Development of the folding of an old origami character
Creative origami as a source of inspiration
Some time ago, a party and event club company requested my services for a possible campaign. It was about making origami figures in a specific material, more specifically cardboard. The figures had to be allusive to certain festive dates in particular. They would be used to carry out the posters and announcements of the corresponding advertising campaigns for each event.
The proposal was a very enriching artistic challenge for me. On the one hand, she was returning to a very attractive activity, but which she had parked because of other commitments, and giving it a practical sense in addition to the purely artistic one. On the other hand, it aroused my curiosity and research towards traditional origami and other authors as a source of inspiration.
Some ideal sketches for creative origami
Specifically, the festivities that are the object of this proposal were the traditional New Years, for the end of the year party, Carnivals, the Beer Festival and Halloween. For which I did a first search for reasons for its possible and subsequent representation by means of the origami technique. Creative origami in this case.
New Year’s party
For the New Year’s holiday, that is, the New Year’s Eve party, I found many figures. Almost all of them were more specifically allusive to Christmas, such as decorations, Christmas trees, gnomes, Santa Claus figures, etc. But I found an origami magazine on a Chinese website with some motifs that I found original and very appropriate. Among others a bunch of grapes and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. Very simple and synthetic figures, but very appropriate to the subject and accurate in their appearance.
Bow tie for evening dress
Champagne bottle in ice bucket
Carnival party
For the Carnival festival I had many options and references both from traditional origami and from other authors. In fact, he had carried out several thematic creative origami workshops in the municipal libraries on the theme of carnivals. Carnivals are a very colorful festival with a great variety of forms. Jokes and surprises, and even the close to science fiction, are a great base of creativity. Therefore it was not difficult for me to find figures for the possible compositions. Among them a great variety of traditional masks, hats and accessories, the most representative of these festivals.
Witch folded with playing card (Kasahara)
Beer Fest (Octoberfest)
The figures for the representation of the Beer Festival was a major challenge that forced me to resort to traditional origami. The most appropriate figures were difficult to make with the proposed material due to the complexity of the folds. Which is why I went back to the genesis of origami and its most basic shapes. And with this, making certain modifications, create the figures alluding to the subject. More specifically in this case the Bavarian hat and the beer mug. This is what creative origami is all about, going back to basics to create a new shape.
Mug of beer with cardboard playing card
Halloween party
For obvious reasons, this motif gave much of itself, and both traditional origami fonts and other authors’ sources also offered many options. Any fantastic motive, of fear, fright and terror, including black humor, can be representative of these world-famous parties. But the search implied a clear criterion, simplicity, for reasons of the material. This translates into simplifying the number of folds without losing reference to the motif. That did not reduce the possibilities much because I found in the sources and bibliography a variety of witches, pumpkins, skeletons, black cats, etc., and many of them with the simplicity of folds and the elegance of the creative origami of these figures.
Pumpkin
Conclusion
For reasons beyond the control of both parties, the project for this advertising campaign was never carried out. But this experience was for me an incentive for learning, research and creative origami. And the important thing was the path traveled and the experience gained.
Witch with inverted fold playing card cardboard
Design of the ideal sketches by Elena Ortega Rojas
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