Meet the Phaidon Kids illustrator - Lotta Nieminen
When she's not branding Hermès, Bulgari, and Marimekko, this Finnish designer makes Pasta!, Pancakes!, and Spaghetti! dishes look delicious for our interactive recipe books.
Clever, charming, and beautifully designed, Phaidon's Cook in a Book series offers a toddler-friendly, mess-free introduction to cooking. Each book features sturdy paper-engineered parts to guide aspiring chefs through simple, step-by-step recipes. Tabs, flaps, wheels, and pop-out shapes allow kids to prepare their favourite dishes – from pancakes and cookies to pizza, tacos, and spaghetti – without spills, stains, or crumbs.
The Cook In a Book collection - featuring Spaghetti, Pancakes!, Cookies! Tacos!, and Pizza! invites young children into the kitchen via a series of best selling interractive board books.
Much of the books' huge success is down to the woman who designed them, Finnish illustrator, graphic designer, and art director Lotta Nieminen. Born in 1986 in Helsinki, Finland, she studied graphic design at University of Art and Design Helsinki and Rhode Island School of Design, quickly gaining recognition for her fresh, modern aesthetic, which blends Scandi simplicity with a sophisticated, playful approach to composition.
After completing her studies, Nieminen worked for renowned design studios such as Pentagram in New York and RoAndCo before launching her own studio, Lotta Nieminen Studio, in 2012. Based in New York City, the studio specialises in branding, art direction, and illustration for a wide range of clients, including Hermès, Artek, Eadem, Marimekko, Volkswagen, Bulgari, and The New York Times.
Her work is characterised by clean lines, flat yet dynamic compositions, and a thoughtful balance of colour and form which exudes clarity and sophistication while maintaining a sense of warmth. Her Phaidon Cook In a Book series is a great example of her strong visual storytelling skills.
To celebrate 20 years of Phaidon Kids, we’re talking to a number of the illustrators and authors behind our brilliant children’s books. Once you've read our interview with Lotta, take a look in the Phaidon Kids store and check out more of her fabulous work at LottaNieminen.com.
How did the books you read as a kid impact on your work today? One of my favourite (and earliest) children’s books is Tove Jansson’s The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My. It also has such a beautiful executed interactive element throughout — die cut holes that reveal details of the following spread. As a child, I found this transportive element so magical! Looking back, I can see how it directly influenced my excitement for creating interactive books.
Why books? What do they offer that other mediums do not? Children’s books have a unique ability to create immersive worlds and conveying deep emotions within a limited number of pages. Their tactile nature feels especially meaningful in an increasingly digital world. Right now, I’m reading my daughter some of the same books that were read to me as a child, and there’s something special about seeing the wear of time on a well-loved book, the history that object carries.
What did you draw as a kid?
This!
What role does colour play in the Cook In a Book series? In the Cook in a Book series, colour plays a big role in conveying not only mood, but temperature and flavours. I want the colour palettes to feel delicious, and distinct to each recipe. Here, the colours also have an informative role: frying or mixing can change an ingredient’s colour and texture, which can be used in interactive components in the form of gradients.
How would you describe your style in terms of your children’s illustrations and how does it differ from your wider work? When I began working on the Cook in a Book series, it gave me an opportunity to illustrate using larger shapes with a strong focus on colour. At the time, I had started to feel somewhat pigeonholed into creating highly detailed, intricate landscapes. Nowadays, my primary focus is on graphic design, but love reverting back to being an illustrator when working on each new Cook in a Book!
What is your process for this series? The interactive elements are often a collaborative effort between art director Meagan Bennett and me, as we brainstorm possibilities for each food once it’s selected. When I receive a first draft of a new recipe, I distribute the steps into the available spreads. The pacing of the recipe determines where interactive elements can be placed, though I’ve occasionally suggested adjustments to the recipe order to allow for certain interactive mechanisms to better together. I like finding ways to have a visually impactful effect with as simple of a mechanism as possible.
Tell us about the challenges After having established the illustration style and visual approach through the first book, the challenge lies generally in the mechanisms and how to have each new book feel both fresh as well as cohesive within the series. With pull tabs, die-cut holes cannot overlap on opposite sides of the page, which impacts the placement of illustrated elements.
Despite these limitations, each spread's composition must still appear dynamic. Finalising the cover colour is generally one of the last, but also most discussed phases of the process. It’s been incredibly meaningful to see the series find its way into many homes. Knowing that Cook in a Book is part of someone's bedtime routine is especially rewarding, as the books I loved as a child still mean so much to me today.
What do the best illustrators do in your opinion? The creatives I admire most stay true to themselves while constantly pushing the boundaries of their style and craft. As an illustrator, this can be challenging when working on assignments that aren’t self-directed. Developing a style that feels authentic takes time, and it’s important to create work that remains genuine rather than following visual trends.
LOTTA NIEMINEN BOOKS TO BUY NOW