Paper Airplane Design

Theme: Yamikawaii (cute-horror)

In one of my designing units, I had an assignment to design airplanes. Involving planning process on what type of airplane to fold, researching the theme and then creating a draft of the airplane.

As I was into Japanese culture, I wanted to create an airplane design with a plot twist. As I was passionate about creating meanings in my airplane, I decided to produce the theme - yamikawaii which translate to cute-horror. As the name suggest, the design will be a mixture on the subject on cute and horror.

Three airplane design with each individual plane with a story of it's own.

Animal - using Japan's famous dog breed that even has a movie of it's own, I designed the look of a cute Shiba Inu. Inside, it reveals the horror of the illegal dog skinning industry due to the market of fashionable fur products. It is also inspired by the dog eating festival.

Emotions - the theme Yamikawaii actually has a sad twist whereby it is a fashion trend for certain interest group in Japan to dress in bright cute colours, while showing a happy facade. However, they use elements of self-harm, bandage and bloody accessories to pair with their outfit. It also has a meaning whereby people tend to assume you look happy on the outside.

Purikura - the name Purikura means photobooth in Japanese, as it is a popular booth for printed cute photos. As people tend to be so absorbed with showing the best in photos online, it is often overlook that we don't know what is happening behind the scene in that photo. Therefore, people don't look as 'alive' in reality.