Nicolas Sidjakov was a Latvian-born American commercial artist and illustrator. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and worked in advertising as well as freelancing for the French movie industry. In 1954 he moved to the United States and continued to work in advertising. He also began to illustrate children's books beginning with The Friendly Beasts by Laura Nelson Baker, published in 1957 by Parnassus Press of Berkeley, California. In 1961 he won the Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association for illustrating Baboushka and the Three Kings, a retelling by Ruth Robbins.
From 1945 to the 1970s, San Francisco was a hub of creativity and Nicolas was in the thick of it. He designed more than he illustrated and the advertising annuals of the 1960s and 1970s are littered with his accolades.
In 1978 he and Jerry Berman formed the design firm of Sidjakov & Berman Associates, then Sidjakov, Berman & Gomez in 1981. In 1987 the company became part of the British-owned WPP Group plc and is now known as Enterprise IG, San Francisco.
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