SPC Fine Arts Students' Pop-Up Books Hit the Road

Design students at St. Petersburg College’s Clearwater
Campus have created a series of pop-up books so creative
and compelling that examples will visit Florida colleges,
universities and libraries during a year-long tour.

The exhibition, POP: Books as Exploration of Design,
Math and Text, will be on tour for a year, ending in
September 2011. Each of seven scheduled displays
will include 15 different pop-up books. Subjects
range from The Little Mermaid to The Cat in
the Hat, as well as original works of fiction and
tributes to World War II heroes.

The pop-up books resulted when SPC
visual arts faculty members decided to
create a project that would engage
and challenge Design I students. The
resulting class emphasized principles
of traditional two-dimensional
medium while introducing three-dimensional
design.

The projects challenged students
to employ critical thinking skills as they applied
story writing concepts to the pop-up form. Also, they had to
employ other academic skills as they combined storytelling
with math and geometry.
The resulting pop-up books, produced with scissors, X-acto
knives, rulers, needles and thread, bone folders and other
tools, had to be a three-dimensional design that successfully
told stories.

The project began in Fall 2009. So far, about 70 pop-up
books have been produced by students in three semesters
of Design I classes.