50 Renderings

7 min readMar 1, 2021

Background

This week, I worked on an assignment to focus on building my skills in creative perception, interpretation, representation, and learning to “see differently” when translating what I see into different expressions of it. The main objective was to pick any physical object. Create at least 50 different versions or renderings of it, changing and varying the style for every iteration and its form without losing the essence of the object of my choosing.

What did I choose? Why did I choose that?

For this project, I chose to focus on paper (Yes, I know, very creative).

The reason why I have decided to focus on paper is for two reasons.

I saw a few examples where others have done this assignment. I realized how creative their direction and what materials they used. In most cases, it was paper. So I thought it would be interesting to go through a more straightforward route and focus on the material that has been mostly used.
Paper is commonly overlooked and taking advantage of, especially since we live in a digital era where we tend to use programs like Procreate, Microsoft Word, and PowerPoint. So I thought working on this project would be a great opportunity to look into various applications of paper.

Expected Outcome

To provide some clarity, my expected outcome for this is having at least 50 different images of paper.

Tools

The tools I used for this project.

iPad

Miro

I wanted to use my iPad to write down everything that I had in mind while working on the project. Miro was used mainly to organize all the images that I was able to compile.

Research Process

I would definitely like to call out that my process for doing this assignment did not follow any linear method. I was getting my inspiration as I was going through my day-to-day. It was interesting how I became more observant of everyday objects and realized the different paper materials there.

To start, I wanted to organize my thoughts on this. So I decided to create a mind map.

The mind map was a great place to start because as I created this mind map because this was able to help me organize many of my thoughts on different use cases. Also, I could document all my google searches and everything I have observed from my day-to-day. A few examples can be the books in my rooms or even the menu from a local restaurant.

Narrowing things down

After going through the mind mapping process, I narrowed down my research and better categorize paper based on its materials. Listing down below are the types of paper I was able to find.

General paper
Newsprint
Origami
Card Stock
Money
Old papers (papyrus rolls, vintage, parchment)

General Paper

Newsprint

Origami

Card Stock

My personal pride and joy were being able to make a birthday card for my friend.

Money

One weird personal hobby of mine is collecting bills. I personally really like collecting old bills or even money from other countries.

Old Papers

Other paper materials

Moodboard

After compiling all my renderings, I thought it would be fun to create a mood board out of it.

Feel free to check it out! Click here

Self-Reflection

By being able to show the different variations of paper, it made me question myself.

“How does representing something differently change how we think about it?”

I would say that paper is one of the biggest things that can be taken advantage of. Doing this project got me to reflect on how important something as simple as paper is in our everyday lives. Seeing many different representations of paper made me understand the real importance and value of it better.

Next Steps

For my next steps, I will definitely push myself to start recycling all the excessive paper I encounter. I realize I use a lot of paper daily, whether from reading the newspaper, writing up notes, or even checking a menu. I think it is essential for me to be more self-conscious, collect all of them, and start recycling them.