Taro’s Origami Studio has been doing events across the country for over a decade, and we recently had the pleasure of working again for the luxury brand Hermès.  It took over a month to coordinate all of the details for this series of events, but in the end they chose our origami studio because of how well origami fit with the overall goals of the events.  They really wanted activities that were accessible for anyone, relaxing, and apart from their everyday commutes.  Origami is a perfect fit for an event like this.

Hermès was also looking for a unique way to market their brand new magazine “Le Monde”.  They had just released a new English version and were thinking through options for drawing people in.  The inspiration was to create a full Parisian café scene with chairs, a coffee truck, tables, and a magazine kiosk so that passerbys could read the magazine as a quick break from the world.

Origami was only one of the featured additions to the events, as well as a floral arrangement cart, caricature artist, and organic teabag makers.

These Hermès kiosks have appeared across the world in recent years including Dubai, Tokyo, and Prague to name a few.   Here is a look at the setup in Amsterdam and Singapore.   You can follow the entire worldwide campaign with the #LeMondeDHermes.

Our Senior Origami Artist Ben Friesen was selected to be on site to teach and fold guests. The models were selected from a wide range of traditional and non-traditional origami sources and were hand-picked to represent the playful and spring-like qualities of the Hermès brand.  Models like butterflies and chrysanthemum flowers were especially popular.

After 2 days in Union Square and many happy encounters, the event moved over to the Embarcadero in San Francisco.  There was a constant stream of people interested in watching and folding models throughout the weekend.  The result was countless engaged San Franciscans over the course of 4 days in the summer.

Every origami event is a little different and tailored to the needs of the client, but in this case the goal was to make as many people happy as possible, and to provide a fun way to slow down in the middle of the day.

Many people had fun just making off-menu requests of the artist as well, while others simply wanted to ask questions about what it’s like to be a professional paper folder.

In the end it was a very successful event sharing origami around the city, and Taro’s Origami Studio was proud to be a small part of it.