Lydia Nichols’ illustrations are made to put a smile on your face. The author of numerous children’s books (including Halloween Trick or Treat: A Colors Book by RP Kids), her work delights both children and adults. Describing herself as an illustrator with a penchant for the quirky that wants to anthropomorphize all the things, her work tends to feature cartoonish looking animals (there are plenty of dogs but also frogs, insects, and even dinosaurs).
Having gone to school twice—first for a BFA in illustration then for an MFA in design—Nichols interned at Pixar, before moving on to freelance work in addition to design-related day jobs. Now a full-time illustrator, her impressive clientele includes brands like Google, Girl Scouts, MoMA, and Cricket Magazine.
“There’s no greater satisfaction than puzzling together an image or telling a bit of a story,” she shared in an interview with DesignWoop. According to Nichols, what motivates her to work as an illustrator is a love of shape and line. “I find inspiration in all sort of things, from books and museums to my pets to furniture and science writing,” she notes.
Nichols explains that it took years to find her unique creative voice, experimenting with her own work as well as learning to understand and accept the difference between work she enjoys from afar and work she herself likes making. “It turns out that large swathes of color and shape get me really excited as does the added detail of linework and pattern,” she adds.
Scroll down to see some of her recent work!
