Remember that kid who would be the ultimate envy of all at the school craft desk? They could draw anything and when it came to craft collages they’d be all immaculate hand eye coordination and on-point glue stick skills. We’ll bet all your lunch money that Melbourne designer and paper crafter Magda Ksiezak was one of those kids.
We’ve been admiring Magda’s work from afar for some time now, so when the opportunity came up for us to collaborate with her on a shoot for our first range of 2016, we were pretty psyched. Using the six brand new designs, Magda has created a whole new world for them to inhabit. A place where paper people stomp in paper shoes and paper eggs fall from the sky. Even the rain is pulpy here.
We caught up with Magda to ask her a few questions about who she is, how she spends her days and what her dream sock design would be.
Give us the low-down - who are you / what do you do / how do you spend your days?
I’m a creative based in Melbourne, Australia. I have a background in photography, illustration and branding but mainly I would consider myself a graphic designer that experiments a lot. These days I spend my time playing around with paper and crafting objects that are used in stop-motion animations. Working along side a killer team at Yelldesign, I get to be challenged, push boundaries and make awesome stuff for a living.
How did you get into crafting objects out of paper?
I had seen it used in advertising, I guess as a form of illustration and the simplicity caught my eye.
I started playing around with it one day and realised how simple it is to construct shapes. I think being handy on a sewing machine and my past design experience with packaging also helped. It’s actaully very similar to sewing in the sense that you have to visualise how 3D objects come together.
Why is paper your number one?
It’s a niche form of illustration and there’s still a lot I would love to experiment with in terms of image making. I think that’s because there are so many variables in the process. It’s not only the paper crafted objects, it’s the composition in-frame, the lighting, the camera work and post production. It’s my number one because I find it easy and super challenging at the same time.
What are your working essentials? (for example tools, materials, tunes, vibe etc...)
The one brand of tool that I find crucial to use is a Swann Morton scalpel handle. The rest is pretty much basic craft supplies and decent paper stock. Having a podcast or some TV episodes lined up is also essential. It’s what keeps you patiently sitting there for hours getting lost in folding, cutting and glueing.
Was there anything in particular that inspired this shoot? Can you describe the process briefly?
What’s better than a great combination of shoes and socks?! I love sneakers so it was only natural to incorporate them into the mix.
The process started with a little experimentation and brainstorming colour combinations and environments that I could create. I wanted the focus to be more on the socks so keeping the shoes and backgrounds simple was something I decided from early on. After establishing the colour palettes and creating a rough plan, I made all the components, set them up to shoot and played around with compositions.
If you could design your dream Pear, what would be on them?
Probably a grid, almost like a cutting matt and maybe the addition of some geometric shapes.
