Iron Social Design · 2026
Love Letters Calendar
- A' Design Award 2026 Iron Winner in Social Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Yezi Designs
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 9,959
- Verification code BCD3A4DECF · Verify this award
About Love Letters Calendar
Love Letters is a calendar designed to connect daily life with biodiversity awareness. Each of the twelve cards carries a letter from an endangered species, inviting reflection, personal pledges and the marking of important dates. Every card folds into a self standing structure without binding, and can later be placed in its paper envelope for mailing or archiving. The set is offset printed on FSC certified uncoated paper and housed in a drawer style paper box that can be reused as a keepsake or teaching object.
Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou's Love Letters Calendar engages the enduring design challenge of transforming the utilitarian calendar format into an object of sustained aesthetic and emotional interest, positioning this work within contemporary movements that seek to elevate everyday functional items through refined material sensibility and thoughtful formal consideration, the project demonstrates particular affinity with minimalist design principles emphasizing restraint, spatial clarity, and the expressive potential of limited chromatic vocabularies, while the integration of dimensional sculptural elements representing wildlife subjects introduces a countervailing warmth and accessibility that tempers strict geometric rationalism with organic naturalism, suggesting awareness of Scandinavian and contemporary Asian design traditions that balance modernist clarity with human-scaled intimacy and references to natural world, the compositional achievement evident in the sophisticated packaging architecture employing drawer mechanisms that ritualize the revelation of calendar contents, transforming the mundane act of consulting dates into a deliberately paced tactile experience, the chromatic strategy demonstrating considerable sophistication through the deployment of deep charcoal grounds that provide visual weight and absorb ambient light, establishing contemplative quietude against which the strategic vermillion accents function as visual punctuation marks drawing the eye through the composition while the warm-toned uncoated calendar paper introduces textural variety and suggests material quality associated with premium stationery and printing traditions, technically the work exhibits accomplished control across multiple production modalities including structural packaging fabrication, paper engineering for the dimensional bear element, typography employing both functional clarity in the calendar grid and decorative foil application on packaging surfaces, and photographic presentation that contextualizes the complete system through carefully orchestrated arrangement and lighting, the standing tent-format calendar itself represents a formal solution to the perennial challenge of desktop calendar orientation, providing stable freestanding structure while maintaining compact footprint, the temporal notation sequence descending the packaging spine creates a visual metaphor for the passage of years while establishing the 2026 edition within a collectible continuum, thematically the work appears to meditate on time's passage and the human impulse to organize and commemorate temporal flow, the choice of bear imagery potentially evoking associations with seasonal cycles, natural rhythms, hibernation and emergence, or simply offering companionship and gentle charm to daily time-marking rituals, the integration of dimensional sculptural elements atop flat calendar pages creates a hybrid object occupying territory between functional tool and decorative presence, suggesting that quotidian objects need not sacrifice aesthetic consideration to utilitarian purpose, the overall design language speaks to audiences valuing material quality, restrained elegance, and the pleasure of well-considered everyday objects, how might the daily ritual of consulting such a calendar, drawing the next card from its drawer, encountering the sculptural element and grid of dates, influence one's relationship to temporal passage and the marking of days across the year's progression.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- This project reimagines the calendar as a tool for emotional storytelling and environmental action. Each month features a letter from an endangered species, inviting reflection, personal pledges, and meaningful dates. The foldable card becomes both calendar and time capsule, using ritual, empathy, and biodegradable materials to turn awareness into active care, a purpose led experience connecting biodiversity loss to daily life.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The finished product measures 110 mm × 230 mm × 40 mm. The calendar set includes 12 illustrated calendar cards, 12 paper envelopes, and a calendar storage box. The cards are designed to be folded into a self standing three dimensional structure without additional binding. After use, each card can be placed into its corresponding envelope for mailing or archiving. The complete set is housed in a paper based calendar box suitable for storage and distribution.
- Tags
- Emotional calendar, Eco conscious design, Endangered animals, Interactive daily ritual, Foldable cards, User engagement, Mailable cards, Educational gift, Modular structure
- Production Technology
- The calendar is produced using FSC certified uncoated paper with high opacity to enhance durability and color accuracy. Offset printing is applied for production, combined with spot color control to ensure consistent tones across animal illustrations in different batches. Multiple rounds of prototyping and user testing were conducted to optimize the calendar’s size, thickness, and interaction details for daily use.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenge was integrating a daily use object with abstract concepts to encourage genuine user engagement. This required designing a full interaction flow, from using the calendar, writing messages, to mailing actions, and adding playful, foldable features to the calendar cards. Constraints included production feasibility, material limits, and balancing usability with emotional and eco conscious objectives.
- Project Duration
- The project started in March 2025 in Georgia and Michigan, USA, and completed prototype testing and design refinements by September 2025. Since then, it has been in ongoing serial production, ensuring quality, consistency, and readiness for distribution.
- Operation Flow
- Most calendars function as tools, this one is designed as a relationship. The project bridges personal ritual and planetary care through a system that encourages reflection, action, and emotional continuity. Love Letters transforms a calendar into a twelve month exchange between users and endangered animals, packaging empathy and awareness through monthly interaction. The drawer style outer box symbolizes preservation and is designed for second life use as a keepsake or educational object.
- Research
- Type of research: iterative design and user centered study. Objectives: to create an engaging, emotionally meaningful calendar. Methodology: multiple prototyping rounds and user testing. Tools: physical prototypes and feedback sessions. Participants: 15 users evaluated interaction and usability. Results: optimized foldable structure, size, and display clarity. Insights: users valued emotional engagement and eco consciousness. Impact: informs sustainable, interactive product design for daily life.
- Inspiration
- This project makes biodiversity loss personal and actionable by breaking it into monthly rituals, reflection, pledges, date marking, and small acts of care. Drawer style box and red envelopes create a sense of reveal, while foldable calendar cards combine animal storytelling with practical use. Guided prompts turn awareness into everyday action, embedding ecological urgency into time based rituals.
- Image Credits
- #Main Image: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025.
#Image 1: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025.
#Image 2: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025.
#Image 3: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025.
#Image 4: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou, 2026