What is the origin of "Mystery Box Monday"?
In October 2014 I started a personal challenge to myself to produce a new three-dimensional "pop-up" card each Monday. I was inspired to start this endeavor when I was given a deck of the Mystery Box playing cards from Theory11, produced in collaboration with JJ Abrams' production company, Bad Robot.
The "mystery box", says J.J. Abrams, "represents infinite possibility...It represents potential. What I love about this box — and what I realized I sort of do, in whatever it is that I do — is I find myself drawn to infinite possibility and that sense of potential. And I realize that mystery is the catalyst for imagination... What are stories besides mystery boxes?"
And thus I was inspired to partake on my Mystery Box series -- a uniquely focused subset of "kirigami" cards wherein I challenge the imagination to see what 3-D forms are "hiding" inside a single flat playing card. What stories reside within?
Originally I planned this as a one-year series (52 cards across 52 weeks). But I decided to keep it going after the first year and have now made over 125 Mystery Box posts thus far. I no longer create a new design every week, but will continue to add to the series as inspiration strikes me.
In October 2014 I started a personal challenge to myself to produce a new three-dimensional "pop-up" card each Monday. I was inspired to start this endeavor when I was given a deck of the Mystery Box playing cards from Theory11, produced in collaboration with JJ Abrams' production company, Bad Robot.
The "mystery box", says J.J. Abrams, "represents infinite possibility...It represents potential. What I love about this box — and what I realized I sort of do, in whatever it is that I do — is I find myself drawn to infinite possibility and that sense of potential. And I realize that mystery is the catalyst for imagination... What are stories besides mystery boxes?"
And thus I was inspired to partake on my Mystery Box series -- a uniquely focused subset of "kirigami" cards wherein I challenge the imagination to see what 3-D forms are "hiding" inside a single flat playing card. What stories reside within?
Originally I planned this as a one-year series (52 cards across 52 weeks). But I decided to keep it going after the first year and have now made over 125 Mystery Box posts thus far. I no longer create a new design every week, but will continue to add to the series as inspiration strikes me.
Where do you get ideas?
Many of the designs I've created have been adapted from or inspired by others, but the use of playing cards to execute the work is unique to me. I have had to "reverse engineer" many of the designs and adjust their complexity, scale, and proportions to work best within the confined area of a single playing card.
Antonio Verra and his "paper exercises" were what initially sparked the idea of running a series of 3D paper sculptures cut from a single card. Mystery Box cards #1, #2 and #52 were directly influenced by Antonio's work.
Ramin Razini is another artist whose pop-up designs I have used on many occasions. Many other assorted artists works were also uncovered while scouring the pages of results from Google image searches on kirigami pop-up cards, 3D paper sculptures, and similiar search queries. The creativity of these individuals astounds me.
Many of the designs I've created have been adapted from or inspired by others, but the use of playing cards to execute the work is unique to me. I have had to "reverse engineer" many of the designs and adjust their complexity, scale, and proportions to work best within the confined area of a single playing card.
Antonio Verra and his "paper exercises" were what initially sparked the idea of running a series of 3D paper sculptures cut from a single card. Mystery Box cards #1, #2 and #52 were directly influenced by Antonio's work.
Ramin Razini is another artist whose pop-up designs I have used on many occasions. Many other assorted artists works were also uncovered while scouring the pages of results from Google image searches on kirigami pop-up cards, 3D paper sculptures, and similiar search queries. The creativity of these individuals astounds me.