The Paperist Manifesto
Nicole Liu
What happens when creativity shifts from the tangible to the intangible? During architecture school, I witnessed a loss
of creative touch when we shifted from the foundation practices on paper, to completely relying on digital modeling
software.
When we design for humans, whether it's a digital product or physical space, our users are naturally tactile. So
shouldn’t we make things through a graspable, tangible process?
This question led me to discover a loss of nuance, my thesis explorations studied this loss by using paper—the
foundational creative tool, to translate into digital technologies that are more attuned to human users. By reclaiming
the tactility of paper within today’s fast-paced digital field, we are allowing ourselves to re-imagine a more
human-centered approach to design.
Cover of Final Thesis Book: The Paperist Manifesto
Medium: Ink and rubber alphabet stamps, cardboard, cardstock, glue, hand-made cotton paper, rice paper
Third spread in The Paperist Manifesto, showing the details paper interfaces reflected on the soft-textured cotton
paper.
Medium: Ink and rubber alphabet stamps, cardboard, cardstock, glue, hand-made cotton paper, rice paper
Paper Interfaces
An exploration of loops, clicks, vibrations, and swipes with thick, cardstock paper.
A spread from The Paperist Manifesto
Screenshots from my exploration, Verb List, Visualized. Printed on transparent rice paper, each page is intentionally organized as a motion-picture flip-through.
Verb List, Visualized
A demonstration of a list of paper verbs visualized through gestures on a single, sliced-up sheet of copy paper.
The Paperist Manifesto
Book in standing form.
The Paperist Manifesto
Book laid out as a spread - an exploration of haptics and modularity in paper forms.
Paper Impressions
An exploration of haptics and dialogue from paper tools. Made with 1276 paper straws, which translates into potential digital haptics and networks.
The Paperist Manifesto
Opening of the book.