Nendo has revisited its technique of creating sketch-like objects with a series of 3D-printed pieces that look like the outlines of paper.

The Un-printed Material exhibition is on at Tokyo's Creation Gallery G8, which is dedicated to visual communication. Because of this, Nendo wanted to tackle a medium used by graphic designers – in this instance, paper.

"Graphic designers use paper as a medium to express their ideas," said Nendo. "Similarly, we wanted to work with paper but approach it from a different angle."

Working both by hand and with a 3D printer, the design studio created black outlines of paper, some with folded edges, and some that appear to have been torn.

"By zeroing in on the finer details and carefully representing them in the outlines, we attempted to capture that unique essence of paper that we have all felt at one time or another," said the studio.

The Un-printed Material exhibition takes place across three rooms in the gallery. In the first, 30 sheets of A1-sized posters with outlines are suspended in the stark white and concrete space.

In the second room, multiple postcard-sized pieces are intended to show different stages of the paper being crumpled or folded.

In the final room, a series of outlines represent smaller objects that are made of paper, such as paper bags, milk cartons, paper cups and origami figures.

The exhibition is a continuation of a theme for Nendo, which last year presented a range of furniture that looked like it had been drawn onto the surfaces at a gallery in Tokyo.

A number of other designers have also created objects that look like line drawings recently.

During Milan design week 2016, Dutch designers Kiki van Eijk and Joost van Bleiswijk unveiled a range that looks like two-dimensional sketches but in inverted colours so black lines are replaced with chalk-like marks.

Other examples include a pair of chairs that look like unfinished sketches by Kazakh designer Nissa Kinzhalina and an outline of a traditional house created by artist Sarah FitzSimons for the first Chicago Architecture Biennal.

The Un-printed Material exhibition is open until 17 November 2016 at the Creation Gallery G8 in Ginza, Tokyo.