Un Sedicesimo 81

“My life as an artist began alone in a room with colored paper and scissors creating shoes from tissue boxes and elaborate but flimsy cities for my animal figurines. Cutting, folding, and arranging paper remains my first language in color and form and the first step in my design process from furniture to websites, book layouts, typography, and more. With scissors I carve out the shapes of animals and objects from memory, investigating which lines and curves contain the gist. In this issue, the private meditations that fuel my design process are gathered as standalone works—poems made of paper.”

Ainsley Romero is a designer and artist based in New York City. Creating tools and opportunities for play is the guiding principle of her work which spans graphic design, illustration, spatial design, the design of functional objects, textiles, and art education. She holds an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art where she researched play as both a developmental tool for children and a philosophical framework for resilience in adulthood.