Keith Allen I have been asked on a few occasions, ‘What exactly is a paper-engineer?’ Well, a paper engineer is really just a fancy title for someone who loves to build things out of paper. And that’s me! I LOVE paper and all of its unique properties.
During the day I am a Senior Product designer at a large greeting card company but on my own time I make pop-up books. I was inspired by my kids to create this unique book about how hard it is for them to clean their rooms. It can be quite difficult to say the least. So, I wanted to take this mundane chore and make it fun for them by turning it into an adventure story.
What a Mess! follows two siblings on a misadventure of epic proportions after their messy room becomes so out-of-control that it explodes from their doorway, sends them to the top of a toy mountain, spins them around in a dust-nado, and much more. With every page turn is a dazzling, well-constructed, complex paper pop-up that is sure to delight and amaze.
I love challenging myself with paper, and the idea of having this enormous mess literally rise out from the pages sounded thrilling to me! I wanted this book to feel like its cover was the only thing holding the chaos and silliness inside.
For over a year and a half I have been working on this book early in the morning before the day begins. The project was originally titled ‘the 5am Pop-Up Book,’ and I documented the entire process online through Facebook with overwhelming support. Each spread begins with a sketch and then I frantically start cutting, folding and gluing paper down. I rebuild spreads over and over and over again until it starts to work the way I want to. Building pop-ups can sometimes be quite time-consuming and challenging, but when it does all come together, it is exhilarating!
My pop-up development process works like this:
- Quickly sketch out your ideas on paper first to find a great layout. This does not need to be pretty.
- Build a rough concept by experimenting with different folds and lots of cutting and gluing. This step can take a while, but it’s important to get it right in the beginning. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, some of my best folds can from my mis-measurements.
- When your rough mockup is finished, rebuild it over and over and over again. Do this until all the mistakes are corrected and it opens and closes neatly without catching or hanging out of the page.
- Once it looks good, tear the whole thing apart, but gently. Scan all your pieces into the computer and build your dielines. I like to use Adobe Illustrator for this, but there are many programs to can be used.
- Illustrate your artwork onto your refined dielines. When your pencil lines are complete, mock it up again and make sure your art is lining up correctly with your folds and attachments.
- Once your pencil lines are corrected and complete you can color and finalize your Illustrations. Now you have a finished Pop-Up spread!
After countless hours, “What a Mess! a Pop-Up Misadventure” is finally complete. Because of the amazing online support, I chose to self-publish similarly to my first book (A Day in Rehoboth Beach) but this time utilizing KickStarter.com to help offset the high production costs. The campaign will be launching September 6, and hopefully with everyone’s support the book will be become a reality soon after.
The Kickstarter process has been a HUGE learning experience. I had no idea the amount of work that goes into preparing for a campaign like this. Building the product, as hard as it was, was really only half the battle. I quickly had to learn to take my artist hat off and be my own marketer, web-designer, videographer, accountant, and copywriter. I still have so much to learn, but luckily there are a lot of great websites, podcasts, and forums that help with the fundamentals of crowdsourcing. You really just need to take it one day at a time or else it can feel incredibly overwhelming.
If you have any questions about paper engineering or crowdsourcing, I’d love to hear from you! Also, if you like the project and would like to be a part of bringing it to life, please check out the Kickstarter campaign or sigh up for updates through my website. Thank you so much for your support and keep on poppin’!
