Nadin is an illustrator and senior art director from Cologne, and she has spent more than eighteen years in the world of design and communication. Her heart, though, clearly beats for illustration: books, strong characters, board game design and stories.

She creates expressive visual worlds for publishers, authors and companies, from the first idea to the finished book or game. She loves illustrating children’s books, editorials and artistic portraits. She works mostly digitally, but she lets her illustrations look handmade, natural and a little imperfect on purpose. Bright colours and expressive details are welcome to jump off the page.

Nadin lives in Köln-Sülz with her partner and their two dogs, in what she calls a little grandma’s paradise in the middle of the city, with old buildings, allotment gardens and far too many lovely cafés and small shops. She spends a lot of time outdoors, walking in the woods or working in her allotment garden, where she keeps discovering how stubborn soil under the fingernails can be.

She also has a proud nerd side: she is a board game fan, and her home now holds a small game library with an urgent lack of space. That may explain her love of stories, characters and tiny worlds, in which she can lose herself for hours, on paper or on a game board.

With Agafay Books, she illustrates Mrs Boowa’s Colorful Emotions. When she works with others, what matters to her is personal exchange, reliability and an easy, equal footing. She likes people with ideas, and projects where you build something beautiful together.