Paper Punk

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?!