Shin Tanaka: paper toys meet street art
31 Aug 2006 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Features, Graphics, Worldwide
Shin Tanaka is a paper toy creator. When he started creating paper models and templates for all his favorite sneakers he couldn’t afford when he was a student - people were simply stunned about his detailed life-size objects. Shin’s sneakers were then displayed in a showcase of the NIKE design library and by now he has collaborated with over 80 brands (Adidas, Ark United, etc.) and many different artists. But not only Shin’s sneakers became big - he got most popular with the T-BOY, one of his various paper toy models, which he developed on his research for a new surface for his graffiti pieces. His detailed toy-templates are available for download on his website so that everyone can customize, build up and display an own individual character with a different face. PingMag talked to Lars Eberle from LessRain, who are currently hosting the Shin Tanaka KAMI ZOO exhibition in their gallery in Berlin about how they collaborated with Shin.
Written by Uleshka

Lars, LessRain is actually a web-design company, but you launched a little shop, bar and gallery in Berlin as well. (And maybe I should also mention here, that you just opened up the LessRain Tokyo office! Well done!) What is your relationship with Shin then? Why was he chosen for an exhibition in Berlin in the first place?
We found him on an internet tour doing research about paper models and graffiti for our online graffiti community Vandalsquad. We were amazed by his paper models and the idea of sharing them over the internet and asked him, if he was interested in collaborating.


here the modified PDF for a very red Less Rain Gritty

Gritty with front cover on and from the side without hood! Hah! almost fearsome, this little fellow!
We actually haven’t met him in person yet, just spoke on the phone a couple of times and exchanged lots of emails.
Less Rain developed a graffiti spray tool, which allows you to spray virtually and legally on a high level - online. Over 30000 works uploaded on Vandalsquad every month (!) prove well, that people like it. In what way did you connect online graffiti with Shin’s paper toys?
On the whole we invited about 20 German artists and designers to download illustrator and freehand files of Shin’s paper toys and in particular, we invited the 50 best graffiti artists from Vandalsquad to design the “wallman”- toy. (PDF download here)


Parts of this particular character could be downloaded into the graffiti studio on Vandalsquad, then sprayed on and uploaded as a PDF. These designs can still be seen on Vandalsquad and downloaded by everyone.
The ready designed PDF can then be printed out and build as a paper toy (takes more effort, love and care than you might think!). During the exhibition we have a lot of scissors, glue and papercrafts lying around…
We also showed about 30 toys designed by Shin Tanaka himself and 40 toys designed by other Japanese artists.

T-boys from Japan
We plan to bring this exhibition to Tokyo afterwards and ask more Japanese designers to collaborate.
I guess one of the strengths of Shin’s work is that it is fun for everybody to create their own version of his paper toys T-Boy, Gritty or Spike. (Although you now have to write an email to Shin first and get the PDF from him, since someone started selling the PDFs on Ebay without his permission, so he keeps it personal now!) Would you call Shin’s work’s origami, though? If he uses scissors and glue??

No, Shins work has not much to do with origami, but rather with plastic toy characters. When coming up with this idea, he was more into the idea of finding a way to produce his own characters - by himself and as cheap as possible. Getting a plastic toy produced and getting it into the shops is a costy and commerecial thing, where as creating and publishing paper toys is free. He is also very much into the idea of getting other artists to create designs for his toys which works perfectly - everyone seems to enjoy collaborating. Shin is working on new toys right now and currently doing a project with Adidas.
What other projects do you have in mind for your gallery space?
LessRain is currently searching for other artists whose work would allow such an interactive exhibition - linking artists across the internet. The KAMI ZOO exhibition is the first one in a series which introduces fresh Japanese design, illustration and ideas to Europe.

Thanks a lot! The exhibition in the Less Rain basement gallery in Linienstraße 154a, Berlin Mitte is open from Monday to Friday, 12.00-19.00 pm until the 30th of September. In case you are around - pop in and say hello from Ping!
44 Comments
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I just downloaded the NIKE AIR FORCE 1 paper model!! I will try it out and I have a doubt… can we do it in all papers ??
Posted by: Balakumar Muthu on August 31st, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Shin’s designer pieces are super cool, maybe I should email him for a Gritty collaboration.
Balakumar: Yeah it’s all done with paper. But you should use heavy stiffness paper of at least 150grams and can try double sided tape instead of glue for the smaller bits.
Posted by: gada on August 31st, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Great exhibition! Went there on the opening night. Did some shots myself - available on our flickr gallery
Greetings from Berlin/Germany
Posted by: Roman on September 1st, 2006 at 12:38 am
ohh my gosh.
Awesome work.
Thanks PINGMAG!
Posted by: Paavani on September 1st, 2006 at 3:55 am
The Gritty design is very cool, love the T-Boy!
Posted by: Edouard on September 1st, 2006 at 6:42 am
Shin is one of the most creative and talents artists out there. I hope we get to see his work in the UK in the future
Posted by: Tahir on September 1st, 2006 at 8:56 am
[...] Paper toys meet street art [...]
Posted by: cafedave.net » Blog Archive » Paper toys meet street art on September 1st, 2006 at 11:32 am
where do you download the PDF of gritty?
Posted by: Jeff on September 1st, 2006 at 1:47 pm
[...] A nice article and more pictures from the Shin Tanaka exhibition, at PingMag. [...]
Posted by: lessrain blog » Blog Archive » Kami Zoo Update on September 1st, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Thanks gada for your reply !! :)
Posted by: Balakumar Muthu on September 1st, 2006 at 11:30 pm
hey guys!
I made one already~ check it out!
http://www.noisestudio.com/files/blog/paperartflow.jpg
its really easy and funny. but it spent me about 2 hours! especial the hand!(its really hard to stick!) :D
try by yourself!
thanks shin tanaka and pingmag~~
Posted by: x-noise on September 2nd, 2006 at 3:09 am
I’m loving the paper toys! Too good to be true. :-D
Posted by: N I C O on September 2nd, 2006 at 4:44 am
shin rules. i cant wait to visit less rain in berlin!!!
Posted by: bill on September 2nd, 2006 at 9:40 pm
you can also visit them in Vienna or London or Tokyo…. ;-)
well done, x-noise!
Posted by: Uleshka on September 4th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I love paper toys!!
Posted by: ヤーッコ on September 8th, 2006 at 12:35 am
Anyone want to post a direct link to some of the templates? I’ve only been able to find one and it’s not even a complete!
Great artwork, want to make my own and submit to Shin!
Posted by: Alex on September 9th, 2006 at 6:15 am
Looks like a lot of fun.
Posted by: ftrc on September 12th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
[...] Más info e imágenes en este post de PingMag. [...]
Posted by: Criterion » Archivo » Shin Tanaka se lanza a la calle on September 15th, 2006 at 1:41 am
[...] Shin Tanaka is a paper toy creator. When he started creating paper models and templates for all his favorite sneakers he couldn’t afford when he was a student - people were simply stunned about his detailed life-size objects. http://www.pingmag.jp/2006/08/31/shin-tanaka-paper-toys-meeting-street-art/ [...]
Posted by: Garfield + Architecture » Shin Tanaka: paper toys meet street art on September 15th, 2006 at 11:13 am
[...] Estaba navegando por Criterion, cuando descubrí el arte de Shin Tanaka, él tío hace de todo, desde ropa hasta unos pequeños muñequitos que están especiales. Pueden verlos en PingMag. Trackback · [...]
Posted by: AKELARREWEB » Shin Tanaka Origami a las 10 potencia on September 15th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
[...] Update #1: An article about Shin Tanaka can be found Pingmag - The Tokoyo-based magazine [...]
Posted by: [mck] » Urban papercraft: Shin Tanaka on September 28th, 2006 at 7:25 am
[...] Been enjoying using up the work toners printing off some papercraft templates recently and was amazed to see a graff/papercraft colab. (Actually I shouldn’t be amazed at all seeing as you can get street-art shower curtains these days.) Anyhow Jap mag PingMag has the article on the colab and there are some good Shin Tanaka templates to download here. [...]
Posted by: Hurt You Bad » Particularly nasty papercuts on October 5th, 2006 at 5:49 am
i did it all by my self
Posted by: daquan bourne on October 9th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
nice works . I have a kebrit paint project which looks somehow like some of works here .not exactly in consept but it still similar . huh
Posted by: A1one from IRAN on January 14th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
[...] Das Design “Lacko” aus der fünften Spiky Baby Serie von Shin Tanaka könnt ihr wie die anderen Designs der aktuellen Serie auf seiner Homepage kostenlos runterladen. Um den Spaß noch etwas zu steigern wisst ihr vor dem Klick auf den Download Button nicht welches der Designs ihr bekommt, schliesslich soll das ganze noch einen Sammelflair haben, was auch der Grund ist warum ihr immer nur die aktuelle Serie eines Modells runterladen könnt und manche Modelle überhaupt nicht mehr verfügbar sind. Mehr über: newq, papertoys, shin tanaka [...]
Posted by: fanboyblog.com » Blog Archiv » newq beginnt zu basteln on January 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
[...] Shin Tanaka makes street art/urban culture related papercraft. Some links to downloadable content. [...]
Posted by: Visual Concepts 3 ... Blog Archive ... Homework, January 31 on February 1st, 2007 at 10:49 am
[...] Shin Tanaka [...]
Posted by: Man & Macht, beeldtaal » Blog Archief » SHIN TANAKA on May 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Does anyone know where you can download the pdf for gritty?
Posted by: Miss. Motherfucker on July 17th, 2007 at 2:47 am
[...] you want to know more about Shin, just read the interview with he did with PingMag: read the interview. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web [...]
Posted by: Urban papercraft: Shin Tanaka (part 4) - Sneakers | [mck] on December 12th, 2007 at 1:33 am
[...] that everyone can customize, build up and display an own individual character with a different face(… more from PingMag ) Posted by Honey Filed in Advertising, All entries, [...]
Posted by: Sweet-Station » Blog Archive » Paper Toys on January 9th, 2008 at 7:55 am
where can i find a spiky(not spiky baby) template?
Posted by: geo-93 on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Whoa,this is sick and amazing
I’m going to feature this in my SITE!
Posted by: Jasmine on May 22nd, 2008 at 9:28 am
[...] de papel? La respuesta nos la da Shin Tanaka. Sus diseños de “juguetes de papel” son simplemente impresionantes. Desde el ya famoso “Wallman“, hasta mi preferido “Gritty” son todos [...]
Posted by: Shin Tanaka, el artista del papel at Enigma Tres on May 26th, 2008 at 3:38 am
[...] via: Ping Mag + [...]
Posted by: Arte com Papel | Outside on December 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
[...] via: Ping Mag + [...]
Posted by: 15 of the World’s Most Creative Papercraft Artists | News Search Engine - Klodian.net on December 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[...] via: Ping Mag + [...]
Posted by: Paper Art: Origamie et sculptures en papier | SupaPanda on December 4th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Skillllllz
I love your work!!
Posted by: Supapanda on December 4th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
And spoke about it in an article about “Paper Art” here:
http://supapanda.fr/paper-art-origamie-et-sculptures-en-papier.html
[in French]
Posted by: Supapanda on December 5th, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] Ping Mag + [...]
Posted by: Inspiración - Artistas del papel | Blog MnkStudio on December 6th, 2008 at 9:05 am
[...] Источник [...]
Posted by: ШКОЛА ГРАФФИТИ » Blog Archive » Бумажные игрушки для граффити on December 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
[...] via: Ping Mag + [...]
Posted by: 15 of the World’s Most Creative Papercraft Artists « shauna lee lange arts advisory on December 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Great exhibition! Went there on the opening night.
Posted by: halı yıkama on January 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Thanks bebişim.
Posted by: halı yıkama on March 21st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Link Art Paper Nike’s not working ):… Someone can get me one that works?
Posted by: cookies on August 4th, 2009 at 9:09 pm