I designed a diorama that was inspired both by the Pixar movie Up and by the skyline of my home, Toronto. I chose a simple concept so I could focus on the craftsmanship of the various elements. I used a variety of textured bond paper, and assembled the entire piece adhesive-free using only folds, wraps, and tabs to attach individual elements. My colour palette is bright, cheerful, and fresh, and my overall objective was to create a piece that was fun, optimistic, and dynamic.

The objective of this project was to create a paper diorama that could ultimately be sold as a kit that could be assembled by a user. The diorama was to be constructed solely from paper and without any use of adhesives. Only folds and tabs could be used to secure pieces to one another. A set of instructions would be provided so that a person who was not familiar with the design would be able to easily construct it from flat pieces.

I began started out by sketching out the scene I wanted to create for my diorama. I then made a paper prototype of the house and the balloons, which I eventually fine-tuned until all of the pieces fit. Next, I drew out each individual piece of the diorama in Adobe Illustrator. Using different line weights, I specified which lines were cuts and which were folds. I then took my Illustrator file to a laser cutting lab and had all of the pieces cut out and pre-creased mechanically. Finally, I assembled the diorama using folds, tabs and tension, and created a detailed step-by-step assembly guide.