Frequencies: Paper Sculpture

[Frequencies is a semi-regular post series focusing on the random design/pop/pointless/happening trends I pick up on from time to time. This particular episode may have suffered slightly at the hands of my busy schedule...yet I think it's still fresh enough to be worth posting.]

There seems to be something inherently playful about paper sculpture. Maybe it's the ephemeral nature of the medium, or the lightness and lack of weight to a blank page. There's something about this unmarked, wide open medium that allows certain artists to expand beyond the page's edge, creating altogether new forms.

Peter Callesen

First up, we have Peter Callesen, whose meticulous cutting from single sheets results in often bittersweet visual puns:

Olivier Gondry

You may have seen this playful yet lovely commercial already. Olivier Gondry recreates the Beringer vineyards in paper:

Jen Stark

Finally, there's Jen Stark, who takes paper sculpture in a completely different direction. Breaking away from the all-white page, Jen uses color and abstract geometrics to transform her medium into something with rigid and almost weighty form:

Roll Your Own

If you're digging these, you can always try your hand at making your own paper sculptures. As a writer and graphic designer, I love the idea of using the paper itself to tell a story, rather than relying on marks on the page.

Frequencies: Graffiti Chic

[Frequencies is a semi-regular post series focusing on the random design/pop/pointless/happening trends I pick up on from time to time.]


Graffiti has crossed over to the gallery scene some time ago, but art galleries were just the beginning...


The spray can is now a high-end accessory:




Advertisers have long caused a blight on our public landscapes for years using government-sanctioned billboards, environmental advertising and signage. But they're now embracing the practice of illegal public defacement, too, using graffadi to sell more Stuff™:


[For more info on graffadi and other "underground" marketing tactics, see Anne Elizabeth Moore's book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Eroision of Integrity.]


And if you want to get your hands dirty but can't deign to use run-of-the-mill Krylon, try Krink:

Frequencies: Hand-held portfolio presentations

[Frequencies is a new semi-regular post series focusing on the random design/pop/pointless/happening trends I pick up on from time to time.]

Designers like to be clever and when I first saw this method of presenting one's portfolio, I thought oh, how clever! But I wasn't the only one, and now all those designers who know clever but can't or aren't inclined to come up with clever on their own seem to feel this is the most appropriate way to present one's portfolio pieces.

The hand-holding does bring human and dimensional elements to the image, pulling the viewer into the frame little bit, perhaps.




It also (sometimes) contextualizes the portfolio piece itself. This is particularly true for business cards, which get passed from hand to hand in real life.





It also creates, scale, of course. Posters look, well, big and postery.




It certainly isn't the most annoying design trend out there, but it's ubiquitousness is starting to wear thin. And I'm not the only one who thinks so:




I suppose, like all design trends, the technique has its place. I still like it.