously Domino wouldn’t read in Europe, but with the little metal nose on the package, it does. And it’s just an extra if you catch that it’s Domino.
Cecily: Nothing in a good children’s book is arbitrary, everything from the colors to the references is considered. It’s not like “let’s just make this green”, every piece has to come together. Children of this age group are very very very literal, they take everything at face value. If it says scooping, it has to scoop.
Meagan: We tried really hard to make the mechanism and the action be the actual one you do when you’re cooking. It has to feel real. Making it organic.
Julia: Is it hard to figure out the illustration after figuring out what the mechanism is?
Lotta: Yes, sometimes it was impossible to make something 2D, 3D. We also had an interesting exploration with texture. My “horse1.jpg” is the only texture I’ve used on my files for the last 10 years. It’s just a photocopied paper. It’s a little restrictive and the file is not very big, so I struggle with large files. But, for this book, that texture wasn’t enough. I created a handmade texture with tools on paper. I realized I was sitting on this folder of textures, and it ended up being perfect.
Julia: What about the writing part?
Cecily: I made my recipe based on our own findings. Basically we made our own recipe and broke it into steps that felt right for the age group. We started with that manuscript but with the design process, we change things.
Julia: The Cover…
Cecily: Decision by committee. You have a lot of stakeholders who need to be satisfied by the cover. It’s the thing that’s sticking out for the person. The sales people have to weigh in on trends and distributors (“I just got back from B&N and they hate green!”). If all our books this season are blue we need to rethink using blue. We have to make sure the title reads well too. The Creative Director [at Phaidon] has to think of the Phaidon brand and then you have a CEO who always wants to get involved.
