We just found out that Paper Punk won a Parents’ Choice Award this year!

“…..Aside from the terrific quality and visual design of the product, what really stands out about these Paper Punk products is the tangible challenges it offers to children as they explore form, function and creativity while making their own toy. In a world so dominated by video games and apps, it was truly refreshing to watch our testers absorb themselves in this project and walk away with something with which they can continue to play.”

Serious WOW. I’m talking about the really cool stuff people made and placed on the 25 foot long Paper Punk wall at TEDactive just over a week ago. What would YOU make with all you could fold Paper Punk shapes? Here are some highlights in case you didn’t catch it on Unbeige or TEDactive.

Under the gun and getting ready for the PAPER-PUNK-A-THON at this year’s TEDactive conference in Palm Springs. We’re setting up a spectacular buffet of Paper Punk shapes for participants to activate into “expressions of a word”. The expressions of a word activity is something I regularly run in the Creative Gym class I teach at Stanford’s d.school where students express a given word only using circles, squares, and triangles drawn on a piece of paper. But at TEDactive, instead of drawn lines/circles/squares/triangles, participants will use paper blocks they construct and customize to express a given word. Whoa…right? I cannot wait to see the outcome. The constraint of the 3D paper blocks will indoctrinate this activity into another stratosphere! To inspire the potential of using paper blocks, I’m installing a few large panels to kick things off. Below is a small glimpse (without giving anything away) of what attendees will be seeing.

Cheers to great things for everyone in 2013!

A sneak peek at our newest family additions to get you psyched for the new year…available this APRIL! Paper Punk familia, please meet our resident ape and unicorn with little vampire+werewolf as sidekick.

We have to confess, Paper Punk is a secret agent. That cool, customized paper toy you just made is really awesome, but the bigger/better takeaway is that you did something good for your brain. Little did you know, but by making a Paper Punk you just exercised the creative muscles in your brain. It’s a use it or lose it situation people…so keep those hands moving!

We’re dancing under the mistletoe because the savvy folks at WIRED magazine included Paper Punk in their annual Holiday Gift Guide this year! You’ll also see Paper Punk on display at their NYC WIRED pop-up holiday gallery opening in a couple days.

Got an early intro to Barry McGee via the fine folks at Giant Robot (always on the leading edge of pop culture) long ago, saw his stuff as part of the LA MOCA street art show last summer, but the exhibition I saw today at the Berkeley Art Museum was nothing short of amazing. Brought back my docent days there when attending Cal. Words and images don’t do it justice. You’ll have to make a trip to see it for yourself. The museum front doors are tagged by one of McGee’s collaborators…the “sell-out” debate written on the door (in one of the pics below) is from the public…funny.

Paper Punk sighting at Ariel Booksellers in Sydney, Australia! Just beneath the Eames pencils….Nice!

Paper Punk was in full force this past weekend at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in Oakland, CA. There were over 4,000 people populating a little over 4 acres jam packed with incredibly fun science/craft exhibits and activities. We absolutely adored everyone who came by our outpost to check us out because their enthusiasm was off the charts! A crowd favorite was most definitely our very cool Paper Punk gals (Tyler and June) representing throughout the fairgrounds. Paper Punk’s Lego + Origami mash-up got some rave reviews from a group of middle school kids– “This is RAD!”

Check it out Paper Punk friends…our newest titles have landed! Get some for yourself and for a friend pronto…here’s a snapshot of the complete family of punks!

Courtesy of the artful hands of designer Maria Janosko:

Look at what’s coming down the pipe for Paper Punk…..a GORILLA. A little online digging informed us that a gorilla is an ape like a square is a rectangle, but NOT the other way around for either of the two. Due to cover space constraints, this kit will be aptly titled APE001. We’ll share where our chest pounding primate’s colors and patterns land, hunch posture intact, very soon.

Paper blocks look like artful pixels when waiting in line to be glued into paper toy sculptures. View includes partial components of 5x PUPs, BOTs and RIDEs. Made models headed to the Schulers Books and Music stores in the Midwest. They just hosted a summer Paper Punk camp….how cool is that?!

To kick off the summer, wanted to show you a couple freeze-free friends we’re getting ready for you later this year. Meet SNOWGUY/SNOWGAL! This new title has a double cover and a smaller package of goodies, but chock full of the same Paper Punk goodness. Loving the warm weather, but cannot wait for people to make a bunch of these guys+gals. Coming your way when the first leaf falls off your tree.

Look at the album of pics from PUNK-A-THON-001 held this past Saturday at the Youth Rebuild Rock Concert in Marin, CA! An all-you-can-make buffet of shapes/stickers/fun was made available for all attendees! All profits went to the Windhorse Foundation for an orphanage in Laos. The teen version of Michael Hedges on bass performed…it was cool!

Made my day…

Good thing lots of ink/airtime has been following Jonah Lehrer‘s new book IMAGINE: HOW CREATIVITY WORKS. Because now that the topic of creativity is in the spotlight, we have to draw a heavy dotted line to the importance of PRACTICING it to build your creative potential. It’s interesting enough to learn about how, where and why, but let’s roll up our sleeves and actually activate it. One simple way is to get busy with your hands and make something…anything. (a Paper Punk can help you)

Here’s an interesting interview with Jonah on his book:  Jonah Lehrer interview via TechCrunch

Lots of gems, but my personal favorite in this moment: “We have to stop holding ourselves back…”   AKA and note-to-self: We gotta get out of our own way!

Thought it would be cool for you to see where the white-ghost KITTY001 prototype landed for our Fall 2012 release. I am in love with our new feline friend! Can’t you already hear the cat calls and whistles for this purr-dy lady?  Everyone, get ready to pucker up!

Super cool exhibit, DO NOT DESTROY: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought, opened at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco today. It explores the subject of the tree through the eyes of an international group of contemporary artists. As part of the exhibit, fifty-seven artists were commissioned to make a piece incorporating reclaimed wood into new works of art, inspired by the themes of the Jewish holiday of Tu B’Shevat (New Year for the Trees). It is a beautifully staged show and runs through late May. Here’s the Paper Punk inspired piece I made for the exhibit.

I want to share an email that we received last week….it absolutely made my day!

Hello Grace and team,

My name is Jenn St.Clair and I am one of your proud initial founders. I’ve already utilized my 6 punks for fun and learning and gifts and I need MORE! I’ve used the pup and the bot to teach geometry lessons on surface area to high-schoolers, and they were a huge hit!…Thanks for the great product. You have done some amazing work and I look forward to continued creativity with paper punks!

This is a glimmer of promise fulfilled for the educational facet of Paper Punk. There are so many benefits to PLAYING with and MAKING shapes into customizable creations….fine motor skills, spatial-dimensional thinking, engineering, geometry, balance/proportion, resourcefulness, self-expression, etc. One of my many dreams for Paper Punk is to donate product to underfunded arts programs in public schools so our newest generations can foster and retain a connection with our physical world with hands-on learning experiences that are  ARTFUL and FUN.

Does this get your wheels turning like it does for me?