Origami, Business Card

As I said last post, I have gotten back into origami something fierce. Once I had discovered origami theory, I couldn't wait to make some original designs. When I am folding models now, I like to make variations on them, such as on these two models; a gargoyle designed by Jerry Harris, and Robert Neale's classic dragon.





I also love folding and throwing paper airplanes. I had the idea to make a paper airplane business card that would teach other people how to fold my design. I used Adobe Illustrator to make patterns for both sides such that step by step instructions would appear as it was folded. I tested it on my roommates, and they were able to make it, so I am pleased with the design. It flies very well, and can be gripped and thrown in many different ways: from the nose, the midsection or the tail, or even by holding the top and bottom loosely and then projecting it from the hand like a shuriken dart. It it pretty cool, and I think it will be a great conversation starter. I can talk about how I like origami, or I can mention that I got an aerospace engineering degree, or that I know how to use Illustrator. It is an example of my ingenuity and originality. I wasn't able to find anything similar online; the closest one involved carefully cutting and pasting together a paper plane model. It looked pretty fancy and probably took even longer than mine to design, but I doubt many people would actually take the time to construct it. Mine can be folded on the spot in a couple minutes, and is a simple and fun puzzle that will teach others how to transform other business cards in a similar way. I think it will communicate to others that I am focused on creating high quality, enjoyable products, and on educating others about good design. My final version will have my phone number on it, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to post that online.





To see the full folding sequence, and what it looks like completed, check out my gallery on coroflot.com.

Here are some more origami models I folded recently: "Magic Rose Cube by Valerie Vann, closed and open, a Bowl by Aldo Putignano holding a tiny traditional crane, a butterfly by Akira Yoshizawa, and an original creation of mine, a helmet with an eye on the back of it kind of like the one in Nausicaa, a "Business Card Puppy" by Larry Stevens, a Unicorn by Stephen Weiss, and Cerberus by Robert Lang. The magic rose cube is really amazing, and I think that one would make a great gift. Now, I realize that the last two models didn't turn out too well, but I was mostly just doing a test run before trying them with a higher quality paper. In the case of the unicorn though, I think I'll look for another design, as I didn't like that one very much. The cerberus design is pretty cool, but it needs a sheet bigger than 10" square to work well. For that helmet, I was just doodling with a small square of paper while thinking about how cool it would be to make a helmet like the one the emperor had in Nausicaa, and lo and befold, I had come up with something that actually worked. I'll probably fold it from a larger sheet, and then post the sequence online some time. I'm going to have some good fun with origami, I can tell.

Designs of the Day

At this point, it is clear that my goal of producing a design each day that would be worthy of posting online was a bit too ambitious. I have spent time almost every day this year doing design work (minus a couple of days of moving into my new apartment). I think one problem I ran into was the same problem I had last year. I kept wanting to outdo myself each time, until it became difficult to continue working at that rate. The time required for each project would increase each time. I realize that this is just my pefectionism kicking in. In order to rein this in, I will change the parameters slightly. I want to keep developing my design skills, so I will continue to do design work every day. I will post once each week with highlights of the week's work. It may be one big project, seven small renderings, or something completely different. It will turn into "designs of the day", instead of "[intermittent] design of the day". I guess I will post on Monday nights for now, but that may change later.

The thing that I will post today is a small collection of photos of an origami tesselation I created. I designed it using a computer program I found online. Little did I know that the design I made was probably one of the more complex and difficult tesselations I could make. I modified the output in Illustrator, and printed it onto a piece of paper.



I cut a section out, and then creased all of the lines, some on one side, some on the other, which took a long time. I then spent probably an hour to collapse the model into what you see here, which is less than half the size it started as. One thing that made it difficult was that it all had to be folded together more or less simultaneously. It was very tricky to fold, but eventually I figured out the patterns, and saw which sections would have to be the highest and lowest points, and that helped in the process. One cool part about origami tessellations is that they create beautiful light patterns when backlit.






I will continue to explore this form of origami occasionally, but for now I want to do just try folding and understanding many different models, with the intention of eventually being able to design my own. I have been inspired by finding tons of amazing examples of origami sculptures online recently, and learning some of the methods of model design. Some of the masters whose works I have been marveling at include Robert Lang, Michael Lafosse, Eric Joisel, Satoshi Kamiya, Brian Chan, Jason Ku, Hojyo Takashi, Tomoko Fuse, Akira Yoshizawa, Issei Yoshino, and many more. I encourage anyone with an interest to look them all up. Prepare to be awestruck.