DESIGN NAME: Who's That Eating
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Pop Up Picture Book
INSPIRATION: After experimenting with paper to make a simple pop up, I found that the pop up moved as I opened and closed the folded paper. This motion reminded me of an animal eating, which inspired me to create a picture book.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: This interactive pop-up book features seven different animals enjoying a snack, each with their own unique 3D pop up fold showcasing their eating style. Each pop up was designed with just a single page cut out. This simple design, combined with paper collage illustrations, brings life to each animal as they jump out from the page. The text includes eating sounds via Japanese onomatopoeia, encouraging the reader to open and close the pages as the animals munch away.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: For each spread, the reader is greeted with a different snack and an animal's hand. Who's that eating? To reveal the animal pop up, the page is extended out from the center. The alternative was to flip to a new page, but I aimed to keep each prompt contained. This design ensures a smooth flow from question to answer.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in December 2014 in Tokyo and finished in December 2019 in Tokyo. Published in May 2020.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Traditionally, pop up books are created by pasting folded paper onto a bound page. With a younger audience in mind, I closely considered book durability in my design process. I challenged myself to design each pop up using a single cut and folded page, laminated against a printed backing page that reveals the inside of each mouth. If the page happens to tear, this design makes it easy to repair.
Each illustration was hand collaged with various materials and papers to create my own textures and colors.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: 180 mm x 195 mm x 25 mm
TAGS: Picturebook, Childrenbook, Popupbook, Bookdesign, graphicdesign,
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: For research, I looked at several pop up books for inspiration. I was curious about their approaches to book production and storytelling. I found that there are many complex pop up books right now, and I wanted to counter that by making something simple and durable, yet effective and interesting.
Prototypes were tested by a dedicated quality control specialist, my young son Ito.
CHALLENGE: The biggest challenge in this project was to design seven distinct pop ups that accurately depict each animal’s unique eating motion.
ADDED DATE: 2020-09-29 07:53:15
TEAM MEMBERS (3) : Publisher : TOKYO SHOTEN Ltd., and
IMAGE CREDITS: Keitaro Sugihara, 2020.
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