COLLAGE QUEEN: Lorena Siminovich

ARTIST Lorena Siminovich has made quite an impact upon the graphic design for children we see around us today.

We are now so used to seeing collage mixed with illlustration, it’s easy to forget Lorena’s influence on the style. Her petit collage brand has spawned a number of copycats, but the San Francisco-based Lorena is not a one-trick pony. Her wooden cutout mobiles, new decals (elephant pictured below), and in particular her growing range of book titles - including her Petit Collage touch and feel baby board books for Templar (in the UK) and her series of story books featuring the characters Alex & Lulu, [picture below left] mark her out as a special talent. Here she took a break from designing to talk to us:

LittleBig: What were the seeds of your very distinctive style?

Lorena: My background is graphic design and art direction, however I always had a bit of an obsession collecting papers without a clear goal in mind. I had been feeling for a while my illustration style was too dependent on the digital. One day, for my friend’s baby shower, I quickly did an little owl family original collage. I loved the connection with the real materials and I kept experimenting with supports, until wood came into the picture, and my company, and then my art style was born.

LB: Does it surprise you that collage illustration has now become mainstream?

LS: Yes and no. I guess other artists also needed to find a connection with hand-made art after the 1990’s being so digital. I was influenced by designers like Paul Rand, Ivan Chermayoff and Eric Carle.

LB: We weren’t expecting your Alex and Lulu stories (pictured below) to be so strong. What was the basis for the characters, and did you find it difficult writing stories rather than just illustrating them?

LS: Alex and Lulu are characters based on my brother Alex and me. Since I had their voices clear in my head, the ideas came easy for the books at first. However there is so, so much refining and editing until the navigation through the book is right. I’m a storyteller at heart, so with the help of my amazing editor at Templar, the books came to life.

LB: Why do you think your illustrations appeal so much to young children - and have you ‘angled’ them this way?

LS: I think something about my colors and characters must be working! I love what I do, and it comes naturally to me. Both in my product company Petit Collage, and in my children’s books I just do what I feel like without too much over-thinking.

LB: What does your own daughter like best of all your products?

LS: Matilda is 2. She loves her mobile and alphabet poster from Petit Collage and she loves all my board books especially “I like Bugs” and “In My Nest”.

LB: You now work for so many clients: what are your new projects and what are you most excited about and why?

LS: The number one thing is that my new website will be up this month, and will include all my books and recent work! I can’t really tell much about other projects..shhhh!

LB: Will there be more from Alex & Lulu?
LS: Time will tell. I hope so!

*www.petitcollage.com; www.lorenasiminovich.com; Buy all Lorena’s titles for Templar at: www.templarco.co.uk