Mohawk Blog

FlipFlip: Custom Printed Flipbooks

Words

Rebecca Gatto

Photography

Rebecca Gatto

January 26, 2022

With FlipFlip, you can create personalized flipbooks that bring your mobile videos to life.

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If the early aughts were the era of photos, 2020 ushered in the era of video. Pandemic precautions forced many of us to embrace virtual work meetings, virtual holidays, and virtual happy hours. Suddenly, making a video call seemed not just necessary, but normal. At the same time, video platforms on social media began to pick up speed, especially TikTok and its many imitators.

Entrepreneur Philippe Hadey noticed that people close to him had begun to share moments in motion, rather than posting static photos—but he felt something critical was missing.

"In 2021, there are so many ways to print your photos—almost unlimited," he said. "You can print your photo on a poster, on a postcard, in a book."

But when it came to video, there was no way to print one. There was no way to keep it forever, to protect it from being, as he puts it, "lost in the cloud."

So he came up with a solution: FlipFlip, an online platform that turns your videos into flipbooks. It’s disarmingly simple. Just upload a video (about 10 seconds works best), and within moments you’re watching a preview of what it’ll look like as a 48-page, 4-by-5-inch book. Choose one of three cover styles, place your order, and you’ve done the impossible by printing a video on paper.

Hi-Tech, Meet Lo-Tech

FlipFlip blends the best of our smartphones' capabilities with timeless Mohawk paper.

FlipFlip books with video tapes, shapes, and film

Of course, it’s not just any paper—it's Mohawk Everyday Digital (Practical Collection). The pages are 70 text, and the miniature books are bound in 80 cover.

The paper choice required some trial and error, Hadey says. He knew he wanted uncoated paper, which is less likely to show fingerprints and smudges than its coated counterparts. Then they had to dial in the perfect weight. Thinner pages are easier to flip, but can sometimes end up flying through your fingers too quickly.

"If it’s thicker you have a little grip," he explained.

Moments That Move

FlipFlip's founder suggests choosing videos for their emotional significance, not their production value.

FlipFlip launched in 2020, then relaunched with a smoother interface just a few weeks ago. With the process of uploading your video perfected, all that’s left is to choose a video you want to watch over and over. Hadey says it’s best to choose a small, meaningful moment that lasts 10 seconds or less. For best results, don’t try to pack in too much action. Slow-motion videos work especially well.

"The first step of your kid, the wedding kiss—it’s nice when you have a moment which moves," he said, "like a kiss or a jump, or you score a goal in soccer." Hadey says his favorite is a video he printed of his dog spinning.

“It's nice when you have a moment which moves.”

Philippe Hadey

Founder, FlipFlip

Flip It!

FlipFlip's website allows you to upload a video and see a digitally rendered preview of how it'll behave on paper.

A gif of a phone video transforming into a flipbook

And one more piece of advice: it’s okay if the video isn’t exactly a Hollywood production.

"It’s a personal thing, even if the video is not great quality or whatever, it’s just the moment that you lived," Hadey said. "You have a really special emotion when you flip it."

Curious? See a preview of your memory as a flipbook by uploading a video of your own.

Try FlipFlip