Last year we were approached by the North American flagship Muji store on Fifth Ave in Manhattan to create a winter display in their store.  Including the renders, prototypes, revisions, production, and installation, the whole project took about 2 months.  This year, they decided to have us back, but there was a catch! They only had about half as much time available. The Taro’s origami team, spear-headed by Senior Artist Frank Ling, got to work creating an entirely new and improved snowflake design.

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how the Taro’s team figured out how to create and install  the display on time with dramatic results.

1: BRAINSTORMING

First The Taro’s team went through the design from last tyear and came up with some ways to improve it.  From there it was a process of trial and error, making sure that the snowflakes could work in both the 6 inch and 3 foot sizes.  In the end there were 4 different patterns created and each of them had a concave and convex variation.  This way you rarely ever saw the same snowflake twice.

2: MODEL PRODUCTION

From there we only had about 1 week to score and create about 350 different sized paper snowflakes.  The 6 and 12 inch versions of the models were made by Ben Friesen out of the Philadelphia office, and then the larger ones were custom cut in Brookyln.  The design was also superior to laast year becasue of how much simpler it was to nest and transport everything.

The larger models were also made out of a significantly thicker cardstofk than last year to eliminate any issues with bending or drooping.

3: INSTALLATION

Then over the course of only 2 business days, the Taro’s team drove into Manhattan, dropped off the entire line of snowflakes, and had everything installed in their ceiling structure.  By also working before business hours and then after closing at times, they minimized the impact on any guests to the store and transformed the space into a winter wonderland.

4: FINAL DISPLAY

Take a look at the final results of the installation, which can be seen in person for a limited time at the Bryant Park Muji on fifth Ave in NYC. Every project has it’s own set of challenges and hurdles, but the entire Taro’s team is quite excited about the final results of their work. Happy holidays!

5: UNINSTALLATION

Lastly, one of the really exciting parts of this project was that the design this year was made to be easily transportable.  In fact, we were able to fit all of the snowflakes in our truck at one time, and the snowflake halfs, easily nest inside of each other.  This means that this year’s display will be simple to take down and use again in a new location if needed.