| Ib Penick | |
| Birth Date: | May 11, 1930[1] |
| Birth Place: | Odense, Denmark |
| Death Place: | Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Paper Engineer, Inventor |
| Children: | 3 |
Ib Penick (1930 - 1998), a native of Denmark, was known as "the creative mind behind the resurgence of pop-up children's books in the 1960s and 1970s.[2] 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.[3] Penick related to one reporter, "...there are only about 100 folds and tricks to [his paper engineering] trade. It's like playing a piano. You have only a certain number of keys, but it's the combinations that make the difference."[4]
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.[5] Penick was the "premier paper engineer" for the Random House pop-up titles, and Tor Lokvig was his protege.[6] 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."[7]
Penick and Hunt later sold Graphics International to Hallmark Cards in 1966.[8]
The following is a sample of the pop-up books paper engineered by Ib Penick:[9]
Penick held several patents in the area of paper engineering, camera design and packaging, including: