As part of her final thesis in graphic design, Andrea Gruber focused primarily on sustainability and ecological design and designed "Ökogami", a sustainable origami calendar that goes beyond its conventional use according to the reuse system. The idea: before an outdated calendar page is thrown away, it can be transformed into a decorative origami animal using an online tutorial.
The OfG (Online School of Design) graduate dedicated her final project entirely to sustainability: she developed a calendar that can be reused rather than thrown away.
Printed on 90 gsm grass paper, the visual design is based on natural brown and green tones, the color samples for which she drew from a landscape painting. The recurring design elements, such as honeycomb-shaped hexagons, are also always related to nature.
Unlike conventional wall calendars, where each page decorates the room for a month and is then turned over, Andrea Gruber has come up with something new for her project. The basic material, i.e. the paper, is intended for another purpose: origami. For this purpose, a large part of the page is printed with lines colored according to the instructions, which serve as an aid for folding as soon as the calendar page has served its purpose at the end of the month. She has also placed a QR code to the website with a corresponding video tutorial on the back of each page, so that even folding novices can take part in the crafting process. This gives the owner of the calendar the opportunity to give the paper a different shape again and again and thus breathe new life into it.
The choice of animals to be folded is also not arbitrary, but is based on the respective months: A fox for January, because their mating season falls in this period, or, due to the carnival season, a parrot for February.
Finally, in order to make production sustainable, Andrea Gruber has planned a print-on-demand concept so that only as many resources are used as are requested. All in all, the "Ökogami" project is a sustainable origami calendar that follows the Reuse idea and thus literally gives the concept a third dimension.
This always offers a creative impetus in everyday life, provides new decoration options or can be given as a gift.
If you are interested, you can find out more about the project here.
You can also find more exciting graduate projects from a wide range of areas here.
Text: Johanna Schmees
