Benjamin draws inspiration from many things in everyday life. For example, he finds inspiration in children’s books, such as Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” or Tomi Ungerer’s “The Three Robbers”. He also showed me his favorite book from Japan called “World Paperback Design” featuring 60’s and 70’s designers and illustrators such as Paul Rand, Dick Bruna, Bruno Munari, and Ben Shahn.

Nieves Books logo

His gets many of his ideas on vacation where he is detached from all means of communication and fully relaxed. The Nieves Books’ logo – a black monster reading a book – was invented while he was vacationing in Italy. As his friend and contributing editor Nakako Hayashi says, it’s a rare thing for him to take up a pen himself.

Another influence on his work comes from foreign culture. When I visited Benjamin’s office, he was watching the Japanese kids TV program “Pitagoraswitch”, while sipping tee in 35-degree heat wave. His fascination to Japan is no coincidence. He is a frequent visitor to Japan and has even worked as an intern at Tycoon Graphics in Tokyo for two months. Since then he has held a Nieves Books Exhibition at Rocket Gallery and published books with Japanese artists and authors. Among them are “Tokyo and my Daughter”, a very personal book by photographer Takashi Homma and “Here and There Vol.6”, collaboration with freelance editor Nanako Hayashi.

Takashi Homma “Tokyo and my Daughter” (Nieves Books)

Benjamin says the happiest moments in this job are when he asks an artist for contribution and receives a positive response. It also makes him happy when he learns that the artist is looking forward to see the final product just as much as he is. From the line up of artists and authors on Nieves website, you already get the idea of how selective and goal-oriented he is.

So how does he find and choose an artist? There are no strict guidelines, and he selects an artist according to his instinct and same feeling for it. The bottom line is he is just doing what he really likes to do. Occasionally selecting already-successful artists helps the name Nieves Books and its lesser-known artists to be recognized. Even though he works without a target audience in mind, people between their mid 20’s to late 30’s who like design tend to buy his books.

Geoff McFetridge “It Looks Like A Smile” (Nieves Books)

He always looks for undiscovered talent with a potential to grow. Sometimes he finds an artist while browsing the Internet and contacts them directly, or as in the case of Kim Gordon, through a gallery. His friendship with numerous artists has also come in handy, like when he contacted photographer and filmmaker Ari Marcopoulos through Cornel Windlin, or Takashi Homma through Nakako Hayashi. Most of the contributing artists provide their work for free, and the reward is their own book in their own image, published by Nieves Books.