Erik Niells, Pupper in Chief
Dog artist Erik Niells is an animator/illustrator with a passion for both dogs and paper craft art. At the very end of 2019, Erik decided to challenge himself for 2020 by drawing a dog every day and posting it publicly to keep himself honest about it. Having done this before in 2008, he knew what he was getting himself into.
From this project grew Paper Pups. As he scoured his imagination daily to find ideas for daily dogs, he found a re-ignited love for paper and crafting toys, cards, lanterns, and other fun things. This site is the result. Erik will add new dog-inspired paper art regularly, so be sure to check back.
Erik’s life has taken him from Munich, Germany to the Washington, DC suburbs, to London, and for the last 20 years to Austin, TX. Austin is a tech town and Erik spent many years working on online content. Austin is also a creative town and the supportive community was just what he needed to transition, finally, to full-time creative work.
Riley, Brand Ambassador
Riley is Dog. Name a breed, it may be in there somewhere. Riley exemplifies the spirit of her people. Loyal. Protective. Loving. Greedy. And completely lovable.
Though she’s still finding her feet in her role, she does provide huge amounts of inspiration. She also provides huge amounts of free-floating fur. With all the adhesives used in our production methods, it’s just possible that there’s a bit of Riley in every card.
Riley is Texas born and bred. She enjoys travel and the smiles she creates wherever she goes.
About the Cards
All of the cards are designed and engineered by our pupper-in-chief. And each card is hand assembled in our Austin, TX studio.
Erik was never a “math” person in school, and now realizes that geometry would have been much more fun if he’d been taught it using the techniques that go into the pop ups. There’s all kinds of angles and measurements and testing and retrying. And in the end, there’s a unique experience as a dog magically appears as you open these cards. Pictures and videos are useful, but once you actually hold and open one of these, we’re confident you’ll want to give these for every special occasion.