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VOLUME 7 NUMBER 4
NOVEMBER 1999
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An Interview with Robert Sabuda, Part 2
Happy Birthday New York City
Barbara Valenta Staten Island, N.Y.
Ellen G. K. Rubin Scarsdale, NY
New Yorkers have the reputation for having attitude,
of being in your face. Only a city like New York could
have produced a book like The New York pop-up book. A product of the non-profit organization New York City 100, as part of their multimedia tribute to the city's centennial, this "pop-up for grown-ups" is a cornucopia of all that is superlative and unique about the Big Apple.
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In Part 2 of his interview, Sabuda discusses his working methods, his professional life, and his future plans.
BV-Do you work on more than one book at a time? RS-Always on several. BV-More than one pop-up?
RS-Oh no. Usually one pop-up and one picture book alternating. When I submit the finished book I'm not really finished. I still need to look at the printers' proofs, go down to Equador for production. So while I'm doing that I'm illustrating a whole new book. When I go to Equador I go for one week, but I look at proofs and the jacket in New York. Then I also have to run this business, taxes, paper work. Preparing for a conference, book signings, it all adds up.
BV-You're going 90 mph. How much time do you get to spend on art, on business and so on?
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RS-I guess about two thirds on the creative part. NOLHAM
GIEINISMIN TY
BV-Not bad. About one third on business and
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production.
To give you an idea of what makes this new book so exciting you must first imagine the size and format of the
RS-What about my personal life?
Van der Meer pack books, filled with pop-ups hidden in gate-folds, and booklets galore punctuate it with personal
BV-I guess forgot to put that in.
essays by Wendy Wasserstein, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, and Nora Ephron, to name but a few literary luminaries, and then mix scholarly text about New York landmarks and attractions by the major museums of New York. Next, embellish all of that by having David Hawcock engineer 14 pop-ups, some from the works of famous living artists, such as Red Grooms and Al Hirschfeld. All of this is contained in 7 spreads! Times Square on New Year's Eve should be so tumultuous.
Continued on page 2
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BV-Do you think about marketing? RS-I always think I should focus on what I do well and
let others do what they do well. Sometimes I have an idea-like when we made pop-up bookmarks to give away free of charge to kids who couldn't afford my book-which wanted to give them some children can't. So
something, and I thought, how about a pop-up bookmark, which we did. I prefer that to book signings. Continued on page 6