“I’ve loved making things ever since I was a child,” explains Kyle Bean. “At university, I became frustrated with drawing and painting. There was also a lot of illustration created entirely digitally, but I wanted to get back to creating something physical.” Paper was the student’s material of necessity, but it soon became his medium of choice: “It’s liberatingly versatile and comes in so many colors. Because it’s accessible, you can experiment more.”
And so, he founded his career on this material, however, has evolved much from there. Discover this truly creative artist, his work, his view on making things and see the artwork he created for Victorinox.
Craftsman, paper artist or tactile illustrator?
A look at how a maker works
Join Kyle creating a diorama of the Swiss landscape out of interlocking layers of paper that represent the iconic Swiss Army Knife and the workings of a Swiss watch and experience a true maker in action.
Collaboration is also a key part of Bean’s methodology. “Because much of my work ends up as an image, I value the input a photographer can bring – for example, lighting to maximize the tactile effect. And I’ve worked with people who have expertise in large-scale construction or creating models for animation.
I’ve built up a network of other makers, which makes a project better than if I worked alone.” Bean’s collaboration with Victorinox is as innovative as it is obvious. His model of the company’s Ibach factory uses the Japanese kirigami technique. How to make one yourself is easy, too. Kyle has maped out all the steps necessary in this PDF.
