The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
A personal rant about origami diagrams

I will address the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of origami diagramming in reverse order. Firstly, the ugly diagram. We’ve all seen them. Scruffy, out of proportion drawings, with crossings out, dirty finger-marks, smudges and ambiguous wording that is not only difficult to read but often only comprehensible to the originator. These examples not only exist on personal websites but, astonishingly and shamefully, appear in publications. I’ve got loads of stuff like this in files at home. AND I NEVER LET IT OUT IN PUBLIC. (Apart from the example below for illustrative purposes) These are my personal notes for working out a good folding sequence and nothing more.
A page showing steps 1 to 6 of my Swan from one of my notebooks. For the finished diagrams click here

“Ah! But I can’t even draw a straight line!” I hear you say. “Pish! Tosh! Nonsense!” I reply. I’ve got news for you matey. I can’t draw a straight line either. When I want a straight line, I use a ruler. “But I don’t know how to start. It’s impossible!” You say. Right. Listen up! I’m going to show you how to diagram. It is not difficult, and before you start saying that you can't draw, take a moment or two to think about what I'm going to say;

If you can write in a fairly legible manner you have the necessary neuro-muscular control for your brain to tell your fingers what to do, therefore you have the physical equipment to draw. If you have created a new origami design which you wish to diagram, you have just proved that you have the necessary creativity to draw. If you open these pages I will show you how to diagram neatly, legibly and accurately. How To Draw Origami Diagrams I’ll wait here and have a cup of tea.........

Now that wasn’t too difficult was it? You can apply the same principles to any origami model (with the probable exception of tesselations and other "make every fold at the same time" types of origami). Remember, if you have created a model that you are pleased with, it makes sense to give it the best support you can and that means GOOD, ACCURATE and CLEAN DIAGRAMS! It's not rocket science.

Now, we come to the Bad. Many years ago Samuel Randlett and Akira Yoshizawa put their heads together and came up with a neat, simple and versatile system for diagramming. This has been used successfully by most of the origami community for more than thirty years. If you are diagramming and you are not using the Randlett/Yoshizawa system, I have a couple of questions for you; Why not? The creative work was done many, many years ago. Why are you re-inventing the wheel?

“Ah!” You say. “But I’ve got a contract with a book publisher. They want to throw money at me and their in-house graphic-design department say that the steps need to be photographed in colour to be ‘cool and happening’ and they've got these neat little symbols they want to use .” Let me tell you this; they are talking through the back of their collective, graphic designer heads! Allow me to explain.

I play the guitar, badly as it happens, but that’s another story. Every now and then I come up with a little tune that I like and want to write down for future use, as my memory is not particularly good. How can I record and document all the musical information required in such a way that I and/or another guitarist can understand and play the tune?

1. I can write it down in standard musical notation; Key signatures, Bars, crotchets, minims etc. etc. This system was good enough for Bach, Mozart, Beethoven et al and is still in use today.

2. I can use TAB. This is a system specifically designed for fretted instruments such as the guitar, lute, banjo, etc. It is very good in showing the correct fingering and chords but less good for showing rhythmic complexity and the duration of individual notes. However, it can and is used in conjunction with standard notation with great success.

3. I could take photographs of my left and right hands as they fret and pluck every note. This process would give some, but not all, of the information required, in a way that is very nearly useless. It would not show speed or rhythm. It would show a lot of irrelevant details such as the colour of the wood of the guitar, that there is dirt under one of my fingernails, the thickness of the strings etc.

Beautiful paper which confuses the eye. And just take a look at all that writing! Step 9 of Yoshizawa's Butterfly as seen in - Origami, The Complete Guide to the Art of Paperfolding by Rick Beech Reproduced by kind permission of the author (who agrees with me!)

Tell those publishers to trust you, the origamist, to know what you are talking about and to save the photography for views of the finished model in all its glory and, while they are about it, to re-write the contract to give you a slice of the proceeds when they reprint the book in a year or two with a different cover and “forget” to put your name on the front.

Finally, the Good. Let’s consider origami. What is it? Amongst other things it is an internationally practised art form. It is not, or shouldn’t be, limited by language. I can only speak English but I would like people who cannot speak English to be able to fold and enjoy my models.

As a result I deliberately do not use writing in my diagramming. This is a purely personal decision but I’d like to encourage everyone to try. Diagram with no written explanations to accompany the drawings. In this way your diagrams should be “readable” by anyone familiar with the Randlett/Yoshizawa system regardless of where they come from.

Because I deliberately do not use words I have had to add a few symbols for particular moves such as a “closed sink”, an “open sink”, “this area will not lie flat” and “fold to about here” for example. Click Here to see my added symbols. Additionally, I have noticed that by diagramming in this way I am forced to break the folding sequence down into smaller, simpler steps which makes the folding easier to do. Hey! That’s a bonus.

The end results speak for themselves. I believe that I produce good diagrams. I also believe that everyone can and should produce good diagrams. “Ah, but you use a computer and a digital camera and a scanner and a fancy program and goodness knows what, to make your diagrams.” You say.

Is there no end to your whingeing?! Yes. Now, I do. But, before I had a computer and all the other stuff, I only had a few sheets of paper, a pencil, a ruler and 3 drawing pens and I still managed to produce good diagrams. What you haven’t done is the exercise explained in the .pdf I told you to download earlier. Go on, try it, I dare you! Download How To Draw Origami Diagrams Note: This is a BIG file and will take a long time.

Then come back to me and tell me that you can't do it.