Paper engineer, Andrew Baron has had a Storybook Year so far. Andy teamed up with illustrator, Aaron Boyd and the masterminds at Dufour Advertising to create quite an impressive book. Actually, it serves as an annual report for the Acuity insurance company based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
As in years past, Acuity was determined to come up with a creative way to inform their shareholders about the state of the company in a visually pleasing way. They decided a collection of colorful nursery rhymes popping off the pages was the way to go, and that is where Andrew came in to provide his signature touch. Most pop-up fans know his expertise in creating intricate movables activated by pulling a tab, and will be pleasantly surprised to see his mastery of large dimensional compositions. One of my favorite scenes is a nervous Humpty Dumpty teetering over not a safety net but a frying pan as the king’s men race towards him. There are dozens of other Easter eggs and sight gags hidden in the pop-ups and I can tell that the group had a lot fun developing this title.
Less than twenty thousand books were assembled in China and sent out to agents at the annual board meeting this February. Currently it is not available in any bookstores. We can only hope (or demand) that they consider adapting the annual report and release a children’s book in the future. Until then you can check out more photos and videos at the custom website, and read about the pop-up process from Andy here, or even keep up with the awards and accolades this project is getting at their Facebook page.
The Shelburne Museum in Vermont has created an all-star exhibition of paper arts. It almost seems that the curators poked into my brain and complied all my favorite artists and crammed them into this exciting show titled, Paperwork in 3D .
In various spaces throughout the museum, two dozen contemporary artists at the top of their respective fields exhibit fine examples of dimensional papercraft. I am especially interested in the complex origami of Robert Lang; the intricate cut paper worlds of Beatrice Coron; the kinetic paper engineering of Matthew Schlian; the book manipulation of Brian Dettmer; and the fine photography of pulp novels by Tom Allen.
Closer to home, museum attendees can see the progression of pop-up book creations from paper engineers Matthew Reinhart and Sam Ita. From concept sketches to white prototypes; color art samples to final production materials, Reinhart’s Chinese Lung from Dragons & Monsters comes roaring to life.
This amazing exhibit is on display until the end of October, so if you were looking for a summer vacation, look no further.
Today we are looking at some very rare Italian pop-up activity books. Ever since I was given “Cappuccetto Russo” and “I Tre Porcellini” I have been curious about this series of handmade DIY pop-up books. So I went to the source, the Bologna-based paper engineer, Massimo Missiroli. He was kind enough to provide some background on these books which he started in 1997.
The titles include:
Red Riding Hood (1997) illustrated by Zampiga Milena
Three Little Pigs (1998) illustrated by Silvia Bartoletti
Pinocchio
Nursery Rhymes
Snow White
Hansel & Gretel
Each title has different dimensions and comprise of a number of black and white printed sheets that are sealed in a plastic bag. A rough translation of the promotional material is as follows:
“POP-UP stripe is a new series of cards in which we intend to show operational techniques for the construction of mini-books that will have classic fairy tales as their subject. Build each pop-up book which consists of five pages on a single folded strip of paper.”
Massimo came up with the idea while leading pop-up workshops with children. He decided to start his own small publishing company. Then he created and assembled the packets and sold the Pop-up Stripes via mail orders. Around 2002, the Italian publisher Quercetti bought the concept and released new versions of Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and Pinocchio. At that time, Massimo published a wonderful pop-up version of Pinocchio for Emme Edizioni. (We will see more of this title next week.)
I have yet to see any of the Quercetti versions in the flesh so if any of you readers know if they are readily available or have more information please leave a comment. Now, I go back to my collector’s dilemma – open my Pop-up Stripe and take pleasure in making my own model or keep it in it’s original condition to share with future book lovers.
The Smithsonian Libraries have recently posted the video of Bruce Foster talking about “The Magic and Math of Harry Potter, The Pop-Up Book” in the Carmichael Auditorium on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at the National Museum of American History. If you were not able to make it last month, now is your chance to learn about his pop-up process and get a sneak peek of his upcoming projects.
I remember years ago at a Movable Book Society conference where I was checking out amazing pop-up books on dealer’s tables and an older collector ambled by and whispered, ‘If you think that is good, you should check out Max’s Machines, it’s the best pop-up book ever.’ Hyperbole or not, when someone hints about a great pop-up then I quickly look into it. Turns out the book costs a few quid so it took awhile for me to get my grubby mitts on a copy. It was worth it.
Max’s Machines was created by Willy Bullock in 1999 for Scholastic in the U.K, and right there on the cover boasts ‘the best pop-up book – ever’. (Seems like British paper engineers were always trying to one up each other since Richard Scarry released this book a year earlier.) Bullock creates three giant pop-ups in this five spread oversized book. First up is an intricate racecar that is lifted high above the page with the pull of a tab. Next is a giant dump truck that tips its load of dirt at the yank of a lever. And for the finale, our hapless hero Max is ejected from his supersonic jet when the tab is pulled.
Nowadays, Tim “Willy” Bullock has turned his attention to creating clever and complicated paper automata. He recently released his fun ‘Rude Moose’ kit which can be found on his cool4cats website. I can’t wait to see what is next.
David A. Carter is no stranger to this blog. I have tremendous respect for the man and he is a delight to be around. The studio recently came across an assortment of his pop-up cards and they were quickly snatched up. These 5” x 6” cards were designed in 2008 and published by Clarkson Potter (better known for their cookbooks and lifestyle titles) and produced by Millenium in China. I believe there are eight different designs with names like: Dots & Spots, Curlycue, Blossoms, Wave, Kaboom, Clicker, Paisley and Twister. Many of the compositions will be familiar to fans that followed the One Red Dot series. Each set contains a single design in four different colors printed on eight cards with colored envelopes. The cards have a universal appeal and are wordless, which allow the pop-ups to be used in a variety of occasions. The packaging mentions that the designs are influenced by the works of Matisse, Calder and Gehry among others and remember to pester him more about some of the hidden meanings and inspiration in his work. It also notes that David has authored over 70 pop-up books, so it looks like I have to start looking into more of his back catalog and find some of his earlier works, which may show up on this blog in short order.
Today we are looking at a pop-up book of opposites. Black Cat, White Cat was created by Chuck Murphy in 1998. (It should not be confused with the excellent Yugoslavian adult comedy that came out the same year.) This smaller format, five spread book was published by Simon & Schuster as a follow up to his successful series that includes One to Ten and Color Surprises. Chuck Murphy is one of most solid paper engineers ever to lay scissors to paper and his work is among the first I turned to when I was teaching myself about pop-ups. He has a very easy and distinctive style, with high contrast graphics that compliment the rhyming text. I always get the feeling that his books are all very well thought out with careful attention paid to his children audience. You can read more about Chuck’s ideas from an older interview with Robert Sabuda and learn about his background from a short biography found at Random House.
I’ll leave you with a short video of the finale in this book. Still pictures just would not suffice. Enjoy!
Matthew Reinhart had a great time this past Saturday at Books of Wonder sharing his new Dragons & Monsters pop-up book and signing copies along side prestigious picture book illustrators Leo & Diane Dillon. If you missed the event, you can still stop by the bookstore and see the paper dragon window display and pick up an autographed book.
And if you are in the D.C. area tomorrow be sure to catch the final talk in a series of pop-up lectures when Bruce Foster will talk about “The Magic and Math of Harry Potter, The Pop-Up Book” at noon in the Carmichael Auditorium at the National Museum of American History.
I am a huge fan of Kees Moerbeek. This Dutch designer has made dozens of books over the years and his newest title, Aesop’s Fables releases in October. But today, we are looking at one of my favorite pop-up books he created with his wife Carla Dijs. Six Brave Explorers was produced by Intervisual for Price Stern Sloan in 1988. It was printed and bound at Carvajal in Columbia. I was once told that during the design of this book, Kees and Carla were told that the book was too expensive so they had to cut some corners. And cut they did. This six-spread book has a unique triangular format that sliced their paper usage nearly in half. What a creative idea!
The format of this counting book is based off the “Ten Little Indians” children rhyme and Kees is not afraid to interject a little death and colonialism in the pages. The simple central pop-ups stand tall over the main characters and an easy flow is established throughout the book. This book was such a success that two other titles: Four Courageous Climbers and Oh, No Santa soon followed. Let’s hope that many more books spring from the mind of Kees Moerbeek.
A surprise guest dropped by the studio last Friday after a long delayed flight from Manila, Philippines. Pop-up collector and advertising guru, Adie Pena was in New York for one of his biennial visits to the States. It had been years since we last met at the Movable Book Society conference in Washington D.C. and I was eager to hear what Adie has been up to. It looks like he is busier than ever as teaching three advertising courses at the De La Salle -College of Saint Benilde, as well as helping with a local theater production that involves a dress that unfolds over the entire stage as figures appear like pop-up elements.
Adie has been collecting pop-up books and movable advertising for over 18 years and is known as one tough critic of paper engineering but we were able to get a some smiles out of him with a few sneak peeks of our upcoming projects like Puppies and Rescue. We hope that he enjoyed the city during the wonderful weather this weekend and his return flight was smooth enough for him to concentrate on his other passion, anagrams.
