OF TIDE AND TALES

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The word "maritime" speaks to me of hidden adventures beyond the horizon of the deep blue. I hear the rowdy jostling of sailors on deck; the silent chugging of worldly freighters large as small towns; and the forgotten dreams of bottles cast out to the ocean. In the “Gifts” category of the YCA competition, what would be better received than a story that connects us all in this otherwise timeless and placeless great blue unknown?

I designed an origami postcard that can be folded into a paper boat. Encapsulated in this act of folding and unfolding is the joyous discovery of stories, and discovered in the act of writing is the courage in pursuit of adventures and dreams. Using the origami postcard as a medium, I offer 2 design schemes and how the origami postcard can be developed as possible series.

They are Option 1: Abstract, and Option 2: Classic. Abstract refers to any art/design of maritime pertinence, while Classic refers to photography of relevant themes. Both types adapt easily into the postcard format. In the current options presented, the Abstract draws from the *SEA STATE project of Charles Lim exhibited in the Venice Biennale 2015 that investigates the state of our maritime borders so often ignored. In the Classic, I used a photograph self-taken of the nearby Keppel Port Terminal visible from school that has always stirred my imaginations of adventures as foreign as the ships that dock there.

These options are meant to illustrate the content possible. Overlaid over these images are the grid lines and instructions directing the folding of the origami boat. Just as all stories are fragments of our journey, my design of this origami postcard utilised the resultant grid to fragment the story told and provides the platform for storytelling.

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*SEA STATE image used belongs to its author, Charles Lim.