Work

Five commissions, one book.

The carousel book on our home page is our calling card: each of its five scenes is taken from a book we engineered for a client. Here is what each one was for, and what made it hard.

01 · City guide

Norwich, standing up

A pocket guide for a Norwich publisher: six spreads, each a walk through one part of the city, with the sights standing up where they stand in real life.

Format: 150 × 150 mm, 6 spreads
Pieces per copy: 38
Glue points: 112
Print run: 5,000
Year: 2024

What was hard

The spire. At 187 mm it is taller than the book is wide, so it folds in three places: once along its crease and twice across its height, so it can lie inside the closed book without touching the page above.

V-fold Layers

02 · Picture book

The Owl Who Counted

A bedtime book for readers aged three to six. Every spread adds a star; on the last one the owl turns to count them all.

Format: 220 × 260 mm, 5 spreads
Pieces per copy: 44
Glue points: 96
Print run: 20,000 in three languages
Year: 2023

What was hard

Small hands. A pull-tab for this age needs a stop at each end and a lever short enough that a hard yank can't tear it; we tested nine versions with a nursery class before the publisher saw one.

Pull-tab Layers

03 · Gardening

Grow It Up

A first growing book for children who have never had a garden: one bed, one season, and a page that grows as you open it.

Format: 240 × 240 mm, 6 spreads
Pieces per copy: 51
Glue points: 138
Print run: 12,000
Year: 2025

What was hard

The sunflowers stand on a floating layer, a platform held up by two small V-folds. It had to rise 60 mm without swaying; the answer was 350 gsm board and a hidden cross-brace.

V-fold Carousel

04 · Opera learning

A theatre in an envelope

An opera house wanted every Year 5 class in its region to stage a scene. We made a theatre that arrives flat in an A4 envelope.

Format: A4 flat-pack, 5 pieces
Pieces per copy: 5
Glue points: 0
Print run: 2,400 classrooms
Year: 2022

What was hard

No glue at all. Teachers have five minutes, not fifty, so every piece slots into the next and the whole stage stands on a single tab.

Layers

05 · Maritime museum

The Tide Wheel

A souvenir for a maritime museum: a harbour at dusk on the front, and on the back a wheel that shows the times of high and low water.

Format: 210 × 210 mm, single spread
Pieces per copy: 17
Glue points: 40 and 1 brass grommet
Print run: 3,000, reprinted twice
Year: 2024

What was hard

The wheel spins on a brass grommet. The printer's tolerance was 0.5 mm, so the window and the disc had to be designed to still read correctly half a millimetre off.

Volvelle

Yours could be the sixth scene.

Tell us what the book is for and who will open it. We will tell you what could stand up.

Start a commission →