Iron Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design · 2020
Quirky Louise Book
by Yunzi Liu
- A' Design Award 2020 Iron Winner in Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Yunzi Liu
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 12,581
- Verification code E2DD8F30BC · Verify this award
About Quirky Louise Book
This pop-up book introduces four unique living habits of the designer. When it is open, the book stands up and forms four cubic zones. Each zone represents a room in the designer's apartment, such as the bathroom, living room and home office where these habits typically take place. Illustrations on the left side identify the rooms, while statistics and diagrams on the right show relevant facts and possible influence caused by certain habits.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Quirky Louise is a pop-up book introducing the unique living habits of Louise followed by infographics and statistics based on further analysis of each habit. When opened, the book stands up and forms four cubic zones which represent four rooms in Louise house: bathroom, kitchen, living room, and study where the habits typically happen. Illustration on the left side of each "rooms" creates a visual environment, while statistics and graphics on the right show some facts and possible influence.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Closed book: Width 20.3mm x Depth 1.2mm x Height 20.3mm
Opened book:Width 40.6cm x Depth 40.6cm x Height 20.3mm - Tags
- Book design, illustration, infographics
- Production Technology
- For the book Quirky Louise, a classic pop-up structure was adopted to represent rooms at home. On the left side of each "room", an illustration shows the reader which room it is and a title tells about Louise's quirky habit. On the right side, different charts and diagrams analyze the habit and results it may cause in a long run. Different color palettes are employed to distinguish rooms. Stripes of magnetic tape were hided in the front and back covers to close the structure when readers open it.
- Design Challenge
- The first challenge for this project is collecting adequate and accurate statistics since the topic I chose is relatively personal. I tried to gather as much data as possible, such as experimenting with my friends and families. Another big challenge is how to exhibit the numbers so that they can not only convey enough messages but also not too overwhelming. To solve this, I left out some numbers in process and hight the most shocking numbers. For the graphics, choosing best forms of diagram for each topic required careful consideration. Instead of huge complicated diagrams, I used several simple diagrams for one topic to demonstrate different facts. Technically, how to close the book structure was another problem. The traditional structure can be opened 360 degree but the reader has to hold both covers. After trying various ways, I hided thin magnetic tapes in the front and back cover so when they meet each other, they will stick together automatically.
- Project Duration
- This project started and finished in October 2019 in Baltimore.
- Operation Flow
- Place the book perpendicular to the desktop and open it into a 360 degree structure so that the front and back covers will draw together by magnets and stand stable and upright on desk.
- Research
- This project started with a humorous personal topic but ended up in a serious tone. My research started from my daily life. For example, when I wash hands, I damp my hands, turn off the tap, use hand soap, turn on the tap, and clean the tap after use. I noticed that some people would let the tap run when they were applying hand soap, so I wanted to compare the two ways and see how much water I could save or waste. At first, I measured the diameter of my tap and taps of other school buildings to take an average and used stopwatch to calculate the speed and other time durations. After calculating, I found that I saved water and got a number of how much water I could save in one year. Then I measured the water I used to cook a regular bowl of rice to see how many bowls of rice that saved water could cook. Also I researched online to get newly updated numbers about available clean water and other numbers worldwide. Plus, some phone apps also played an important role in number collecting. For the book structure, I checked library pop-up book archive and found a most suitable pop-up structure.
Through this process I realized that even a slight deviation would have huge influence on the results. Getting a completely objective statistic was impossible for this kind of personal projects and what I could do is collecting as many numbers as possible and tried my best to get reasonable data. Some numbers shocked me as well as my friends such as how much water we had wasted by just letting the tap run a few seconds every time when we washed hands. This project thoroughly demonstrates how design and our daily life act on each other. - Inspiration
- This project was initiated upon a self-reflection on some of my unique and obsessive habits. For example, I usually get proper amount of food and will eat up every grain of rice to reduce food waste. These habits represent part of my personality. I recorded some statistics, calculated to see the results in a long run and found some shocking facts that can encourage people to take action such as reducing food waste and save water. Then I realized the butterfly effects caused by trivial things could become a warning or encouragement for everyone to benefit the whole world or to simply live a better life.
- Image Credits
- Image: Yunzi Liu
Photo: Yunzi Liu
Colors of Quirky Louise Book
Design Interview about Quirky Louise Book
This was a project called Bio-Diagram that I finished at school. I tried to examine myself from an outsider's view and realized how ordinary I was except some weird habits of mine. For example, when I trim my fingernails, my order is as follows: left thumb, right thumb, left pinky to the left index finger, right pinky to the right index finger. I tend to ignore this sort of detail in daily life without taking a few seconds to think if they could make any difference when the results keep accumulating. This was how I got the inspiration.
I would like to dive into my living habits and examine the butterfly effects that my quirky habits can cause, on me, or the planet. Since this book is based on infographics, taking the most accurate numbers and collecting enough data to average it out is the most challenging task during the design process.
This pop-up book is pretty personal. I would like to make some changes if I have a chance to publish or sell.
About a month.
Bio-Diagram is a given topic, but this project is more of pursuing my inspiration. I developed this idea mostly because of my interest in understanding and analyzing myself and ended up with astonishing numbers and facts. Even every one of us seems trivial to the whole universe, our casual behaviors may cause huge influence.
I want to produce and sell by myself.
I am always interested in making books. This pop-up book structure is adopted because it is quite architectural. It resembles rooms at home which can create an environment for the content.
My instructor Adam Lucas inspired and helped me a lot during my design process. He guided me to clarify and simplify my thoughts and he is pretty open about the forms I used.
Mostly young people.
I guess the combination of the unique book structure and its content can differentiate my design from other similar concepts.
Louise is an English name that I used when I was at school because my Chinese name is too difficult to pronounce. I started my research based on my unusual habits so I chose "Quirky" to modify myself.
I used Adobe Illustrator.
Illustration and infographic resonating with each other might be the most unique feature of this design.
Not technically, but I did ask for my friends' help when I collected raw data.
technology helped a lot in data collection, such as some health apps that can keep a record of how many steps you have walked for a day.
The majority of the content came from data and analytical research. For example, when I wash hands, I damp my hands, turn off the tap, use hand soap, turn on the tap, and clean the tap after use. I noticed that some people would let the tap run when they were applying hand soap, so I wanted to compare the two ways and see how much water I could save or waste. At first, I measured the diameter of my tap and taps of other school buildings to take an average and used a stopwatch to calculate the speed and other time durations. After calculating, I found that I saved water and got the number of how much water I could save in one year. Then I measured the water I used to cook a regular bowl of rice to see how many bowls of rice that saved water could cook. Also, I researched online to get newly updated numbers about available clean water and other numbers worldwide. I also collected numbers from phone apps.
The first challenge for this project is collecting adequate and accurate statistics since the topic I chose is relatively personal. I tried to gather as much data as possible, such as experimenting with my friends and families. Another big challenge is how to exhibit the numbers so that they can not only convey enough messages but also not too overwhelming. To solve this, I left out some numbers in-process and hight the most shocking numbers. For the graphics, choosing the best forms of diagram for each topic required careful consideration. Instead of huge complicated diagrams, I used several simple diagrams for one topic to demonstrate different facts. Technically, how to close the book structure was another problem. The traditional structure can be opened 360 degrees but the reader has to hold both covers. After trying various ways, I hid thin magnetic tapes in the front and back cover so when they meet each other, they will stick together automatically.
First of all, A' Design Award is a renowned competition in all the design fields. Becoming an award winner is my biggest honor. Also, I found that when I presented this work at school, my instructor and classmates were all astonished at the numbers, which means none of us had ever thought how much difference that easily overlooked behaviors could make. So by entering this competition, I hope to call for the young generation to take responsibility for the world and become more speculative about future problems.
I learned how to collect raw data and extract meaningful ideas through data analysis.
There is still a big room for me to continue this project. I do appreciate this opportunity. Thanks.