Online Design Students: Notan Cut Paper Designs

Patrick Byers, Winter 2021. Patrick's example is fairly simple in structure, in that every black element on the left corresponds with a white element or negative space (a gap) on the right.
 

The second project in my Design classes all year was a cut paper "notan" project. The technique for this project is conceptually pretty simple, but students can complicate it quite a bit if they choose to.

Carmen Nelson, Winter 2021. Carmen has cut and translated (flipped) pieces from the left and right side of the original black square. She has also translated some of the stars across the top and bottom edges of the original. 

The technique is fairly simple once you see it. Start with a square of black paper. Cut a shape from one edge. Now flip that cut-out so that it faces away from where it started, but the edge stays lined up with the edge of the original square.

Chloe McDougal, Spring 2021. Chloe's design appears so complex because of the variety of her cut lines, as well as because she started with a rounded rather than square shape.  

Students in my classes had some practice where they worked through the basic technique and learned from what worked well. The second week, which was otherwise focused on shape and negative space, was set up to give them some fairly simple practice with the notan cut paper technique.

Lillian Davis, Winter 2021. Lillian's translation of boxes to the bottom is a un and interesting play on space and negative spaces. The apparent gap on the bottom left is from translating the tirangles to the left while the squares moved "down."

After the simple practice, students participated in a "mini-critique" where they had an opportunity to show their practice notans, see those of their classmates, and discuss what sorts of things worked well in their own and others' designs.

Elias Reyes, Winter 2021. Elias's city scene is made more interesting by the curved edges of the roads that imply hills in the foreground.

The project, then, was meant to be a revision or improvement based on what the students first created and what they saw in their classmates designs. 

Erica Guadian-Riso, Fall 2020. Erica's design is super complex, with lots of similarly sized animals and plants, as well as some repeating features in the birds and the shell textures.

And I would say that it was pretty successful in this. The revisions tended to be a lot more interesting and complex. Students in Winter and Spring quarters also benefitted from being able to see finished projects from classmates in previous quarters.

Heaven Calvert, Winter 2021. It's hard to tell sometimes, whether the student cut paper and then adjusted the colors in the photo. This one appears to be computer generated, but I think it was cut and then washed out in the camera.

At the end of Winter and Spring quarters, I offered students an opportunity to earn extra credit by sharing tips and techniques for various projects with classmates. A video or two shared from winter was helpful for spring students and a spring student shared a video she made herself with recommendations for cutting cleaner lines using her exacto knife.

Israel McDonald, Fall 2020. Israel challenged himself to create a snake that flowed across and between the edges of the original. This was complex enough on it's own and caused some areas that aren't quite "right" but he further complicated it with teh round inside shape. 

I was delighted to see this video, because the techniques this student highlighted were ones I hadn't thought to include. She discussed knife angle and cutting direction for small or pointy cut-outs.

Madeline Crowder, Spring 2021. Madeline's zig zag lines and repeating triangles and diamonds lend a shocking energy to the outer space inspired design.

In the Fall, a misunderstanding about budget meant that studio kits didn't include exacto knifes, which I did include for Winter and Spring students. The cuts improved because of the tools, but I actually find some of the rough edges from Fall endearing.

Jordy Marquez, Fall 2020. This one is deceptively simple. The tiger's face was quite a challenge, but I love how the large stripes emphasize the subject while contrasting in size and shape.

The students mostly chose to use black paper on white backgrounds, but a few tried a variety of colors.

Sabino Rivera, Winter 2021. The color contrast here is wild, but so is the way that the original square almost starts to disappear.

There was a pretty good mix of abstract and representational designs. The practice designs had assigned prompts to give students both direction and inspiration, but also to give them some practice using class concepts. 

Marvin Medoza-Rosas, Fall 2020. Here I really enjoy the wiggly edges and how they repeat in a variety of sizes and locations.

The prompts varied a bit, but included symmetry and asymmetry, rhythm, flow, and representational imagery. 

Allison Parke, Fall 2020. The radial symmetry here means that all four edges are just the same. The top one appears smaller because of the angle of the photo.

The resulting projects tended to build on one or more of those terms, so that we saw lots of symmetry, which tends to present itself when students approach the notan cuts from both sides.

Raymond Ramirez, Spring 2021. This one is a great example of symmetry, but I especially like how the figures are not identical on either side. The contrast between good and evil here is subtle and forces the viewer to look longer.

But many students chose to vary the scale of cuts and create asymmetry.

Student Example, Fall 2020. Very different from the curvy cityscale shown earlier, the one is all about repetition of long lines and stacks of windows.

Once they saw classmates cut out windows or add in textures inside of bodies or clothing, students tended to build on those ideas.

Student Example, Spring 2021. The spacing of the undersea creatures here allows us to distinguish each one separately. I suspect this person may have learned from some examples in earlier quarters. This one also does a neat trick of translating the bottom, then cutting and translating stars from that new location.

I enjoyed seeing the designs that most clearly developed from specific elements of the earlier designs.

Student Example, Winter 2021. A mesmerizing example of pure abstraction.

Some students chose to revise their notan design later in the quarter and it was interesting then to see students work through issues that didn't quite work early in the quarter.

Student Example, Winter 2021. I love the shaggy bits at the bottom of each tree and the melty shaggy overlaps of the meteor.

At the end of the quarter I asked students to tell me about which projects they liked most (and least). Many students enjoyed the notan project because of it's immediacy, and that it didn't require planning to get started. 

Student Example, Fall 2020. This student has filled every available space at the top, leaving the bottom as a bit of a rest. Full disclosure, this was submitted on its side, so I'm not sure which direction is/was intended to be top.
 

But when I asked about favorites and least favorites, I found that they exactly matched. Someone's favorite project was usually someone else's least favorite.

Student Example, Spring 2021. Music, a nice example of sticking to a theme throughout.

Students who didnt' like the notan generally didn't like the free-wheeling structure of the project.  They didn't know where to start on a project where they didn't need to plan ahead of time.

Student Example, Winter 2021. I love the sense of movement through the birds, and somehow I also get a sense that it must have been breezy, too.

In the class generally, I like to offer students some opportunities for more and less structure. Some students prefer one over the other, so giving both gives all students some time to be comfortable and successful and also offeres the opportunity to stretch and challenge all students.

Vero Adame, Spring 2021. This one is entirely abstrack, but has moements of real interest. I believe students used pieces from this example as elements in revision projects later in the quarter.

This project was also a nice break for students who were hesitant or lacked confidence in their drawing skills. Since YVC offers a drawing class, I like to use different media and give student the opportunity to try different techniques.

Kyle Win, Fall 2020.  It's hard to tell, as the photo may have been washed out, but I think this one was created online. The curved edges have been handled well.

 

Note: All the the work above is shared with permission from the artist. When the work is listed with "Student Example" or just a first name, that anonymity is at the student's request. Not all students who took these classes or made quality work chose to give me permission to show their work.