op-ups, whether they are for a book, a card, a product, or even a movie, are my passion. The magic of transforming flat paper into moving, evolving, threedimensional structures captivated me from the first time I ever saw one. The goal, of course, for every pop-up is to recreate a vision or a facsimile of a real or imagined thing. But the best pop-ups do so in a way that is transformative on another level: elevating them to works of art. If I may, to dance the structure into being. Or as Buzz Lightyear might have said, "popping it up with STYLE!"
In my career thus far, I have engineered more than 65 published books, hundreds of cards, and many more paper objects. Some have been children's books as one might have expected, but many have been for adults: for museums, corporations, events. I have been fortunate as well to have worked with some amazing artists. Children's book artists like Mo Willems, Chuck Fischer, Charles Schultz. Fine artists like Elizabeth Murray, Ginny Ruffner Publishers including Simon & Schuster, Random House, Little Brown, Sterling, Insight Editions, National Geographic, DisneyHyperion, and even Walt Disney films.
But I also love sharing this art, teaching others, entertaining many more. I have spoken at museums, libraries, even The Smithsonian! It is also a great priviledge and honor to be invited by schools time and again, to speak to their classes about this art form. To see the wonder and excitement and inspiration ignite in those wide eyes is a thrill I never get enough of.
In this publication, I would like to introduce you to a few of my favorites. I wish I could include them all! Also you will find an article I wrote that has been published in several magazines about the process itself. And also a full list of my published works. Please contact me if you have a title that needs engineering and producing from end to end, concept to delivery of finished books! My email is below.
All rights reserved. No content from this publication may be reproduced or shared without the expressly written permission of Bruce Foster. Art Direction and Design by Bruce Foster.
Send inquiries to: Bruce@paperpops.com
HARRY POTTER,
Harry Potter, A Pop-Up Book Based on the Film Phenomenon
Publisher: Insight Editions
ISBN: 978-1608-870080
Working with Insight Editions and Warner Brothers, as a Harry Potter fan, this title was a true joy and dream come true. Encompassing the first four movies in the series, this book is now in its seventh printing.
Text by Lucy Kee
Illustrations by Andrew Williamson, the lead concept artist on the films.
Besides the paper engineering, I also created all the graphic design elements throughout the book like that seen middle right.
puff, the magicDragon pop-up
Begining as a folk song by Peter, Paul and Mary, the song was reimagined as a beautiful childrens' book, beautifully illustrated by Eric Puybaret. Sterling Publishing asked me to then reimagine THAT as a pop-up book. Working from original scans of Puybaret's art, the adaptation to pop-up required days of photoshop work in addition to the paper engineering.
Puff, The Magic Dragon Pop-Up
Sterling Childrens Books
National Parks America’s
WWWest, an Oregon publisher who specializes in park subject matter, brought myself and illustrator Dave Ember together for this awardwinning book. Two years in the making, this book is one of my most requested. Unfortunately, it is out of print and the new owner of the files has no current plans to reissue it.
wow! the sports illustrated kids pop-up book of sports
NBC's The Today Show featured this book on its morning broadcast. Six months earlier we were set to print the first spread as a teaser. This was a pop of Olympian Michael Phelps. The day we finished it and were to go to press, there was a certain photograph of Phelps at a college fraternity party splashed across the newspapers of America. So it was determined that his spread would be pulled and replaced with an absolutely safe alternative: Mr. Clean Cut America himself: Tiger Woods.
The book was published three weeks before his fall from grace. On air, the presenter made an illconceived joke about a pull tab that would make women fall from the trees. Really.
Wow! The Sports Illustrated Kids Pop-Up Book of Sports Publisher: Time, Inc. ISBN: 987-1-60320-090-5
mo willems’
A young, beardless Mo Willems had a great idea. What if a character wants to be IN a pop-up book, but is too big to fit all the way in?
Mo challenged me on this one. On two of the spreads he asked, "is it possible to have a small frog appear out of nowhere?" "How about 10 of them?"
The mechanism to make this happen was so complicated, I had to send step-by-step instructions to the printer in China, along with dozens of photographs.
Mo Willems' Big Frog Can't Fit In
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1423114369
chuck fischer multiple titles with
Beginning in 2007, Chuck Fischer and I began a long, fruitful collaboration. He would conceive these books, oversee their development, and work with me as the paper engineer to bring his vision to reality. Besides the four books seen on these pages, we also created two versions of the White House, one a gingerbread pop-up recreation.
In 2011, the Smithsonian Institute Libraries hosted an exhibition of pop-up books in Washington, D.C. Chuck and I were featured in a video that played on a monitor for the duration of the show.
Christmas Around the World
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 978-0-316-11795-1
In The Beginning
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 978-0-316-11842-2
Angels
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 978-0-316-03970-3
A Christmas Carol
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 978-0-316-03973-4
St. Jude A pop-up Tour of
Every year, fundraising leaders and influencers are invited to tour the main campus of St. Jude Childrens' Hospital in Memphis, TN. Except during the few years of the Covid pandemic. The immune systems of the pediatric patients would be no match for that exposure. So St. Jude reached out to me to create a pop-up tour of the facility in lieu of in-person visits. The book is a history of the hospital, but also a celebration of its accomplishments and humanitarian goals. Working closely with St. Jude and ALSAC staff, the book was produced by Structural Graphics in Connecticut and Mexico along with Blanks Printing in Dallas . In addition to the paper engineering, I also did heavy photoshop work transforming the photos into pop-ups and even created the illustrations inserted into the photos.
build your own papercraft minions
In 2015 Little Brown Kids gave me a really fun assignment: create punch-out figures of Minions that children could easily assemble. Not only was I asked to create the forms, but was also tasked with illustrating the characters within the forms! The book has over 25 variations on the characters in various disguises. I also created the step-by-step instructions and assembly drawings.
A year later, I followed this up with a similar project: DC Super Heroes and Pets Papercraft. For this one I was budgeted enough to create TWO forms, a muscular blocky and a taller, thin version. However, there are heroes AND villains, male AND female. So I created forms that when viewed from one side struck a heroic, puffed-outchest pose, but when facing the reverse, became a hulking, menacing form! Same dielines, different art.
The Pop-Up Book is a Hand Well, Many Hands Full!
By Bruce Foster
This article has previously been published in both Bound & Lettered and Book Arts arts du livre Canada magazines.
Every pop-up book is a hand-made book.
It matters not if there is only one copy ever made, or if there are hundreds of thousands of duplicates. Each is still…HAND-made.
Unlike most hobbyist or artist hand-crafted books where only one or just a few books are created, pop-up books are produced commercially in the thousands, even as many as three hundred thousand. Like artists’ handcrafted books, all pop-up books begin as a handcrafted book. And then each and every copy is as well. There is no machine that can adapt or have the finesse necessary to mass produce them. So how DO they come into being? We can thank the paper engineer.
True story. Many years ago while on a flight across country, the passenger in the seat next to mine looked up from the book she was reading and struck up a conversation. She asked what I did for a living. I told her I design pop-ups! She paused for a moment, and hesitatingly replied, “I don’t mean to be rude, but honestly I really hate all those little windows opening on my computer”. No no no, I interjected. Not THAT kind of pop-up! I’m a paper engineer. “So you work for a paper mill designing papers?” Chuckling, I corrected her. “No, I design paper structures in books. Sort of like paper dolls. I actually play with them for a living.” Looking at me in a kind of stunned silence, she opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and then returned to her book from which she did not look up for the rest of the flight.
Play, in this case, is of course, a euphemism for open, creative exploration. Experimentation, trial and error, problem solving, and artistic expression are also apropos terms. With
Sketch by graphic designer Adam Zaars for Macken Bryggeri
Full.
The stages of designing a pop-up. From a pencil sketch or other reference, a rough cut is built, exploring and adjusting the design. A second, third, or even fourth version is built and refined, combining mechanisms whenever possible for efficiency. Then the pop is disassembled and the pieces scanned. Die lines are created in Adobe Illustrator, art is inserted into the
die lines, printed, hand cut, and a more complete version is built. Further refinements are made, artwork is completed, and a final hand made copy is constructed.
experience, intuitive solutions may come faster, but the openness and willingness to experiment nevertheless is the key to successful art, whether that be a musical arrangement, a riveting novel, or an amazing and unexpected pop-up!
So what is a Paper Engineer? They are artists. Artists who delight in making flat paper behave like sculpture in motion. Similar in many ways to origami, there are indeed notable differences. Origami results in a static sculpture, frozen into its multi-faceted, complicated, but realized form. A pop-up, however, transforms each and every time it is activated. It is flat, it is formed, it is flattened, over and over again. Origami most often uses a single piece of paper in its entirety, uncut. A pop-up, by contrast, is built of many intricately cut pieces assembled into a new structure with glue or locking mechanisms. Origami results most often as an object. Pop-ups, however, combine sculpture, theatricality, pacing, and innovation to tell a story much like a stage play does, or presents an object that morphs magically into three dimensions from a flat page and then returns to that flat form as the page is turned. Sometimes, with the interaction of the reader, the engineering even reveals art that moves and animates. For me, my favorite popups are ones that in some manner find a way to dance into its solution.
Let me share an anecdote I was once told. The difference between western and far eastern water fountains, the speaker proposed, reflects this difference in paper engineering as well. The eastern approach to fountains allows the water to flow naturally. Trickles, waterfalls, drips, in all a respect for the inherent nature of the material. But western fountains force water to yield to the will of the designer. Shoot the water upward into the air. Defy gravity. Spray the water, divert it. The eastern art of origami respects and shows deference to the innate properties and spirit of the material. Using a single piece of paper many folds but rarely is cut. Paper engineering on the other hand, reshapes the paper, cutting, slicing, punching holes and uses many pieces of paper to make its forms. Then reforming the pieces with glue or other bindings into its new form demanded by the artist.
There are only a few people at any given time around the world who are professionally engaged in this art form. Usually no more than a couple
dozen. The cast may revolve, but the numbers remain small. I cannot attest to how other paper engineers approach a project, only to my own. Perhaps it is the same…
My projects start in a number of ways. Sometimes it is nothing more than a line of text, up to me to completely envision. Sometimes it involves images of the necessary components like a list or manifest but with no clear direction for its solution. Many times I work with other illustrators, chosen for their style and skill. In these cases often sketches are offered, or at least elements they wish to explore. In each of these, I try to imagine a solution that checks as many boxes as possible. Can I find a way to make the final form a realistic or satisfactory facsimile of the inspiration? Is there an action that would inform or elevate it further? Does the story describe a moment to emulate? Should the pop-up be the defining moment of that passage or a transition? And after all that, can I find a way to make it accomplish all this in a way that is elegant? Surprising? Is it dancing?
“No matter how complicated an action or structure appears to be, every pop-up book is entirely created from just a basic assortment of paper folds and devices, creatively combined in various imaginative ways to capture the spirit of a particular piece of art or composition,” as described by paper engineer Andrew Baron. (http://www.popyrus.com/paper.html)
Sometimes I have only a vague idea of where the pop-up might go. At other times I can see it whole and in experimenting, try to find ways to improve that vision. But ALL of them start loose, rough, undefined. This allows room for change or the unexpected discovery, but also doesn’t use a lot of time refining shapes too early as they may change anyway. My studio paper is WestRock™ Tango, 231 gsm, 12 point, coated one side only so the ink from my ink jet printer will adhere. The ink will pool up and smear on a coated side. It is similar in specifications to the stock that the printer will eventually use, but beyond that we have very limited input into what that paper will be: whatever they can get that still meets the specifications. Especially in China, paper choices are extremely limited, no brands or trademarked papers unlike in the west where there are virtually limitless options.
I cut the paper with scissors and x-acto, but only its broader shapes and size. Double sided tape allows quick positioning and re-positioning as needed. Is the piece sitting on too much of an angle? Pull it up and tilt it a bit. Scraps of paper lengthen, reshape. Add on levels, glue on mini structures, perhaps a pyramid along that fold. No, point it in the other direction. Later anything that works will be incorporated into the final. At last, a rough, yes even ugly, form takes shape. I imagine its shapes as they WILL be. Movements that need tweaking. Photograph this model from several angles for reference later, maybe a movie, as this one will not survive. Marking all the positions, drawing lines along any and all folds,
the pop is dismantled and flattened out. Backing the pieces on my scanner with a contrasting sheet, red perhaps, I can now see all the shapes, all the folds, all the positions. Well, sort of.
Importing the scans into my Adobe Illustrator document, I lock that layer and begin drawing the die lines and folds on their own layers. Deleting the scans, print the pieces, hand cut the shapes, score the folds and build a second model. Surprising. Some of the pieces are not correct. Ah, need to remeasure that lift or adjust that angle. Make the changes in the Illustrator document. Print, cut and build a third time. Better. Hmm. What if I add something here? MUCH better!
One of the hallmarks of artist’s hand-made books is the creative use of multiple papers, fabrics, other bindings…even thread. But that is not the case with printed pop-up books. The paper is the same throughout as the printed sheets are large (28” x 40” is the norm) and all pieces are cut from this. Any texture, color, finish must be applied to this standard sheet, whether that be embossing, varnishes, or foil. The printer’s sheet that houses all the pieces is called a nesting sheet. A pop-up book will require from 1 to upwards of 10 or more of these. The size of the book, the complexity of the engineering, both contribute to how many sheets will be necessary and drastically affects its cost. First, the amount of paper used is a major factor. Larger books of course, need more paper. Complexity adds cost in two ways: the steel dies are larger and more abundant; and every spot of glue or hand folded piece means more interaction and time in assembly.
Finally, after I am convinced the pop-up is where I want it to be, I can provide the templates to the illustrator or input artwork that already has been provided. Once installed on its own layer, another print, hand cut, and assemble to check the pop, to review the way the art reassembles. Adjustments are made if necessary and a pass to make sure there is at least 3/16” bleed around every piece, otherwise, there could be unwelcome unprinted white paper showing after the cuts. On another layer, indications of where the glue will go are input. The printer will have final adjustments to these areas, but it is important that the ink is not allowed on these spots for best results of the glue. We call these K/O’s or “knock-outs”. And off to the printer all of this work goes: a color model, the files, any instructions if needed.
From there the printer also hand-cuts (or in some cases, uses a plotter) to cut out and assemble a working model. Most often these are still white, but sometimes digitally printed. And then after approvals, the process begins again. Teams are convened to address a single spread from the book, each member assigned only one or two steps. Sometimes there are over a thousand people working on the same book. But all contribute to the accumulating completion of the book. All by hand. One. Piece. At. A. Time. And then eventually the book finds its way to the reader to discover and play.
The phenomenal Prince of Pop, Robert Sabuda, would often say in his appearances, (as I paraphrase) “the pop-up book passes through many hands. From my hands to the printer’s hands, to the reader’s hands. We all make the book come alive.”
spread from
Another favorite
this exceptional book (which comes in a slipcase along with a double vinyl collection, and a traditional book telling the complete history of Macken Bryggeri, its inception, logos, label designs, and the personal philosohy of its founder, Andrés Furukawa).
Sharing the love of paper engineering!
Whether speaking to an auditorium full of adults or a library brimming with excited children, sharing the math and magic of paper engineering is one of my absolute favorite offerings!
Using show and tell, videos,and hands-on demonstrations these presentations are exciting, entertaining, and educational. Teachers often tell me afterward that they have never seen their classes so engaged and enrapt for a full hour. I would love to bring this program to your school. Just reach out and we can start a conversation!
Workshops are available as well...
Seoul, South Korea
Editor-Designer of Movable Stationery
In 2018 it was my honor and privilege to take charge of The Movable Book Society's quarterly publication from the organization's founder, Ann Montenaro Staples. As a former art director and designer, combined with my years as a paper engineer, this was a natural fit and one that I have come to anticipate eagerly four times a year.
Every three months we release a new members-only issue of the online magazine. For two years the issue remains password protected and then is unlocked and made accessible to the public. Working with InDesign and posting each issue with the tools at ISSUU.com, the magazine becomes a virtual page turner. This format allows large photos, in-depth coverage of paper art events and stories, and even provides a method to overlay movie clips. Short of holding a book in your hands, the videos allow one to experience the magic of time that movable books so ingeniously provide.
Topics range from coverage of events, homages to the paper engineer heroes of pop-up books, explorations of specific topics enjoyed by our members, and introductions to new books and up-and-coming new paper engineers, among others.
If desired, a print edition is available a few weeks after the release of the online version.
Please feel free to enjoy the unlocked issues on the MBS website. Or even better, JOIN the Movable Book Society so that you too can become a part of this welcoming and exciting group of artists, collectors, and fans of the movable book.
If you would like more information about any of these titles, just reach out via email....
The pop-up book seen in the opening sequence was designed a year before the movie opened. Closing pop-ups by Bruce were added much later. Note how my copy of the sequence had my name watermarked onto it to prevent it from being leaked prior to the premiere. I wouldn't have done that of course, but I do understand the precaution.
