Lotta Nieminen

That’s really cool. You may have touched on this, but did you have an “aha” moment when you knew that you wanted to pursue graphic design?

I guess it was when I actually heard what it was. I remember walking away from that university open house and I called my mom and said, “Why have you never told me about graphic design?”

I wasted a year dreaming about this whole movie director thing. I realized the thing I actually liked most about movies was the beginning titles and end credits and that was a separate job. My mom said, “Yeah, that’s not what a movie director does.”

Was there a point in your life when you decided you had to take a big risk to move forward? Would that be your move to New York?

It was definitely moving to New York. It was one of those things where you lie in your bed for two hours on a Sunday morning and just think about life and what you’re going to do with it. I had booked tickets to fly into NY because I had been nominated for an award for Print Magazine and they had an opening exhibition. I took a week of vacation from the fashion magazine I was working at to go to NY. I thought it would be a good opportunity to apply for jobs. A very good friend of mine had done this project for school where she had compiled a list of basically every creative and graphic design agency in NY. That night, I went through the entire list and color coded them based on my interest. There were five places I really wanted to work that were worth the risk of leaving everything behind. I already loved my job in Finland, so I had to consider what could be something even better than that. I emailed the five places and was lucky enough to get interviews at all of them.

It was funny because I loved my job and my apartment and my friends in Finland. Everything was good, but almost too good. The closest way I can explain it is—it’s like when you’re a kid and you build a big tower with blocks, but when it’s done, you don’t just want to look at it, and you knock it over and build a new one. You want to see if you can build something bigger and taller. It’s not that I wanted to be uncomfortable; I just felt like I was still so young and had time to see the what-ifs. What if I lived in NY? What would that be like?

Also, my parents lived in Lisbon, Portugal by that time and my sister was in London, which made the decision easier. When I was young, my family had also lived in Paris for five years. Those things have changed the concept of home to me; it’s less of a physical place and more of a place that you build around people you love and feel comfortable with. When I came over here, I realized that Americans are already accustomed to that idea because they study on a different coast or their family moves and is less rooted to a place.

I have many friends where I was raised and they were surprised I moved because they said they could never leave Finland. For me, the move was nice and I also had friends in NY. It was a big risk, but I felt like I already had a safety net here.

Tina: Did you get a job offer right away and then move?

I came around May and then I had to wait for a while to move because I had a contract at my job in Finland and I had to empty out my apartment. Everything I own is here in this apartment or in boxes in my attic. I moved to New York in August 2010.

Ryan: You said you worked at Pentagram, right?

I interned there. Basically every studio was like, “We’d love to have you, but nobody knows who you are so we kinda want to test you out first.” If I was an American, they might have worked with me as a freelancer, but as a foreigner, I needed a visa and couldn’t get that working freelance. I really liked being at Pentagram. I was under Paula Scher and I really looked up to her. It was a great time, but at the same time, I didn’t know if I wanted to get bound to one job. I knew that my next full-time job would probably be my last before going out on my own and I wanted to do something that was close to what I wanted to do by myself. RoAndCo fell into that because of the fashion design aspect, which I fell in love with. It definitely felt like the best place for me.

Did you ever have any mentors along the way?

I had some very influential teachers. One was Tapio Vapaasalo, who was the head of the graphic design department at the university in Helsinki—he just retired this year. I had him my first year and he was this father figure that helped me be certain that graphic design was really what I wanted to do. There is always this uncertainty at first when choosing your career path, when you ask yourself, “Is this it?”

At RISD I took this editorial illustration class with Chris Buzelli and it was a much needed boost for my self-confidence. For the first time, I got some good, proper feedback on my illustration. I think the other students were intrigued with my work because my style was so different. After that, I started doing illustration just as seriously as I was already doing graphic design.

Are your family and friends supportive of what you do?

Yeah, very. My parents have always been really proud of me. Like I said, I never felt pressured to take the path I ended up taking. Another supportive person is my boyfriend, who is also a graphic designer. I very much look up to his work and value his opinion. He likes my work, but I also know that I’ll always get honest feedback from him and I appreciate that.

Do you feel a responsibility to contribute to something bigger than yourself through your work?

Yeah. This was one of the tricky questions. I’m doing what I love and what I’m best at and if with that I can help other people feel as happy as I do about the work I make, it’s mainly a bonus. I’m responsible to think about the things I do and to challenge myself. My work is my way to touch other people’s lives. When you do something and you don’t feel grateful and appreciative about it, that’s not possible. You can make other people happy by being happy. So that’s the greatest responsibility I feel in my work.

Are you satisfied creatively?

I am very satisfied creatively. I’ve come to realize that the things I want have more to do with the quality of life rather than work goals. I want to have time for myself and enjoy life. I feel so lucky to have found this thing I love, but I still don’t want it to be my everything. In terms of satisfaction and the future, my work goals are not as much the big picture because I’ve already reached some of my goals in making the big decision to move to NY to pursue my career.

I’ve really been wanting to expand outside of print and I’ve been working with some new mediums. More recently I’ve done a label for a wine bottle, an illustration for a Helsinki-themed hand embroidered cushion, and carpet for the Finnish company Tikau.

Tina: This is off topic, but I have to ask. Since you didn’t grow up here in the US, do you notice a difference between the way people work and what they value compared to Finland?

It’s very intense here. I used to complain about my job in Finland, but now that I’m here, working there felt like a retirement house compared to New York. It’s a different mindset.

Even when I went to RISD, I noticed that although I had always thought I was a motivated and hard-working student in Helsinki, there I felt my effort only to be around average. The difference in the scholarly system is that we don’t pay for university. When your parents pay $30,000 for tuition, I guess you have to deliver in a totally different way.

I feel like lately there’s been this big social movement toward downshifting and I hope that continues. I came to realize that even if I say “no” to things, people will still come back to me for things. I don’t need to be the “yes” man. I am really ambitious, but I want to channel some of that ambition to making a life for myself. On my deathbed, I hope I’ve worked less and spent more time eating dinner with friends, seeing my family, talking with my grandparents. Rarely do people think, “I wish I would have worked more.”

Since we’re talking about this sort of thing… if you could go back and do one thing differently, what would it be?

I think I’m very much a fatalist. It’s maybe kind of cheesy to say. I’m not a very spiritual person, but I believe that things happen how they’re meant to be. I’ve had to believe that, especially with the changes in my life—quitting a job I loved and moving to another country, which is extremely hard to do. I had to have this kind of take that there’s always a goal you’re headed to and there are two ways you can go—through the mountains or through the forest—but either way will get you there. Thinking that way helped me to not be too scared to make a decision.

I guess that if I had to say something, I would go back to my college self when I had just come back from RISD and was working, working, working. I would go up to that totally overachieving chick who spent all her nights and weekends at school doing work and tell her to take a chill pill.

If you could give one piece of advice to another graphic designer or illustrator starting out what, would it be?

My biggest advice is a bit of a classic—what you have in your portfolio is what you’re going to get commissioned to do. A couple years ago, I did this personal project of a cityscape and posted it on my website. Soon after, my first building related commission came in and now that’s what everybody wants from me. Now I’m trying to steer away from that and am drawing animals and plants.

It’s funny working on both sides—as a designer who commissions and as an illustrator who gets commissioned. When I’m Art Directing, the only thing I see is what’s in someone’s portfolio. I rarely think further—what if I got this person who does really dark and gloomy images to draw a happy clown? That’s just not going to cross my mind. I think that’s the work he has in his portfolio; he doesn’t want to do anything else. That’s the first piece of advice.

The other thing I swear by is talking clients into things. I know that as designers we’re working customer service and we should definitely deliver what’s commissioned from us, but we’re also professionals and consultants. I guess I like to think that you should never give up too easily and should be prepared to back up the things you are passionate about. Sometimes clients need a little push. They see things they haven’t seen anywhere else and they’re not going to just digest it.

You’re in New York. How does that impact your creativity?

It has a huge impact! Especially since I’ve only recently been transplanted here, I’m still living in my honeymoon phase with New York and I’m inspired by something every time I step outside—the colors, smells, height of the cityscape, the fashion, the food, and the light! Light in Manhattan keeps blowing me away—how it reflects through the windows and makes these beautiful rays and spots of light on the pavement. Just seeing these kind of mundane things that I find beautiful and that make me smile has had a very big impact on my creativity.

Is it important to you to be part of a creative community of people?

Yeah, especially with moving to NY; this is a place where you need to be connected. I feel like the creative community in NY is really special and everybody helps each other out. In Finland, there are only a handful of people who design, so there can be a lot of competition. You’d have to be crazy to try to compete in NY. There are so many talented people that it doesn’t make any sense to try to act like you’re better than someone else. Instead, I think it results in people really supporting each other and creating this great community. I’ve met so many people here that have helped me out in so many ways, especially coming from another country. There’s something special here.

The first time I came here I almost started crying when I saw the skyline—it was so beautiful. I would often take the bus from RISD to New York and every time that I had to take the bus back to Providence, I would say, “New York, wait for me!” And three years later, I moved here. The city is so full of energy and it gives so much. It’s an extreme of emotions living here because when things suck, they really suck, but then the next day the best thing ever happens! Nothing like that can happen anywhere else but here.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It’s a bad habit, but I start my morning by reading my emails. I would love to be one of those people that made green tea and did yoga and then checked email two hours after being awake. I’m in my bed; I hit my alarm clock; grab my iPhone; email. It’s really sad. I just can’t give that up. Because of the time difference, I answer emails about freelance work. I start my day at work around 10am. Because I live in the Lower East Side, I have a 20 minute walk to work, which is really nice. In the evening, I try to preserve my quality of life and go out with friends for dinner or go to openings. If I do have to work on a project, I’ll get take-out and go home and work for a bit. That would be a typical day at the moment.

Favorite music?

My dad works as a creative director in the field of classical music and up until I was 10, that was pretty much the only thing I listened to. When I was 10, we moved back to Finland from Paris and the girls were listening to Spice Girls. I said to them, “What’s this rock ’n roll?” I did not make very many friends my first day. (laughing)

Right now, on the top of my list are the Spotify playlists that a friend of mine sends me. The latest was “Lotta’s Sad Mix”, which I got when my boyfriend had to go back to Finland after staying in New York for three months.

Do you have any favorite movies or TV shows?

I do. I’m waiting for the new Wes Anderson movie, Moonrise Kingdom. I died when I heard that my friend, Jessica Hische did the lettering for it. That’s such a dream job. I love all of Wes’s films. The style and the colors—the colors inspire me.

I got seriously addicted to Downton Abbey. I had to cancel a dinner with a friend one weekend because I just had to watch one more episode and was suddenly really “sick”. Now I have to wait for a year until the third season comes out. I’m totally embarrassing myself, aren’t I?

(all laughing)