Ib Penick


Ib Penick, a native of Denmark, was known as "the creative mind behind the resurgence of pop-up children's books in the 1960s and 1970s. In his career, Penick designed more than 130 children's books, including Star Wars: a Pop-up Book, which sold more than a million copies. Penick related to one reporter, "...there are only about 100 folds and tricks to trade. It's like playing a piano. You have only a certain number of keys, but it's the combinations that make the difference."

Biography

In the 1960s Penick joined Waldo Hunt at Graphics International, a firm that created pop-up books, including a series of titles for Random House and other publishers. Penick was the "premier paper engineer" for the Random House pop-up titles, with Tor Lokvig as his protege. According to Gerald Harrison, a former president of the children's books division at Random House, Penick "was really responsible for creating the whole world we lived in. With the advent of the Random House line, a whole industry was created and the very first ones were created by Ib."
Penick and Hunt later sold Graphics International to Hallmark Cards in 1966.

Selected bibliography

The following is a sample of the pop-up books paper engineered by Ib Penick:
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Patents

Penick held several patents in the area of paper engineering, camera design and packaging, including:
  1. '– Decorative paperboard boxes
  2. '– Item with pivoting pop-up
  3. '– Method of making hinged pop-up items
  4. '– Pop-ups and methods of making
  5. '– Promotional pop-up and method of making
  6. '– Paper pop-up devices and method of making the same
  7. '– Camera with improved shutter arrangement
  8. '– Disposable Camera
  9. – Pocket sized camera