Going Pro

After years of wringing my hands and saving pennies I finally took the plunge and bought myself a CraftRobo Pro cutting plotter from Graphtec. The CraftRobo Pro is like a large printer but instead of an ink cartridge there is a small swiveling blade that will contour cut the die lines I create in Adobe Illustrator. Goodbye scissors and broken X-acto blades. I was suspicious when Shawn Sheehy began using one a few years ago. Later, I was jealous to learn that Sam Ita has been using the Pro to create his latest book. I finally gave in and bought my own.


Now that “Baby Signs” is in bookstores I have been working on a new pop-up idea. This new design requires such precise and complex cutting that I was ruining my eyes and wrists trying to create the multiple versions of each pop-up! It was time to embrace technology. I have played around with the small desktop CraftRobo before but found that it would only cut a few small pieces at a time. I needed something a little more heavy duty. I needed to go Pro.

- Kyle