Great news! Another Poposition Press Kickstarter project! From master paper engineers David A. Carter and James Diaz, the sequel to their well-known The Elements of Pop Up explores advanced pop-up book techniques. A must-have for every Paper Engineer and hobbyist.

Over two decades after releasing The Elements of Pop Up, widely regarded as the best how-to book on making pop-ups, paper engineers David A. Carter and James Diaz have returned with The Complexities of Pop Up. A book packed with complex pop-up techniques and real working examples.

Het bericht The Complexities of Pop-up (Kickstarter) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

We love to see pop-up books on Kickstarter! It’s a great way to get your hands on unique titles that most likely will be highly collectible over time. We have already seen some successful campaigns that made it to publication like What a Mess, 24 Hour Flowers and The Struwwelpeter Pop-Up. One of the first successfully funded pop-up book campaigns on Kickstarter was the beautiful Pop-up Funk book, published by Poposition Press. A collaboration between comic artist and illustrator Jim Mahfood and Paper Engineer Rosston Meyer. And here comes the exciting news: Pop-Up Funk is back on Kickstarter with a brand new campaign! Poposition Press, who also did a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign for The Pop-up Art Book, already has a lot of experience as an independent publisher. So investing money as a backer to this campaign is a safe bet. In this article, you will learn more about this beautiful pop-up title and how you can be part of making this publication reality.

Pop-Up Funk is succesfully funded!

February 28, 2020

Pop Up Funk is a beautifully illustrated pop up art book, paper engineered and published by Poposition Press. The book features artist Jim Mahfood’s unique style in a three dimensional pop up format. Pop Up Funk includes six pop up spreads: Funky Beats, Sir?, Grrl Scouts, Pure Gonzo, Everybody Loves Tank Girl, Pop Life and Thrilling.

“A pop up book featuring indie artist Jim Mahfood’s signature style, in three glorious dimensions.”

Het bericht Pop-Up Funk (Kickstarter Project) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

The newly released Necronomicon Pop-Up Book by Skinner is another successful collaboration between an Artist and Paper Engineer Rosston Meyer from Poposition Press. Skinner created the Necronomicon book as a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. The combination of Skinners detailed illustration style and Lovecraft’s horror stories are a match made in heaven. Or should we say hell? It’s pretty dark and evil, that’s for sure. We’ve just published a review and video of Necronomicon and we also got the chance to ask Skinner some questions about this project and how he managed to create such suitable artwork for the notorious Necronomicon, also know as Al Azif’ or the Book of Dead. Read all about it in this interview!

The interview

BPUB – Congratulations on your first pop-up book! Have you ever thought that you would be involved making a pop-up book?

SKINNER – I never thought I would do it, I always filed it under “projects I’d like to do but am logistically impaired from doing” then Rosston came around, and all of a sudden it was possible!

BPUB – Before working with Rosston from Poposition Press, were you familiar with the concept of pop-up books and paper engineering?

SKINNER – I always loved them growing up! Seemed like pop up books were popular in the 80’s maybe. Monster ones and dinosaurs and stuff, but I never understood how it worked. I was small and preoccupied with popsicles probably.

Pop-up Spread “The Shadow Out of Time” of the Necronomicon Pop-Up Book

BPUB – Can you describe how it is to see your artwork come to life through animations or pop-ups?

Skinner – Well, it’s a bit like Christmas I guess! Haha, it’s a surprise! But it’s actually incredibly rewarding to see how much of a quality product the NECRONOMICON became. I never would have thought that an independent project made by two people would be this good in its final form!

BPUB – Is there any difference in the way you find inspiration for a flat illustration compared to an illustration for a three-dimensional paper structure?

SKINNER – Reserving a space in my mind for the logistics of paper engineering definitely steers the idea of how it will look as a design or drawing. I work in multiple mediums and I approach them all from the actual logistics of the medium itself… it’s the easiest and most fluid way of getting the project done to me. Inserting the weirdness into the parameters of the thing itself is the fun part.

BPUB – Do you have a favorite monster in this book? Maybe one that freaked you out while working on it?

SKINNER – Haha well, I am actually proud of the fact that I think I have a favorite, until I look at the other pages… I mean to say, that I feel really content with the quality of each page as a presentation of the story, and the monsters juxtapose well against each other. The Cthulhu is probably the most intricate main monster, but the Dunwich horror may be my favorite!

“This was just something that needed to happen!”

BPUB – Does it happen that you surprise yourself when you see what monsters and scenes come out of your own imagination while drawing horror stories like these?

SKINNER – It’s kind of surprising that I have the discipline to stay focused for each page! Haha, the stories are very specifically their own story with their own details, and I tried to incorporate those details.. I guess I’m surprised that I maintained the details, although it’s best to fully commit to them in any nerdy genre so you don’t ruffle the feathers of people that are well versed in them. I know from first-hand experience how it will perturb me when people get facts wrong around any kind of nerdy stuff I’m into! Hahaha!

BPUB – Have you always been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s work?

SKINNER – Since high school, I have been, and then it kind of expanded outwardly. There are so many incredible weird horror writers besides him too!

BPUB – So this theme must have been on your mind for a while? Was it your intention to save your “translation” of the Necronomicon for something special like a pop-up book?

SKINNER – Well, Rosston asked if I wanted to do a pop-up book, and I could have done one of my own art and story or something, but it wouldn’t have been as indulgent as a Necronomicon with seminal Lovecraft tales in it! This was just something that needed to happen!

Pop-up spreads of the Necronomicon book

BPUB – As a fan of Lovecraft’s work, is there some kind of limit for you on how far you can go by using your own imagination to translate his detailed storytelling into artwork?

SKINNER – Not really, I could have gotten as weird as possible… I think anything could have worked, barring abstract triangles piled on each other or something.. but even then, maybe!

BPUB – If you could pick a soundtrack for this pop-up book, what song would it be?

SKINNER – Maybe, Dopesmoker by Sleep.

BPUB – We would love to see a Dungeons & Dragons pop-up book created by you. Any thoughts about that?

SKINNER – Oh shit I would love to do that!!!!

BPUB – If our followers would like to know more about your work what would be the best place to find you?

SKINNER – Probably my Instagram @theartofskinner. I gotta find someone to help me update it. I’m too busy and ridiculous to maintain my internet responsibilities!

BPUB – Thank you Skinner for this interview!

SKINNER – My pleasure! Humbled to be asked!

Skinner (L) and Rosston Meyer (R) posing with both editions of the Necronomicon Pop-Up Book.

Click here to go to our full (video) review of the Necronomicon Pop-Up Book

Order the Necronomicon Pop-Up Book: necronomiconpopup.com
Website Skinner: theartofskinner.com
Website Poposition Press: poposition.com
Skinner’s shop: Critical Hit

Het bericht Interview Skinner about Necronomicon verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

This pop up tome of unimaginable freakish fright was inspired to become real when Skinner started working with Poposition Press a few years ago as one of the artists featured in the Pop Up Art Book. He saw what was a gateway to potential occult heresies. His horrible rattling maggot mind started to germinate ideas… What could he do to merge his love for disturbing weird horror and his own interest in the macabre pop up arts?

The Necronomicon Pop-Up Book is based on the works of early 20th century writer H. P. Lovecraft. His famous horror fiction tales, published only in pulp magazines, became legendary over years and a great inspiration for many writers, comic artists and illustrators. Lovecraft’s classic horror stories know many adaptations but this one must be the most original and graphic of all!

Colorful close-ups of Skinner’s bizarre artwork captured in 3D pop-up scenes.

Glow in the Dark Enamel pins

These glow in the dark enamel pins are exclusively designed by Skinner for this pop-up book. Meet Yithian, Cthulhu, Evil Meteor, Elder Thing and Necronomicon! Each pin is available individually or in a set of five.

Het bericht Necronomicon Pop-Up Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

A new art book is on it’s way and it looks very promising! The Necronomicon Pop-Up Book is the fourth pop-up title published by Poposition Press and it’s the darkest and most evil pop-up book ever made. For those who want to be first, you can already pre-order this beauty. We just can’t wait to get our hands on a copy of The Necronomicon Pop-Up Book and as soon as we can, we will share a video review about this book. But first things first! Lets take a closer look at what we know already!

This pop up tome of unimaginable freakish fright was inspired to become real when Skinner started working with Poposition Press a few years ago as one of the artists featured in the Pop Up Art Book. He saw what was a gateway to potential occult heresies. His horrible rattling maggot mind started to germinate ideas… What could he do to merge his love for disturbing weird horror and his own interest in the macabre pop up arts?

The Necronomicon Pop-Up Book is based on the works of early 20th century writer H. P. Lovecraft. His famous horror fiction tales, published only in pulp magazines, became legendary over years and a great inspiration for many writers, comic artists and illustrators. Lovecraft’s classic horror stories know many adaptations but this one must be the most original and graphic of all!

This pop-up book is a dark and sinister pop-up title with five spreads illustrated by Skinner and engineered by Rosston Meyer. In case you’re wondering: this book is named after the fictional Necronomicon book, mentioned by Lovecraft in The Hound, and it’s more real than ever. Skinner’s bizarre and psychedelic style reminds us of the classic cartoons and Heavy Metal album artwork from the 80’s. A perfect fit for a horror themed pop-up like this. Lovecraft’s tales and Skinners artwork combined with Rosston Meyer’s engineering, it all looks amazing.

The gallery above shows colorful close-ups of Skinners bizarre artwork captured in 3D pop-up scenes. The first spread named At the mountains of Madness tells H. P. Lovecraft’s story about the events of a disastrous expedition to the Antarctic continent in September 1930 and what was found there by a group of explorers, led by the narrator Dr. William Dyer. A horrifying story that even looks more terrifying trough the imagination of Skinner.

Glow in the Dark Enamel pins

The glow in the dark enamel pins you see below are designed by Skinner and already available at the website. Meet Yithian, Cthulhu, Evil Meteor, Elder Thing and Necronomicon! Each pin is available individually or in a set of five. Like we’ve mentioned before, you can also get one pin for free when you pre-order the book. More info at necronomiconpopup.com.

The production of this pop-up book is currently in progress and Poposition Press expects to ship all books out in Q1 2018. Email updates will be sent to all customers that placed a pre-order as production is completed and shipping dates are set. Check out the website for updates and more info.

Het bericht Necronomicon Pop-Up Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

The TRIAD Pop-Up Book is a collaboration between Manga artist Junko Mizuno and Paper Engineer Rosston Meyer from Poposition Press. We already did a close-up review of TRIAD but there’s more! We also interviewed both Junko and Rosston about this unique pop-up project. We’ve asked them about their collaboration, how they managed to transform Junko’s flat artwork into 3D pop-up scenes and the paper engineering of TRIAD. A detailed look behind the scenes of the TRIAD Pop-Up Book!

BPUB – Congratulations with this third Poposition Press release! The both of you must be very proud with this beautiful result?

RM – Thank you! Yes, I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished with the Triad book. We had talked about making a book together a few months before starting it so I was thinking about what to do with each piece for quite some time before actually starting on it. Being able to look at each piece and really think about what needs to pop up and how it can pop out I think really helps the process of taking such complicated artwork and transforming it into something new a bit easier, at least for me.

Junko and I worked together on two pop up spreads in the last book I did (The Pop Up Art Book) and I asked her if she wanted to do her own book once that was released. I think we both really enjoyed making those pages, and solving the design challenges of figuring them out, so working together on a book of just Junko’s work was really exciting.

Now, looking back at the original pieces that the Triad book is based on (which are in the last spread of the book) it still amazes me that artwork like the black and white and very vertical Serpent was transformed into such a fun, exciting and colorful pop up spread. Junko really went above and beyond what I ever expected, from adding color to black and white pieces to creating all kinds of new artwork and characters throughout the book. She even made icon-type graphics that we used for the laser etched slipcases – over 60 of them!

JM – I’m really really proud of how it came out! I remember when I first got the offer from Rosston for the Pop Up Art Book project, I was expecting just simple, one or two layers pop-up but I was blown away by how intricate my page looked in 3D. It’s amazing now we’ve made a whole book together. I can’t wait to show it off to my family & friends and am looking forward to seeing how people will react to it.

BPUB – Junko, how is it to experience your own artwork in 3D pop-ups and movable paper?

JM – It’s exciting & fun! My art has been made into 3D figurines but pop-up feels very different. It feels like something between 2D & 3D… it’s really interesting to look at. I had to do a lot of work and the process was so much more complicated than I had expected, but it was also a very interesting and exciting challenge. I learned a lot of new things during the process.

BPUB – Can you tell us how it was to work on a project like this together?

JM – I live in San Francisco and Rosston lives in Colorado so most of the communication was made by emails, exchanging photos, videos and mockups. English is not my first language so sometimes I had hard times explaining details but he was so patient and easy to work with. I had fun having non work-related conversation about art and movies at the end of emails sometimes.

RM – The process of course involved a lot of back and forth, and hundreds of emails. I would first make a mockup of each spread which would show the main elements from the original artwork that needed to be popped out. After showing this to Junko, we would both have a good idea of what would need fill ins and additional artwork, and then she would let me know her ideas about extras that could be added to each spread.

I would send Junko photoshop files with layered groups of elements that needed to be filled in, and we would basically go back and forth with those until each spread was done. And with each new iteration, I’d make a mockup so that we could see what the additional art would look like, if it needed to be enlarged or made smaller, etc. If you take a look back in time on the @popositionpress Instagram account, you can see many of these mockups of each page.

Work in progress – Source: @popositionpress

The first few pages probably took us a few months to get figured out, and by the time we were working on the last page of the book (the Ink Triptych for the Special Editions) we had our process pretty set.

I also want to mention and thank Simon Arizpe who did the paper engineering for the Tree spread in Triad. We met at the MBS 2014 conference and I had asked him if he’d be interested in working on a page for a future book. This was kind of a test to see how it would work to work with another paper engineer, and the results were great. I’ll surely work with Simon in the future!

BPUB – Junko, where you familiar with pop-up books and modern paper engineering before your collaboration with Rosston and Poposition Press?

JM – Yes, I’ve always loved pop-up books and it was one of my dreams to make my own. I have some by Robert Sabuda and my recent favorite is The Little Prince pop up book. After I started working with Poposition Press, I learned more about different kinds of movable books and started to check out pop-up book section at book stores more carefully than before. It’s amazing to see people keep coming up with new ideas.

“I’ve always loved pop-up books and it was one of my dreams to make my own”

Junko Mizuno

BPUB – The TRIAD pop-up book is based on the TRIAD exhibition at The Cotton Candy Machine gallery. Does it contain all the artwork from the exhibition or did you need to make a selection?

RM – It does. There was originally ten pieces of art in the TRIAD gallery exhibition, which ended up in six different pop up spreads. Since the title is Triad, and it’s the third book I’ve done, I knew from the start that combining the three portraits of the Nurse, Witch and Wrestler would be a great center spread for the book. This ultimately became the ‘Triptych’ spread.

The three other combined images (Surgery, Magic and Tiger) all had the same ink style to them, so those were put together as the three part ‘Ink Triptych’ which is part of Triad’s Special Editions.

As for the covers, Junko told me that she made two additional pieces of artwork featuring all the characters from Triad that will be released as posters in the near future. These images, Dawn and Night, are both very wide and allowed us to think about different ways to crop them. A crop of Dawn was ultimately used for the main cover, and a crop of the Night image was used as the cover of the Special Editions. Both of these images are also shown in full as a double sided pull out poster included in the Special Edition books as well.

BPUB – Rosston, this book contains a lot of detailed and complex pop-ups and paper animation. Can you tell us more about some of the techniques used in this pop-up book?

RM – My own paper engineering is always getting better as time goes on and the challenge of transforming Junko’s very highly detailed artwork into pop up spreads is part of what made this project so interesting. The first spread in the book, Ocean, was originally a portrait orientated image and needed to be turned into landscape to match the format of the book (11” x 17” spreads when opened). I knew that the main focus of that piece was the Wrestler fighting with the shark in the center, so that was the first part to get done. The other elements in that spread such as all the waves and the nurse were added after the Wrestler/shark fight was setup. That page probably had the most revisions to get right, especially figuring out how to make the wave pieces pop up but also have the effect of a flowing curvy wave as seen in Junko’s original art.

“The challenge of transforming Junko’s very highly detailed artwork into pop-up spreads is part of what made this project so interesting”

Rosston Meyer

The Serpent spread which stands about 15” tall when opened was actually something that I saw in a few other books, most notably Rapunzel’s castle in Matthew Reinhart’s Disney Princesses book. He has a cut in the front piece that seems to take some of the tension out of that joint, and while I wasn’t able to do the same I did use that as a guide to make the Serpent spread stand up tall. I’ve made similar pages in the first two books that I did, but wanted to handle the engineering differently for the Serpent, as it needed to stand up tall and really pop up as the page opens.

BPUB – Was it necessary to create new artwork in order to complete the pop-up scenes? Can you tell us more about how this process works?

JM – I had to fill in a lot of blanks that appeared after making the 2D art into pop-up. Rosston first makes the mock-up and sends it to me, he also sends me the cut-out images in digital file. I check them both and fill in the blanks in Photoshop. It’s easier when it’s an ink drawing but paintings are much harder to fill in as they have more complicated color shades than ink drawings. When it’s too difficult to re-create the same colors digitally, I have to actually paint the part on paper, scan it and attach it to the blank. For example, the second layer of the witch’s hair in the 3rd page (Triptych) is all newly painted on a separate piece of paper as there were too many blank parts that were hard to fill in.

Even when I didn’t need to fill in the artwork at all, some parts looked too empty when translated into pop-up so I added some new elements and characters which was fun. You can compare the original artworks in the end of the book with the pop-up pages and find out the newly added characters.

BPUB – Rosston, we have also spotted pull-tabs and a lift-the-flap hidden in the artwork. It looks like you’re exploring new possibilities of movable paper and paper engineering?

RM – Absolutely. Adding in some movables such as pull tabs and flaps is something I’ve wanted to do and all of the elements in the Mansion page allowed that to finally happen! I had the toilet flap figured out first, and the pull tab on the little party poop in that spread was something I was playing around with while figuring out that page. We both thought it was funny and it was Junko’s idea to show that little guy as a party poop that was drinking as he walks down the stairs. It’s probably the silliest thing in the book, and I love it. We also made some enamel pins  of the poop character (we call him Poop E. Jones) so it’s also a fashion accessory!

The TRIAD pop-up book is the third pop-up book title engineered by Rosston Meyer and published by Poposition Press. We have already seen the work of Manga artist Junko Mizuno in the previous Poposition publication The Pop-Up Art Book. This cooperation led to the idea to make a pop-up book completely dedicated to Junko Mizuno’s art. In this review we will take a closer look at this brand new and surprising pop-up title in the category Art. Click here to read the full review…

BPUB – Junko, have you contributed any ideas to the work of Rosston and Simon about how your artwork was translated into pop-ups and 3D scenes?

JM – Yes! At first, I didn’t know anything about how to make pop-up so I was just leaving everything to Rosston & Simon but I kept learning while working on the first couple of pages. When I received the mock up for the Serpent page which was the third or fourth one in the book, it only had the three-headed serpent in the center. And it was so tall that it felt like some kind of religious statue. So I came up with the idea of adding worshippers on the sides of the serpent. I made actual paper pieces of the worshippers, attached them to the mock-up, sent Rosston the photo and asked him if it was possible. He liked it and it worked!

BPUB – Rosston, TRIAD is self-published without any help from crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. Can you tell us how this publication was different compared to your other pop-up books?

RM – Yes, in the case of Triad the plan was always to offer pre-orders directly to customers without any help from Kickstarter or other crowdfunding platforms. I setup the Triad website to accept preorders back in September, and had a goal in mind similar to a goal on Kickstarter so I basically crowdfunded the project on my own, so to speak. Both Junko and I had been sharing the progress of the book all year, so alot of people knew that it was in the works for months before it was available for preorders.

The main reason that I didn’t want to do a Kickstarter campaign was that I wanted to see if the book could be sold without any additional help, and thankfully it was! I did run a lot of ads on Facebook and Instagram as well as banner and print ads in some art specific blogs and magazines, all of which helped spread the word about the book.

In the future, I may still do a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for other projects, and I think one of the benefits of doing that is getting the word out more easily to people outside of my or Junko’s existing networks.

BPUB – Do you have any plans for the future with Poposition press to continue publishing pop-up art books like this?

RM – Yes. I’m talking with a number of artists about working together, but nothing is set in stone yet. Since the timeframe to make a book is so long (about a year), I’m exploring the idea of making one pop up page at a time, in a small quantities so that they can be designed and produced much quicker – a few months rather than a year. Having a pipeline of pop ups would be great, and single pages could be compiled into another compilation book – possibly a Pop Up Art Book Vol 2. And Junko and I have talked about doing something else together in the future, which I’d love to do!

There is a book that is not specific to art that I’ll be collaborating with a handful of other paper engineers on next, it’s a more mainstream subject than what I’ve worked on before. So that will probably be the next pop up thing I focus on, hopefully the bulk of it can get done by the end of 2017.

BPUB – Thank you Junko and Rosston for this detailed insights of how you’ve created the TRIAD pop-up book! We look forward to your next projects!

Click here to go to our full (video) review of TRIAD

Website TRIAD Pop-Up Book: triadpopup.com
Website Junko Mizuno: mizuno-junko.com
Website Poposition Press: poposition.com

Het bericht Junko Mizuno and Rosston Meyer Interview verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Het bericht TRIAD Pop-Up Book by Junko Mizuno verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

It’s finally here! Junko Mizuno’s Triad pop-up book is now available for pre-order at the brand new website triadpopup.com. The Triad pop-up book is a collective art project from artist Junko Mizuno and Paper engineer Rosston Meyer from Poposition Press.

After working together for Poposition’s last project The Pop-Up Art Book, Junko and Rosston decided to make a pop-up book that is all about the artwork that Junko created for her Triad show at the Cotton Candy Machine. This art book introduces you to the world of Junko’s three favorite characters: the nurse, the witch and the wrestler. As you may know, Rosston makes amazing pop-ups out of flat artwork. The Triad pop-up book is a great example of how powerful art as a pop-up subject can be. The effect is beautiful when all the layers of an illustration come to life and pop-out of a page. The process of making such a pop-up book is a close collaboration between artist and paper engineer. Every piece of artwork has to be extracted from the original artwork and new artwork has to be created to fill up the blanks and overlaps in the pop-up. If you want to see how this process is done, you really should take a look at the Poposition Press Facebook page. There you’ll find updates and lots of information about every spread that’s created for this book.

Paper engineering

The Junko Mizuno Triad pop-up book includes all kids of different engineering techniques and paper animations that makes this the most advanced pop-up title Poposition Press has published so far. The talented award winning Paper engineer Simon Arizpe also collaborated on this project. He did the engineering on the ‘Tree’ spread.

It may be clear that this newest release of Poposition Press is a must have for both pop-up book collectors and fans of Junko Mizuno’s art. This new book definitely raises the bar for the category of pop-up art books. It’s the result of close collaboration between artist and engineer like you’ve never seen before.

Rosston Meyer about Triad:

“Working with some of my favorite artists like Junko has been a dream of mine since I started making books a few years ago, and I’m extremely proud and honored to be able to collaborate with her (and with Simon Arizpe who engineered the ‘Tree’ spread)  on this project. With such complicated art, each spread was a challenge to cut down into separate pieces and engineer, and Junko did an amazing job of not only providing fill in art but a lot of additional and sometimes hidden artwork for each spread in Triad. I’m looking forward to sharing this book with pop up book collectors and fans of Junko’s work around the world.”

Pop-up spreads in Triad

Ocean
Depicting the big fight between the Wrestler and the Shark, Ocean has been transformed from a portrait image into a landscape popup with new characters and artwork added.

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Serpent
Color, new artwork, characters and fill ins added.

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Triptych
The three portraits of the Nurse, Witch and Wrestler are set in frames in the three part Triptych pop-up.

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Mansion
The detailed Mansion pops-out in over 6 rooms, with a pull tab, flap, and even a hidden rat!

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Tree
Also converted from a portrait image to a landscape pop up, new artwork added throughout including two hidden surprises!

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Ink Triptych
(Special Edition Pop-up) – The Surgery, Magic and Tiger images are brought together in another 3 part pop-up spread.

Het bericht Junko Mizuno’s Triad Pop-Up Book (pre-order) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

This beautiful pop-up book brings together the six artists Angry Woebots, Skinner, kozyndan, Junko Mizuno, Tara McPherson and Jim Mahfood. The Pop-Up Art Book represents different styles like comic book artwork, street art, illustration and fine art. Each artist contributes with their own original artwork that has been digitally deconstructed and then reconstructed into 6 surprising multidimensional pop-up spreads.

Interview with Rosston Meyer

Het bericht The Pop-Up Art Book verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.

Left: Rosston Meyer, right: Marc Meyer

We’ve just published a video review on our YouTube channel about The Pop-Up Art Book. An amazing collection of modern street art, illustrations and cartoons published by Poposition Press. Rosston Meyer and his brother Marc Meyer worked on this project together and successfully crowdfunded it on Kickstarter.

Rosston, who’s representing Poposition Press, answered some questions we asked him about The Pop-Up Art Book and his work as a paper engineer.

The interview

BPUB – How did your love for pop-up books started?
RM – Like many people, I had a few pop-up books as a kid. But it was when I was a teenager and I got a copy of Robert Sabuda’s Alice in Wonderland book that I was first really amazed by a pop-up book and had the thought to one day make one myself.

BPUB – What’s your history with paper and paper engineering?
RM – I had a loose idea to make a pop-up with some of the artists I was a fan of from the comic book and designer toy worlds, but that idea sat with me for about fifteen years before I really did anything with it. It was kind of one of those things I would talk about here and there, but didn’t actually do anything with. That was until 2013 when I started working with Jim Mahfood on what would become my first pop-up book, Pop Up Funk. My brother Marc and I worked together on that book, both designing and then assembling 100 copies, so that was really my first foray into the world of paper art and pop-up books. There were a lot of unknowns with that project from: cost per book, time involved to assemble a copy, and how to best make the pop-ups work. After that book was done and released, I knew that I wanted to make another book. But I had to look at getting it mass produced in a professional pop-up assembly factory, which is what happened with the follow up book, The Pop Up Art Book.

BPUB – Do you have any plans or offers for higher volumes and more commercial titles?
RM – Yes, starting now in 2016, I have a few art books planned similar to the ones that Poposition has already released, as well as a more commercial book focused on just one subject. I’m working with a handful of different paper engineers on this upcoming project and look forward to seeing what everyone involved comes up with, and how it all comes together. Look for an announcement on this book the first few months of 2016, and hopefully a release in the summertime.

As far as quantity, moving forward the artist books will have runs of at least 1000 copies (just like The Pop Up Art Book’s run), and possibly 2500 copies.

BPUB – Who are your favorite and most inspiring popup book authors or paper engineers?
RM – I would say one of my favorite paper engineers would have to be Matthew Reinhart, because the work that he puts out book after book just gets more impressive as time goes one. The flip style effect found in his Transformers book is just amazing to me.

Another paper engineer I have a lot of respect for is Roger Culbertson. I initially met Roger back in Florida around 2005, when I had some interest in pop-ups but no solid ideas or plans on what to do. Roger showed me all sorts of books and promotional items he had worked on and I was amazed by what could be done with paper. Fast forward about ten year after I’ve put a few books out on my own, and Roger and I have worked together on a commercial pop-up project for an agency in Singapore. He’ll be one of the engineers on the commercial book I previously mentioned.

Finally, David Carter is another favorite engineer of mine, especially with the artistic shapes found in his One Red Dot series of books. I find those books to be very interesting with the use of primarily colors and simple shapes, and how he’s designed interactivity into those book (finding the One Red Dot or 600 black spots, for example) David is one of the first people in the pop-up book world that I got in contact with when starting to make my own books and he’s been very helpful and supportive in many ways. He too will be one of the engineers in the aforementioned book.

BPUB – What’s the most difficult/technical spread you have ever made and why?
RM – That would be the “Onna Bune 1” spread, which was the special page that came with Junko Mizuno’s Artist Editions of The Pop Up Art Book. It was the most difficult page I’ve done because there were so many small pieces to extract from the original art, and I feel that the final pop-up version is in a way better than the original in that it truly gives the sense of a full scene with the boat visible on top of the ocean, compared to the original art which has a lot going on.

Detailed production photos from the “Onna Bune 1” spread by Junko Mizuno, shared from the very interesting @popositionpress Instagram Channel.

BPUB – How did you get to collaborate with great artists such as Jim Mahfood and Junko Mizuno?
RM – I’ve been very lucky to be able to work with my favorite artists. I got to know Jim Mahfood first by working with him on his website (my day job is Web Designer) and I always had the idea to make pop-ups out of his work but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Eventually, around 2012, we started talking about it seriously and after one spread was made, he agreed to creating fill in and cover the art for an entire ten page book. Getting that made was no small feat and my brother Marc helped me both with the design of that book and the extremely labourous task of cutting, assembling and binding those ten page into a 100 copy run of Pop Up Funk.

BPUB – Are you planning to release a book with your own artwork and paper engineering in the future?
RM – Not with my own artwork, as I don’t think badly drawn stick figure type art lends itself well to a pop-up book! Honestly, I feel as if there’s an unlimited amount of incredible artwork that can be made into pop-ups. So as far as the art books I’ll be focusing on making books with visual artists rather than make the art myself.

“I think Kickstarter is a great way to get the word out about unique pop-up book projects. The goal for The Pop-Up Art Book’s Kickstarter was reached in about a week or so.”

BPUB – We have recently seen new popup book projects on KickStarter. Do you think that indie productions are the future of popup books?
RM – Yes, I think Kickstarter is a great way to get the word out about unique pop-up book projects. The goal for The Pop-Up Art Book’s Kickstarter was reached in about a week or so. Which I’d like to attribute to both the existing audiences that each artist involved has, as well as the ongoing promotion that I’ve been doing for Poposition on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. By the time the project was launched, a lot of people already knew about the book and that helped the goal get reached quickly.

BPUB – Your books represent a mix of comic and street art. Have you ever considered making a pop-up book just about graffiti?
RM – Yes, I have thought about this and talked to some people that are known in the graffiti world. I think the difficult thing is getting the right people to do it, those that have a large appeal and are known like some of these other artists. With graffiti it’s tricky because a lot of people don’t want to be known and the few (Fairey, DAIM, Invader) that are likely bigger than life, wouldn’t want to do a pop-up. So I think the selection of artists, and artwork (or photographs, I guess) is the tricky part. A lot of the artist I’m working with do mural work but aren’t necessarily known as ‘graf’ writers. But ever since I was a teenager and first see DAIM’s work on the web I’ve thought… pop-up!?!

BPUB – What do you think of bestpopupbooks.com ?
RM – I think it’s a great site and resource for pop-up book collector and paper engineers. There aren’t many sites dedicated to pop-up book news and interviews like BestPopUpBooks.com is, and even fewer people doing video reviews of books. I’m honored to be asked to do this interview and hope to see many more video reviews on the site throughout the year.

Thank you Rosston! We can’t wait for your next project!

Order this book at Amazon: The Pop-Up Art Book

Published by Poposition Press
Paper Engineering by Rosston Meyer and Marc Meyer
Book Design by Kevin Steele

Artwork by:
Howling Masher by Aaron Woes Martin
Morrigan Lupus by Skinner
Drowning Party by Kozyndan
Pancakes by Junko Mizuno
The Water Nebula by Tara McPherson
Bubble Gum Gangsters by Jim Mahfood

The design and paper engineering of The Pop-Up Art Book took place in the United States and has been printed and assembled in China.

Het bericht Rosston Meyer from Poposition Press (Interview) verscheen eerst op Best Pop-up Books.