A studio service
Lift-the-flap books, designed for the printer.
An interactive book is illustration plus engineering. Every flap, cut-out and textured patch needs artwork above it, artwork beneath it and a die line the printer can follow. We illustrate the spreads and prepare those layers.
N° 01What we design
Every layer of the spread.
01
Lift-the-flap spreads
The scene, the flap face and the reveal underneath, drawn so the join disappears when the flap is closed.
02
Touch-and-feel placement
Artwork with marked areas for fur, felt or textured patches, sized to what your printer can apply.
03
Peek-through cut-outs
Holes that show part of the next page and change meaning when the page turns.
04
Pull tabs and sliders
Simple tab mechanisms drawn to the template your printer supplies.
05
Board book layout
Thick-page formats with rounded corners, safe margins and spine allowances.
06
Cover and packaging art
Cover illustration, title design and any belly band or box artwork.
N° 02The part that goes wrong
The mechanism decides the art.
Interactive books fail when the artwork is finished before the printer is chosen.
01
Choose the printer early
Flap sizes, glue areas and minimum tab widths differ between printers. We work from the dieline template your printer provides.
02
Not a print-on-demand format
Amazon KDP prints paperbacks and hardcovers only. Flaps, textures and board pages are made by specialist printers, usually with a minimum order.
03
Glue zones
No important art sits where a flap is glued or folded.
04
Safety
Books for babies and toddlers are tested for small parts and materials. Your printer or testing lab advises on the standard for your market; we design to it.
N° 03How it runs
Plan first, artwork after.
01
1. Page plan
We agree the number of spreads and the mechanism on each one, then request the dieline template from your printer.
02
2. Sample pages
Two or three finished pages in the agreed look, so you approve the style and the difficulty before the rest is made.
03
3. Full interior
Every page produced to the plan, with answers or instructions where the format needs them, then one consolidated round of changes.
04
4. Cover and files
Cover design, front matter and print-ready files at your trim size, set to your printer's or platform's template.
N° 04Investment
Three ways to work together.
Single-format
From $1,600
A short flap or touch-and-feel book.
- Cover illustration and title design
- Up to 6 spreads
- Up to 8 flaps or texture areas, with die-line layers
- Print-ready PDF
- 1 round of revisions
Signature
From $3,200
A full interactive board book.
- Cover illustration and title design
- Up to 10 spreads
- Up to 16 flaps, cut-outs or texture areas
- Die-line and glue-zone layers
- Character integration
- 2 rounds of revisions
- Social marketing pack
Series
From $7,000
A range sharing one format and character.
- 3+ titles
- Shared characters, palette and cover system
- One mechanism system reused across titles
- Full print files per title
- Series style guide
What every package includes, and what it does not
What you get
- Original artwork made for your book, with full commercial rights
- Editable source files as well as print-ready PDFs
- A written page plan agreed before artwork starts
- Files set to the template of the printer or platform you name
What we don’t do
- Printing, binding and shipping
- ISBNs, publishing account setup or marketing campaigns
- Licensed or trademarked characters
- Paper engineering of complex pop-ups
- Printing, die making and safety testing
Page counts above are caps. A longer book, extra revision rounds or a second language are quoted in writing before we start them.
N° 05Questions
The answers we give most often.
- Can you make a lift-the-flap book through print on demand?
- No print-on-demand service we know of adds flaps or textures. These books are produced by specialist printers, usually overseas and with a minimum quantity. We prepare the files they ask for.
- Do you design pop-ups?
- Simple flaps, cut-outs, tabs and texture areas, yes. Complex three-dimensional pop-ups need a paper engineer, which is a separate specialism.
- What do you need from my printer?
- Their dieline template for the format, the minimum flap and tab sizes, and their colour and file requirements. If you have not chosen a printer, we design to common board book sizes and adjust once you do.
- How many flaps should a book have?
- Usually one or two per spread, so each page has a surprise without raising the print cost too far. Each flap adds to the price your printer quotes.
- Do I own the artwork?
- Yes, with full commercial rights and layered source files.
Start your book
Have a book like this in mind?
Tell us the audience, the page count and where it will be printed. You get a page plan and a fixed quote in writing.