Paper Engineer, Illustrator, Author
One of my favorite pop-up books is called The Pop-up Book of Phobias. I found this book at the airport in Denver during a layover and immediately purchased it. The second pop-up illustrates "aerophobia", or fear of flying. Although I have no fear of flying, it was so much fun to open that spread at 35,000 feet – especially since the woman next to me was a therapist, and a great fan of pop-up books! We had a good laugh all the way to San Francisco.
This book was not made for children. It was created and written by Gary Greenberg, a stand-up comedian and writer. He did not illustrate or design any of the mechanical elements. Instead, the book was illustrated by Balvis Rubess, who did not do the mechanics either. Those were created by Matthew Reinhart, one of the stars of the pop-up world.
The book design itself was done by yet another person: Carole Goodman, of Blue Anchor Design. She was not credited on the cover.
Authors are always listed first, followed by illustrators, and then finally paper engineers, even though the relative amount of work each person put into the book may be very disparate. When the pop-up mechanic handles all of the art and story as well, their name will be the only one listed.
Most illustrated books are done by different authors and illustrators. All traditionally published books are collaborative efforts, since the publishing company will pair authors with editors who help by providing feedback on the plot, pacing, continuity, and many other aspects of the books. Proofreaders check for spelling and grammatical errors. The cover artist rarely has any say over the book design, which is handled by someone who decides the font, scale, placement, and color of the title, author's name, and blurbs, back matter, ISBN/barcode placement, publisher logo, etc. Similarly, published pop-up books are collaborative projects. Frequently, a skilled pop-up artist will bring an illustrator's work to life in three dimensions. Because pop-up books are so labor intensive, sometimes you will find that it was printed in one country, assembled in another and bound in yet a third!
Check out the videos below to see the Pop-Up Book of Phobias, and some of the design and manufacturing processes behind the construction of a finished book.
Video that plays through the entire Pop-Up Book of Phobias. . . almost as good as having the actual book in hand!
The unbelievable and anxiety inducing job of assembling mass production pop-up books.
Artist Chuck Fischer works with paper engineer Bruce Foster to create a pop-up book. This video shows the process from the beginning of a concept to production.
