Posts Tagged ‘paper’

Papercuts – The Good Kind

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

While perusing Design*Sponge, one of my favorite blog sites, I came across another blog called PAPERCUTS by “MrYen” that posts about design finds and his own papercut artwork that he sells on Etsy (I am loving the whale papercuts shown). Paper cutting is as simple as it sounds, the art of cutting designs out of paper, but the process, however, is extremely meticulous, time consuming and involves an exacto and a steady hand.

I’ve done some simple papercuts of my own, and it’s always more difficult than it seems, especially when your goal is to get a perfect edge, while avoiding a ripped mess. Did I forget to mention that it is time consuming? I think the precision and detail of papercut art is so beautiful. Designs are delicately filled simple silhouettes, amazing textures and depth that you wouldn’t be able to achieve from plain printing. Below is just a sampling of what papercutting has to offer.

To learn how to create your own papercuts check out The Heart of Papercuts, who offer an introduction on how to start paper cutting. And for more inspiration and variations on the style you should also check out these amazing artists, Yulia Brodskaya, and Julene Harrison.





Perfectly imperfect

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

The design team has often talked about the tendency for designers to be perfectionists. Sometimes, especially when creating something for myself, this can be paralyzing. It has to be absolutely perfect and I can’t start until I know exactly how that perfect thing will look. Let me tell you, this can result in some blank white walls in my apartment. I know I’ll have to stare at it, whatever it is, day in and day out and that if it isn’t perfect it will drive me crazy! But what if it isn’t permanent? What if I just do without analyzing the final product and every step it will take me to get there? And then if I hate it, or get sick of it, I can rip it down and start something new. It is this idea that got us Zoomers started on a new mission to create temporary pieces of installation art on the walls of our studio. We wanted to do something that all Zoomers could quickly contribute to while taking a moment to stand up and get away from their computers. We wanted something that could morph and change throughout the process of creating it. We wanted something that didn’t need a storyboard, a set of brand guidelines or a project manager. With this in mind, reacting to a printer that kept jamming we started crumpling up the mangled sheets of paper and stapling them to the wall. And so it begins, we have a beginning but no precise vision for the end, and in this case, that is the way we like it!

TheWall