International Student Companies Meetup Gala in Tartu

The design of the V‑Spa conference room for the international student companies event was assigned to me through school. A mentor informed me from the start that I didn’t need to produce anything from scratch this time—the design elements already existed; I just needed to come up with a concept for them. So, we found our way to the “design‑boy” and gave it new life, reflecting the trend of upcycling.

“The idea of turning an origami body into a design‑boy originated from an Australian origami artist, and was picked up by two Estonian artists, Alide Zvorovski and Katri Perkki. They reinterpreted it using paper figures in urban exterior space and exhibited the project at the Labyrinth exhibition during Pärnu Art Summer 2016. From there, the then-curator of Art Summer, Eveli Varik, adapted the idea. She added a colorful penoplast (styrofoam) head to the folded origami body and began using the figure in her interior designs. That is how the current shape originated. Now, the design‑boy serves as a space‑design element at the International Student Companies Meetup event held in Tartu.” — Eveli Varik