Making the Bicycle Pop-Up Book

Bicycles are fun first and foremost. Sure, we use them for transportation and fitness, but the main reason we ride, race, work on our bikes, discuss technical details and generally nerd out about bikes is simple: Bikes are fun!

When we saw Dominique Ehrhard’s delightful pop-up book at a local bookstore, of course we bought a copy! We liked the whimsical pop-ups so much that we decided to review the book in the new Bicycle Quarterly. And then we added it to the Rene Herse bookstore. How could we not?

One thing led to another, and we got in touch with the autho. We asked Dominque whether he’d share a bit about the process of making the book. He sent a treasure trove of sketches and initial models that he’s never shared before. Here is his story of the book (translated from French):

“The story behind each of my books is different. The Bicycles Pop-Up Book started during Covid, when the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York asked me to make a pop-up holiday card. Back then, during the lockdown, the roads were deserted. Only bike couriers with huge bags on their backs were braving the cold. That gave me the idea of Santa Claus as New York courier.

“At first, I imagined a pop-up that would be completely flat, with Santa on his bike in the center, but I found this scene a bit empty. It didn’t really evoke the wintry atmosphere I was looking for.

“Instead I chose a pop-up that folded 90 degrees. The flat part represents the snow-covered ground; the vertical part the skyscrapers of New York in the cold, snowy night. I was so happy with the result that I wanted to make an entire book using this technique. I wanted to make the pop-up as simple as possible, with a little pedestal and a bike that folds out in the center.

“In the end, that version was still too complicated. I simplified the mechanism further, until there was just a simple folded tongue that came out of the paper. Interestingly, since the bike has no depth at all, it wasn’t necessary to represent its volume. A simple cut-out of its silhouette was all I needed. Thanks to that simplicity, the pop-ups didn’t need any adjustments—for other projects, it can take dozens of prototypes before the final version is ready.

“Here all I needed was one simple white prototype. For this book, the essential work was on the graphics, where I tried to find the ambiance of each era. And since the bikes weren’t folded, they could be cut out with a laser, which made it possible to create incredibly fine details, like the spokes of the hobby horse, the chains of the tandem, and the derailleurs of the mountain bikes. The pieces then are glued onto a little folded piece that comes out of the background.

“For the topics of each pop-up, I chose the bikes based on their appearance. While the book tells the history of bicycles, I also wanted bikes that are very different from one another and easy to identify.”

Dominique also sent some fascinating sketches that show how he developed the bikes and riders. Here is the Baron von Drais with his hobby horse (or balance bike, as today’s kids would call it).

And here is a first pop-up (still with a pedestal) of the same scene.

The 1930s couple on their tandem was developed via a multitude of sketches, which explains why they are so life-like in the final book. (The tandem is my favorite scene of the book.)

The cargo bike riders of today feature only in the background, but Dominique sketched out different ways of carrying kids. Should the longtail carry two or three kids?

Some ideas didn’t make it into the book—perhaps eating ice cream while riding no-hands isn’t such a great idea after all. (Although heading to the bakery to buy baguettes certainly is.)

Also left out in the end was the round-the-world cyclist with full panniers. I’m a little saddened by this, as this type of bike is a personal favorite, but I also wouldn’t want to leave out any of the other vignettes. Perhaps there’ll be a sequel to the Bicycles Pop-Up Book in the future? For now, thank you so much for sharing these incredible documents, Dominique!

More information:

• Get your copy of the book from the Rene Herse bookstore
• Our Gift Guide with many great gift ideas