Mother Baby Earth

Okido began life in 2004, in the sitting room of Sophie Dauvois' flat in Brixton, south London. Born near Paris, to a vet father and teacher mother, she studied genetics and biology at university in Paris, went on to complete two PhDs and work for Cancer UK in London. In 1996, she switched from research to education at the Hackney City Learning Centre, where she enthused children with such subjects as 'the beautiful world' of cell biology. But it was her son, Emil, aged seven, who was the inspiration for Okido. 'He made me realise the lack of magazines,' says Dauvois, 'so we did loads of activities ourselves, cutting out and drawing.'

If Dauvois is the science and education, Rachel Ortas is the art (and cooking). Born in Spain, where her father was an artist and her mother a psychiatrist, Ortas moved to Paris at the age of three. A former lead singer for Tokow Boys, a new wave band, and Luna Parker, she moved to London in the mid-1990s, met Dauvois, and went on to study at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, where she is now artist in residence and associate lecturer - and well placed to recruit young talent, including Edmund Fung, Okido's designer. 'All these young illustrators come to London to study,' she says, 'so we have this enormous pool of people who are happy to work for us because it is a chance to be published.' Picture books are a big influence on Ortas and she draws on Tove Jansson, Richard Scarry and Maurice Sendak for the retro-naivety of Okido's style.