Soon to be Spring

Spring is just around the corner, or so I am told, and it's never too early to see the blooms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. But if you're like me and it's still too cold to hang around outside, you can always enjoy the garden's inside attractions: artist Emilie Clark's new show 'My Garden Pets' is having an open reception on Sunday, March 14th from 1 - 3 pm. These cool water colors show a neat cross-section of any garden's seedy underbelly.





The show is open until the 31st of May. (And there is a rumor the garden is free on weekdays during the winter but you didn't hear it from me.)

Stay warm,
Simon

Thomas Allen

I don’t write fan letters often. In fact, I can count them on one finger. Yet, a few months ago, I visited Foley Gallery in Chelsea for the latest exhibit from Thomas Allen. I was so blown away by his latest and (final!?!) series that I had to let him know how much I appreciated the art. He mentioned that his creations are inspired by pop-ups so I thought it only fitting to take a piece of his full circle and make a pop-up out of one of his images.



Allen is one of my favorite artists and it’s not hard to see why I’m head over heels for his work. He cuts and manipulates old pulp book covers into arresting compositions and then photographs them with selective focusing and great lighting. I first learned about his work when the studio received a copy of the great Uncovered book from Aperture in 2007, and I have been following the artist ever since.

The cut paper…the dime-store detective novels…the clever arrangements…it’s like the work is genetically engineered to appeal to many of my diverging interests. I cannot wait to see what Thomas Allen decides to do next!

-Kyle

Paper Artist Charles Clary

I recently found out about this artist from an article on Wired's website so I looked him up. Charles Clary's work is slightly similar to Jen Stark's, in that he uses layers of cut-outs in paper to show depth in his pieces. However, his shapes are more organic, and extremely mesmerizing!



Can you believe it's hand-cut?

MANY more pictures of Charles's work can be found on his blog:
http://percusiveart.blogspot.com/

-Shelby

Maira Kalman

In one of the design blogs I follow, I found out about this exhibition at the Julie Saul Gallery in NYC. The exhibition is of Maira Kalman whom I am not familiar with... though it seems that I may have seen her work before. She has illustrated many New Yorker covers, children's books, and even backgrounds for theater! I'm going to visit this exhibition of her work that is mainly in gouache and of her travels.

http://www.saulgallery.com/

http://www.mairakalman.com/home.html

Jess

Gods & Heroes in the Boston Globe

Sunday, March 7 2010:

"I, along with the rest of the children’s book world, have long been an admirer of the exquisite paper-engineered books of Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda. To call them pop-ups is a gross understatement of their intricate complexity and art. From “Alice in Wonderland’’ to winter scenes to encyclopedias of dinosaurs, Reinhart and Sabuda have created some of this century’s most marvelous books. But “Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes’’ may well be their best work yet."

Read the rest of the review here!

Printing with Paper, Not Ink

There has been a lot of talk among my friends about 3D printing lately, especially since some fellow members at NYCResistor have a company called Makerbot which sells a DIY kit for a 3D plastic printer you can build yourself.

But now a company has made one that uses paper as its raw material instead of plastic! Check out the examples of what it can do around 2:03 in this video:



More info at Mcor Technologies' website: http://www.mcortechnologies.com/

-Shelby

Posters are Not Dead

Heads of State are a great design duo. Just like one of my previous posts on Jolby, Heads of State are a true collaboration. One of the designers lives on the West Coast, while the other lives in the East. They produce some of the best music posters out there, in my humble opinion. Check them out here:

https://www.theheadsofstate.com

Enjoy!
Jess

Jim Tierney

I received a letter from a former student that recently graduated from Pratt Institute. This is pretty rare as I can barely get my current students to contact me. Dylan was a welcome addition to my paper engineering course and brought an enthusiasm to the class that matched his ambitious designs. It looks like his zeal continues to this day when he shared a link to an amazing book cover designer.


Jim Tierney is currently an illustration student at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. For his senior thesis he has reimagined the book design of four famous Jules Verne tales. Each of the titles utilizes a different material or technique that compliments the theme of the book. Some have volvelles or pull tabs, while others employ clever diecut or transparent overlays. Check out his blog for some great close-ups of the covers, bookwraps and endpapers. There is even a great video that I first saw at Faceout Books that shows these books in action.

No need to wish Jim luck as I am positive he will find many commissions for his beautiful book designs now that he is graduating. I just hope Dylan and the rest of my students keep me posted when a publisher picks these up and I can get my own copy to display on my shelves.

-Kyle

Double Vision

Check out these stereoscopes of life in late 19th century Meiji-period Japan. Photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured these images that show many different scenes of daily life in the towns and countryside.

http://pinktentacle.com/2009/10/animated-stereoviews-of-old-japan/

The 3D quality of the animation of these images together makes the people look move contemporary in a way that old black and white photos fall short.

Simon

Fractal Fun

A few weeks ago I came across this cool looking vegetable, called a Romanesco Broccoli. It was just sitting in the grocery store bin, looking like alien fruit. Upon closer examination (and research) I discovered that its structure really is a fractal one: the pattern repeats itself all the way down, smaller and smaller every time.


It really reignited my interest in fractals - and guess what I found today on our reference shelves here at the studio?A book about making fractal pop-up designs! You can bet I'll be taking this home for a few days!

-Shelby

Flanimals

Apparently, someone can’t take a joke.
British comedian, Ricky Gervais hosted the 2010 Golden Globes award ceremony last month and raised eyebrows with some of his off-color quips. A few days later we learned that twelve thousand copies of his latest Flanimals Pop-up book was reported missing from the publisher’s warehouse.

There are a few theories of who may have hijacked the shipment. It’s possible that the cargo just disappeared like lost luggage at an airport. Or maybe thieves stole to merchandise thinking they lifted Plasma TVs and ended up with boxes of books. Some folks suggest that Ricky had a hand in this as an elaborate publicity stunt. He countered with his own suspicions when he stated, “This is obviously a misguided Flanimal Rights Group or an organized gang of eight-year-olds,” Personally, I have my eye on an evil consortium of slighted actors that wanted revenge on Gervais after his remarks at the Globes. Ringleader, Steve Carell was even quoted telling Gervais, “I will break you.”

Well played Mr. Carell, well played.

More details of the heist can be found in this article in Publishers Weekly.

Despite the lost, a full release of Flanimals Pop-Up will hit U.S. bookshelves on March 9. If you can’t wait that long you can get a quick sneak peek of the book in this YouTube video starring Ricky himself.



-Kyle

Shades of Spring (and Fall)

All right. Even though it's snowing outside here in the city, Spring fashions are out in the stores and rolling down the runways are fashions for Fall 2010! Amazing, isn't it? So I thought I'd share my love for color, fashion, and pantone with you all!

Every fashion season (so twice a year) Pantone comes out with color predictions. Here are the Fall fashion 2010 predictions:

And once a year, Pantone comes out with a color for the year. This year, turquoise. A blue that evokes warmth and relaxes the viewer. Pantone's description of this year's color is as follows:
"Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigoration aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world."

I love that one color can radiate such a feeling. A picture truly is worth a thousand words. You can also check out the Fall fashion guide here: http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx

Jess

More than just a label...

Imagine your assignment for a packaging class: use one sheet of paper to make a 3D wine label. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? After seeing some student work in an article I found I just had to share it with the rest of the paper enthusiasts out there! So check out the full article on The Dieline blog.

Cheers!
Jess

Paper Boats

In the year 2000, as Matthew Reinhart was completing his second pop-up book, Pop-Up Book Of Nightmares, he was asked by Melcher Media to do some paper engineering experiments with a new plastic paper. Melcher Media is book production firm or packager and acts as a small publishing house imprint to develop new books in a variety of formats. Once the book is developed they bring it to various publishers who will then take on the product and get it to the bookshelves.

Taking advantage of the obvious properties of the plastic paper, Reinhart was able to create a few early models of boat hulls before moving onto new projects. Just think of it – paper boats in dazzling colors and shapes that can have a lifetime of action on both bathtubs and backyard ponds.

The book found new life under paper engineer Willy Bullocks (credited for the design of the excellent Max's Machines Pop-up Book) and the final result was released in 2001.

The Amazing Book Of Paper Boats 18 different boat patterns printed on waterproof paper for the viewer to cut, “fold and float”. The book also provides some history to the boat designs as well as explicit directions for constructing your watercrafts. Since I just received my copy this week, I have yet to test the buoyancy of the designs but I can always start with the ‘Ocean Liner’ which bears a resemblance to the Titanic so if I spring a leak it will look planned.

- Kyle

A good find...

I was in a bookstore in my neighborhood this weekend and I stumbled upon a book that grabbed my attention. What can I say it was the color that got me. I am a sucker for contrast and that dusty blue is hands down my favorite hue. Not to mention the neat red symbol on the cover.



So I bought it for a whopping 10 dollars! Getting it home are realized it from 1904, which makes it 106 years old! Oldest thing I own. I looked more closely and found it was written by a guy named Hugo B. Froehlich, A former instructor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn - my Alma Mater.



The book is full of beautiful Art Nouveau images and poetry, as well as simple techniques for improving your drawing and color skills.




This book is such a good random find that I am really happy to own.

Have fun at your used bookstore.

Simon

A new year & a little peek into the future...

Hi pop-up fans!

Been a CRAZY BUSY winter - and everyone in the studio has been scrambling to finish up our fall projects and get started on the next ones. It never seems to end, but we (at least I) like it that way!

Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes releases in a few weeks - more peeks of that book to come next week. As always, I've already moved onto my next project and here's a little sneak peek at what's (hopefully) coming in Spring of 2011...

First the sketch -



- then the color art.



XO Matthew

Blog at last!

I wanted to showcase my new favorite website - Strange maps...

It has all kinds of maps and graphs and information exchanges - if you are into that kind of stuff - I, of course, am. Just demonstrate the depth and variety of this oddly intriguing blog, here are two choice entries of late:

Potential of White Christmases This Year...



and Nebraskan Looking At Nebraska Looking At Nebraska.


Enjoy!

Simon

UPS Holiday

I know this is a little late but I just received a link to an excellent pop-up advertisement. This is a holiday spot for UPS that builds on the ingenious animated cardboard campaign that was created by Psyop, a multimedia design firm that takes it’s name from the mysterious government organization. Be sure to view the other amazing UPS Store animations at their website or Youtube channel.



What I love about many of the current digitally animated pop-ups are the attention to details and the creator’s desire to follow the physics of actual books. Psyop found a good middle ground when they developed these explosive environments and then asked me to consult on merging them with traditional paper engineered mechanics. It was exciting to work with the team and I can take no credit for the imaginative vision and impeccable execution, but you bet I will be keeping an eye on them to see what magical worlds they create next.

-Kyle

One thing I've discovered...

One thing I've been discovering about paper engineering is that the principles can expand to other materials really easily. For example, this spoon folded from...wood?


- Shelby

Bling Bling!

It has been a bit of time since we've all blogged last, but I figured we should start this year's post with some great news:

I just got ENGAGED! Needless to say, I'm very excited.

Planning the wedding, however has proven quite a daunting task...

XO!

Jessica