Taro’s Origami Studio has worked with Tiffany & Co. on several occasions throughout the years.  Most recently, the folding team worked at over 13 different store over the holidays, as well as some individual events for Mother’s Day.  This time for the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, Senior Artist Frank Ling was asked back to design and teach a fun lantern out of paper.  At first he looked into traditional origami models, but eventually they landed on a more detailed model.

One of the great things about this project was that Tiffany was already familiar with Frank’s work, so they simply gave him a general direction and he took it from there.  In the end the models was designed in about a week, and production took one more.

1. Origami Consultation

The request from Tiffany was for a 45 minute lantern class for some of their top clientele.  So to start with Frank offered them some of the different origami lantern models, but it quickly became clear they wanted something more upscale.  Below you can see the initial origami options followed by the more papercraft versions provided as inspiration by the client.

2. Initial Design

Since there was only about a week or so left for the design process Frank took the liberty of creating a full model for the team to look at.  The design incorporated both the themes of the year (the zodiac animal for this year is the snake) and the overall brand identity for the company.

3. Prototype & Client Approval

After building model on the computer, the next step was to bring one to life as a proof of concept.  The goal for this project was to pre-cut all the parts and then left the guests assemble everything during the class, so the model needed to look great but also be easy enough for others to finish.  As soon as Tiffany saw what Frank had done, they loved it and let him begin production of the assembly packets.

4. The Class

Once everything was premade, the only thing left to do was teach the class at the flagship Tiffany’s store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.  Frank was joined by another Taro’s artist Cai Izumi, and together they guided everyone through making their own custom Tiffany’s lantern.  Below you can see how it all happened and marvel at the artistry from everyone involved.

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