"New Old School" -- Paper Folding Design

Ever since I wrote an essay about history's effect on the American muscle car, I've been fascinated with comparing old school muscle cars with the newer versions. The Dodge Challenger is a fantastic candidate for comparison, and when I was challenged (no pun intended) with a paper folding project that showed change, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to put the 70 R/T side-by-side with a 2013 Plum Crazy.

Looking at the final piece dead-on, both sides are visible but you mostly see the 1970 Challenger. Kinda boring from this view, but the cool part is when you walk around the piece, you start to see the 2013.

This is the view from the right side of the piece, where the 1970 Challenger is seen clearly.

BUT, as you walk around to view it from the left....

...the new one takes place of the old! I was really pleased with how it came out.

The focal point of this piece, at first, is the old Challenger because is is so large and centered. However, the yellow background that shows in bits and pieces redirects the viewer's attention and causes them to look at the pice from a different angle and introduces them to the new car. The magic wand tool was by far the most helpful because it allowed me to easily and cleanly edit the cars.

The shape of the paper grows from left to right, showing a growth in the automotive industry over time and improved technology...anyone who has experienced both old and new muscle cars would agree that the modern versions are more comfortable, slick, and high tech. I used complementary colors yellow and purple to accentuate the gorgeous and captivating Plum Crazy purple car and to make the '13 car much more vivid than the '70. The photograph of the elder Dodge is pixelated to give it a sense of age, and the newer car has a sick filter on it that makes it look airbrushed. The piece is designed to be wall-mounted so as the viewer passes by, the purpose of the folds is apparent.

Joshua Davis

The above artworks are by graphic designer and programmer Joshua Davis. I love the variety in his work--how he can be very geometric in his designs, or organic like the first piece in this post. What that tells me is he's extremely talented, because he is well rounded and can successfully create both styles. Color and shape seem to be the best elements of art in his work. His use of color is intriguing and catches the viewers attention, with the contrast between vibrant colors and shades of gray. The shapes are consistent, but also vary in color, size, and orientation and can be geometric or organic. The principles of design that are strongest in his works are variety, repetition, and contrast. One shape never exists just once in his design and it has several alterations to it throughout the work, such as the different triangles in the second and third pieces. In nearly all of his pieces there is sharp contrast between values and colors (such as very bright whites and yellows against the dark background in top piece).

Channels with Patterns

The result with all channels visible!!

One Piece At A Time

Check this out!!

http://www.jonathanbrand.com/images/projects/car/paper_car.htm

Paper Folding Patterns

Love the leaves!

Folder Design

Logo I made for my classroom folder :)

The Grand Finale: Mustang Alley

So after a week or so of editing the "stock" car, here's the end result:

...Okay, not restored yet, but that was the idea. I took an already ugly car and made it worse, live-tracing the template in grayscale for that "primer" look and putting some images of rust on a couple fenders and other places. Then I decided that wasn't enough to make this car totally hideous so I pulled in an image of shattered glass, traced it in its simplest form, and put it on the back window. And there you have a completely unrestored '74 Mustang II...icky.

Then the real fun began, and I'll admit I got carried away in detailing this car to make it look just like the picture in my head. Here's where she is now:

Put a red overlay on the original template to get that nice Coca-Cola color. Added color to the taillights and headlights. Traced an image of modern chrome rims and shrunk them down to cover those nasty stock rims and added some louvers to the windows for a sporty look. Added some Coke decals to represent my parents' restoration business and NHRA license plates for the "present" part of this project. Oh yeah, and the hood opens...I guess the surprise is there isn't an engine in this thing...just words! The hatch also opens.

Then I put together a stand for both cars, with a racing checkered flag base and an NHRA logo (which also flips open).

Here's how it works:

The icky car is slightly larger to fit snugly over the restored car. The idea is that the client would pick up the gray car and find the nicer car underneath, examine the restored piece, and read about how each part is relevant to either my past, present, or future.

I'm overall pretty content with the design :)

Here are the art boards, pre-folded.

Template from mustangattitude.com