We love a superb ardour venture at Inventive Increase, and here is an amazing one which lately handed our desk. Honest warning, although: you could be feeling peckish as soon as you’ve got completed studying this text.
An American illustrator dwelling in London, Jennifer Hines’ newest aspect venture is a pop-up e book that transforms the common-or-garden sandwich from a secular lunchtime staple to a celebrated cultural artefact.
Her meticulously crafted e book, Sandwiches: The Inside Story, represents the end result of years of analysis, creative improvement, and cross-cultural exploration. This elaborate handmade prototype options 18 illustrated pages exploring the definition, development, and cultural significance of sandwiches worldwide.
Every unfold incorporates subtle paper engineering—accordion folds, pull-tabs, nested booklets, detachable newspaper inserts, and three-dimensional pop-up parts—reworking a easy illustrated information into an immersive, tactile expertise.
Expat inspiration
Jessica’s fascination with sandwiches developed by way of her expatriate expertise, having lived in Chicago, Amsterdam, and now London. Throughout her travels, she started documenting native sandwich varieties, seeing them as accessible entry factors into regional culinary traditions.
“I like how localised many sandwiches are to the town, individuals, and cultures,” Jennifer explains. This documentation advanced from informal curiosity to scholarly pursuit as she recognized sandwiches as common but extremely localised meals constructions.
The conceptual underpinning extends past mere documentation. Jessica’s e book views the sandwich metaphorically—its layered development serves as a visible metaphor for human expertise, with every ingredient representing completely different points of every day life mixed right into a cohesive entire. As she places it: “Additionally they are a logo of us and our lives, stacking disparate components collectively to make an entire.”
That is the idea, however the technical execution was one thing else solely, requiring Jessica to grasp varied paper engineering strategies whereas sustaining her illustration type.
Starting with intensive mock-ups developed throughout artistic residencies at The Grange in Nice Cressingham, Norfolk, she methodically examined mechanical parts earlier than finalising designs with conventional media—pencil, ink, and watercolour—supplemented by digital parts. “I selected to do the illustrations by hand as a result of it was simpler to plan out the cuts, flaps and components with out having to cope with printing specifics,” she notes.
The completed prototype consists of dictionary definition flaps that open like mini-books, accordion folds revealing expanded sandwich illustrations, a pull-up vellum dice illustrating ‘The Dice Rule’ of meals classification, and mix-and-match pages permitting readers to create their very own sandwich combos. Pocket newspapers characteristic well-known sandwiches with tales and recipes, whereas pop-up parts showcase record-breaking sandwiches.
Proof of idea
Accomplished earlier this yr, the handmade prototype serves as each a standalone artwork piece and a proof of idea for publishers. Jennifer hopes to remodel her one-of-a-kind creation into a printed e book that may be broadly shared with sandwich fanatics.
As vibrant as it’s interactive, the e book represents the proper intersection of Jennifer’s various abilities: her eye for illustration, storytelling capacity, love of typography, and appreciation for the way meals connects cultures. Whereas this venture spotlights her sandwich speciality, Jennifer’s broader portfolio showcases her versatility as an illustrator and lettering artist for purchasers together with the LA Instances, Quarto Publishing and quite a few meals manufacturers.
For sandwich lovers and paper engineering fanatics alike, Jennifer Hines’ creation proves that generally, essentially the most strange of topics can encourage extraordinary artwork.