Origami Heaven

A paperfolding paradise

The website of writer and paperfolding designer David Mitchell

 

 
A Family Tree of Origami
 
This page provides a broad overview of origami in the form of a family tree. The categories of origami that form the branches of this tree have been mainly, though not exclusively, differentiated by reference to the intention of the designer, folder or performer rather than the folding technique employed.

Because this is a somewhat unconventional approach I have, at times, found it necessary to invent new terms to describe some of the branches. All of these new terms are defined within the explanatory text.

It is in the nature of any analysis of this kind that the divisions between the branches will be a little artificial in places and that many of the branches will not be as separate as they seem. Equally there will always be designs that can be placed in more than one category.

The links within the text lead to pages that provide more detailed information about some of these branches / categories.

 
 
1   Everyday origami is paperfolding which serves a practical everyday purpose and which forms part of the general culture of a society as a whole rather than the special culture of those who are particularly interested in paperfolding as an art or craft. Examples of everyday origami are wrapping presents, weakening paper by folding so that it can be torn apart, folding letters to insert them in envelopes, or folding photocopied sheets into booklets, party invitations etc. Functional origami can become everyday origami if it is disseminated sufficiently widely. Playground folds can be considered to be everyday origami.
     
2   Ceremonial origami is paperfolding carried out for ceremonial or religious purposes. In Japan ceremonial origami largely concerned the folding of wrappers - called noshi or tsutsumi - for gifts of flowers etc associated with particular religious festivals throughout the year. In China it is more associated with the folding of Yuan Bao (gold nuggets) to be burned at funerals. This category of origami is now largely of historical interest and significance. In Europe baptismal certificates were sometimes folded in a double blintz.
     
3  

Performance origami is about using paperfolding to produce entertaining, amusing, or sometimes magical, effects. There are two different kinds of performance origami:

Performance origami in which the effect lies in the folding process itself, either purely in the almost magical emergence of the design or in a surprise denouement at the end of the folding sequence.

Performance origami in which the effect is achieved by the manipulation of the finished paperfold. Troublewit is a classic example of this.

     
4   Conceptual origami is origami that is about the communication of ideas and emotions. Unlike most other categories of origami conceptual origami may aim to offend rather than to please.

The oldest form of conceptual origami is probably Fold-Ups, which are pictures that can be folded up into smaller pictures. The Fifth Pig Fold-Up was used as political propaganda during the Second World War.

There is a subset of conceptual origami that I call origamidada. It uses the conventions of origami design, diagramming, or culture, to make humorous or satirical comments about (usually) origami itself or (occasionally) wider issues.

NOFO or NO Fold Origami is an extreme minimalist type of conceptual origami which does away with the folding element of origami entirely.

     
5   Exploratory origami is the hands-on trial-and-error investigation of the possibilities inherent in the paperfolding process. Exploratory origami is not directly intended to lead to the discovery of a reproducible or one-off design but frequently does so (in an apparently serendipitious manner).

Some paperfolders use the word 'doodling' to refer to exploratory origami, often in a slightly derogatory or self-derogatory way.

One of my favourite things is to play with a well known or traditional design or configuration of folds and try to find a clue to something new in it. The Adaptations page gives some examples of designs I have discovered in this way.

     
6  

Craft origami is both the process of creating designs which are intended by the designer to be reproducible, and the process of reproducing them from personal or recorded tuition, or from diagrams.

The reproduction part of craft origami is not a sterile process. In reproducing, or realising, the chosen design the folder often seeks to personalise it - by careful choice or manufacture of the paper, by the application of folding and finishing skills, and sometimes also by varying the folding sequence, particularly the finishing folds, to produce an enhanced aesthetic, or possibly more realistic, effect.

The results of craft origami design can be divided into representational, abstract, play and functional origami. There are individual notes on each of these categories.

I also use the term partnership art to refer to the partnership that exists in craft origami between the designer, who first conceptualises and defines the design, and the folder, who realises one expression of it at one particular point in time.

     
7   One-off origami is in many ways the antithesis of craft origami. In this kind of origami the designer intends to produce a design that is a stand alone work which is not intended to be reproduced by other paperfolders.

One-off origami designers often make use of wetfolding or crumpling techniques which do not easily lend themselves to exact reproduction in the way that dryfolding does.

     
8   Reverse engineering is the process of working out the starting shape and folding sequence for a design from a finished folded example, an image or photograph, or just a memory of a design once seen, without having access to detailed folding instructions.
     
9   Virtual origami is origami without folding paper.

This is not as crazy as it sounds. Experienced model-making paperfolders can often look at a paperfold for the first time and reconstruct the basic folding sequence in their minds. It is a short step from that to being able to visualise a finished model that you want to design and 'unfolding' it to work out how it could be made.

In addition, origami designers, particularly designers working in the realistic representational origami field, are increasingly using mathematical design techniques and only realising their designs in paper once the design process is at an advanced stage.

     
10  

Promotional origami is origami which is designed / distributed for promotional / advertising or self-promotion / self-advertising purposes.

     
11  

It could be argued that much of origami, particularly exploratory origami, is play with paper, but what I mean here by play origami is the design and realisation of paperfolds which are intended as toys.

There are two distinct types of play origami, which I call active and passive play origami.

Active play origami is the design and realisation of origami toys which change their shape when played with. Examples are paperfolds that flap, peck, jump, bite, bang etc or designs that can be squashed, flexed or rotated through their centre of symmetry. Active play origami designs are often referred to as action folds.

By contrast, passive play origami is the design and realisation of origami toys which do not change their shape or form when played with. Examples of this are paper boats, paper planes, spinners and tumblers.

Flexagons are active play paperfolds made by folding and weaving strips of paper into polygonal forms which can then be flexed to vary their shape and appearance.

Playground folds are paperfolds which are in common use by children in schools and which survive by being passed down from older children to younger. In the UK the most common playground folds are the basic paper dart from a rectangle (a passive play paperfold) and the Fortune Teller from a square (an active play paperfold). Playground folds can be considered to be a form of everyday origami.

Origami Games are games specifically designed to be played by folding paper or which require paperfolds as essential apparatus (eg Jumping Frog races).

     
12   Representational origami seeks to create representations / make models of either inanimate objects or living beings by folding paper.

These can either be in the form of flat pictures (pictorial origami) or three-dimensional models, or a mixture of the two. In each case the main distinctions to be made between the intention of the designer relate to the amount of realism and detail that the designer aspires to include within the design. The family tree distinguishes between impressionistic origami, minimalist representational origami and realistic origami.

In impressionistic origami the designer simply seeks to create a recognisable representation or model of the subject. See note 19 for further information.

In realistic origami the designer seeks to create a representation or model of the subject that is much more detailed than a simple impressionistic design. See note 20 for further information.

Bases tend to be used in different ways (and the word base itself with quite different meanings) in these two categories.

Minimalist representative origami similarly aspires to the aim of recognisability that characterises impressionistic origami but here the designer also strives to represent the subject in the minimum possible number of folds, usually between 1 and 5, although there is no hard and fast rule.

     
13   Kusudama are multiple sheet designs in the form of balls of flowers or geometric modular designs which include representations of flowers to create a similar effect.

Kusudama usually contain both abstract and representational elements and therefore deserve a category of their own.

     
14   Abstract origami is a form of craft origami which is about the folding of geometric and abstract forms.

The family tree distinguishes between geometric sculpture, abstract representational origami, abstract mimimalist abstract origami and the folding of origami tessellations.

Geometric sculpture is the creation of original abstract form by folding paper, whether from single or multiple sheets or by using modules.

Abstract representational origami is the modelling of polygons and polyhedra by folding paper, whether from single or multiple sheets or by using modules.

Minimalist abstract origami is a form of geometric sculpture or abstract representational origami in which the designer aims to create the form using the minimum number of folds, usually modelling between 1 and 5, although there is no hard and fast rule.

Origami Tessellations are a form of abstract origami in which multi-layer tiling patterns are produced from a single large sheet of paper, normally by a technique known as twist folding, although there are exceptions to this rule.

Paperfolding puzzles are puzzles which are solved (and possibly also set) by folding paper.

     
15  

Functional origami is the design and realisation of paperfolds which are intended to serve a practical purpose around the home or in the work-place. Examples are containers, stands, picture frames and bookmarks.

Play origami could be considered to be a form of functional origami.

     
16   Rule-compliant origami is a type of paperfolding which is constrained by self-imposed rules which limit the creative options normally available to a designer in some specific way.

Two examples of this kind of origami are John Smith's Pureland and my own Naive Origami.

     
17  

Minimalist representational origami seeks to capture the essence of an inanimate object or living being in the fewest possible number of folds, usually between 1 and 5, although there is no hard and fast rule.

Minimalist representational origami designs may be made using single sheet or multiple sheet techniques.

     
18   Pictorial origami is a form of representational origami in which the designer intends to produce a flat, or largely flat, representation of a subject. Pictorial origami may be single sheet or multiple sheet in nature.

The drawing with paper technique uses paper which is white one side and a single plain colour the other (or a different plain colour each side) to create flat (but not necessarily rectangular) two-colour images of objects, figures, landscapes etc.

Drawing with paper designs can be divided into single image and double image designs. Double image designs may be transforming double images (a type of performance origami in which one image transforms into another by folding the design), visual illusions (in which the same image can be viewed in two separate ways wothout altering the image in any way) or static double images in which the second image is found by turning the design over or around.

Many minimalist folds are pictorial designs which use the drawing with paper technique as this dramatically increases the representational potential of a few simple folds.

     
19   Impressionistic origami is a form of representative origami where the designer simply seeks to create a recognisable representation or model of the subject. He or she may not be particularly concerned with whether an elephant, for instance, has four legs , a tail, a trunk and ears. Modelling some of these may well suffice for everyone to know that the design is intended to be an elephant.

Impressionistic origami designs are often generic. An impressionistic representation of a bird, for instance, may be obviously a bird but not clearly a bird of any particular species.

Many designs in this category are the serendipitious product of exploratory origami rather than of a deliberate design process.

Impressionistic designers tend to use the traditional standard set of bases and look for ways to achieve the required design by developing the available points (or if they are exploratory origami designers, by looking for new possibilities inherent in the configuration of points provided by the base). I call the use of the traditional set of bases in this way Old School Origami. (I wanted to call it Old School Base-Based Origami ... but that was too awkward a description, even for me.)

In terms of ethics, designers of impressionistic origami are probably more inclined to value the elegance of the folding sequence highly as opposed to the appearance of the finished design.

Simply because it is impressionistic rather than realistic this kind of origami offers a great deal of creative freedom to the designer. Many interesting categories of representational origami such as Double Image Designs and See-through Designs sit happily under the shelter of the impressionistic origami umbrella.

     
20  

Realistic origami is a form of representative origami where the designer seeks to create a representation or model of the subject that is as detailed and realistic a portrayal as current paperfolding techniques allow. In creating an elephant for instance the designer may strive to achieve the correct proportions of one part of the animal to the others and will certainly want to include all the main anatomical details such as such as legs, tusks, trunk, ears and tail within the design.

Realistic origami designers often design one-off bases (configurations of folds with points of the right lengths and relative proportions for the intended design arranged in the right relationship to each other) from which to develop their designs. I call this New School origami.

Enthusiasts for this type of origami often subscribe to the ethic that origami should be single-sheet. They also tend to value the appearance of the finished design highly as opposed to the elegance of the folding sequence.

The combination of the single-piece ethic and a desire for realism brings the designer straight up against the limitations of paperfolding technique, so it is not surprising that most of the advances in single-sheet origami technique, such as wet-folding, circle-packing and the use of tesselations to represent the texture of scales have been achieved by designers who value realism highly.

     
21   Geometric sculpture is the creation of original abstract form by folding paper, whether from single or multiple sheets or by using modules.
     
22   Abstract representational origami is the modelling of polygons, polyhedra and other mathematical forms by folding paper, whether from single or multiple sheets or using modules, whether from single or multiple sheets or by using modules.
     
23   Minimalist abstract origami is a form of either geometric sculpture or abstract representational origami in which the designer aims to create the form using the minimum number of folds, usually between 1 and 5, although there is no hard and fast rule, whether from single or multiple sheets or by using modules.

Designs made using multiple sheets or modules are generally considered to be minimalist on the basis of the number of folds required to create the individual elements or modules rather than the total number of folds required to make the design or structure as a whole.

     
24   Origami Tessellations are a form of abstract origami in which multi-layer tiling patterns are produced from a single large sheet of paper by a technique known as twist folding.
     
25  

Paperfolding puzzles are puzzles which are solved (and possibly also set) by folding paper.

Puzzles which are set by folding paper but which can only be solved by mathematics are more correctly seen as a form of virtual origami.

It is important to distinguish between paperfolding puzzles and origami models of puzzles which were originally designed in another medium such as plastic or wood. Such models are probably best categorised as examples of abstract representational origami.