Paper Flight: A Kinetic Art Masterpiece

Ximena Ureta's Award-Winning Design: A Visual Symphony of Paper Birds

Derived from the inspiration of a rain of wings and stars, where flowers and leaves also travel in a flock, Ureta has created a 'winged box'. In this box, a Hummingbird, a Crane, an Owl, a Finch, and a Dove come to life through a luminous paper trip. Each slide reveals a flying bird under a sky of twinkling stars and different floral universes harmonious with each other. The result is a visual scenario of delicate finishes, a silent and poetic object.

The unique properties of this design lie in its two-dimensional kinetic art object that highlights the possibilities that a great materiality provides to graphic design. The creative challenge was to break with the static and bi-dimensional condition of the impression, presenting itself as birds in full flight. This is achieved through the aesthetics of the movement that occurs when sliding the inner sheets under the paper screen of the cover, stimulating the eye through simple visual effects.

The realization of this design involved a complex process of printing, laser cutting, and careful assembly. The box is made of Curious Matter Black Truffle paper, printed in silver, and laser cut. The base cover is made of curious pink skin paper, printed in gold. Each of the five different pieces inside the box is plated to Courious Matter Black Truffle paper, printed in various colors. The box case is made of Curious Skin Pink paper, printed in gold, and embossed.

The project started in January 2017 in Santiago, Chile, and finished in December 2017. The research behind this design was focused on understanding how the eyes trick the mind. The team concluded that our visual perception is still too limited to handle all the information provided by our eyes and as a result, our minds take shortcuts. This insight was used to create the visual effects in the design.

The main challenge of this project was to amaze through a delicate and precise architecture, like a clock mechanism that silently sets the time, in which typographies subtly define the essential. The complexity lies in the use of laser technology for cutting high-grammage papers, producing very thin and slightly separated windows that form the screen that allows to visualize the nature of each flight.

This design was awarded Platinum in A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award in 2018. The Platinum A' Design Award recognizes world-class, exceptional, and highly innovative designs that showcase unmatched professionalism, genius, and contribute to societal wellbeing. It is awarded to the defining aesthetics of an era, they advance the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology, exhibiting transcendent excellence and making the world a better place.