Visual Language: Papercut Representations of a Word.

In today's session we looked at several paper cut designers, and how they visually interpret meaning, message or images through paper cut designs.

Some of my favourites that we reviewed included:

'Robert The'

A masterclass in paper cut book sculpture- I really loved these designs- they visually communicate the contents of the book in an instant with a great playfullness and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Su Blackwell

One of my favourite papercut artists for a long time now, originally discovering Su Blackwell's work in my first year at college during an animation project. I love the stories behind her creations, reading each book she crafts into before sculpting to egnite her imagination. Really wistful, charming and genteel designs- just my cup of tea!

Ellen Bell

Wonderfully creative design by Ellen Bell- this is the visual communication and style that I aspire to!

Here, she tangles segments of typed conversation, creating a feeling of both exposure and confusion. Really, really, brilliant- I would love to experiment with a style like this in the not-so-distant future!

After "blind-buying" magazines from the library, we were each given a selected work in the group which we then had to go on to represent in a paper cut style. I was given the word "tall" and went on to filter through the architect's journal to discover the tallest image was on the front page- a tree, which I hoped to go on to create a pop-up mechanism for (sadly, I didn't have enough time within lesson hours).

...I also enhanced the depth of the magazine in contrast to the height that the pop-up mechanism would have created by cutting deep into the magazines from certain portions where i'd cut between the tree's branches.

Sadly, however, when people came to analyse the work they wrote that the word(s) i may have been portraying were...

-green

-smart

-tree

-neat

-eco

-nature

-tree

...and, of course, I see their point. Admittedly, visual communication is by no means my strong point, and definate a field in which I know I must practice and devlop at every oppurtunity- starting from now!