The Dark Side of the Moon 情书 by Maria-Luisa Uth

The Dark Side of the Moon 情书 by Maria-Luisa Uth is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 A' Design Award 铜奖 in 平面、插画与视觉传达设计 Competition Category.

铜平面· 2023

The Dark Side of the Moon 情书

by Maria-Luisa Uth

Client: Fortuna Design Studio

A' Design Award 铜奖 Winner in 平面 Category

10,068

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #147779

View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About The Dark Side of the Moon 情书

《月之暗面》是一封情书，讲述了中国传统的爱情故事。该项目颂扬优秀的旧印刷设计，重点关注字体、插图、图形设计和材料。信封打开，月亮的暗面变得可见。信的折叠方式就像口袋里的钱包一样，这是一种来自日本的折叠方法，18世纪传入欧洲，并作为情书折叠方法而流行。使用的纸张可以折叠而不会破裂，而且是半透明的，在光线照射下，字母的两侧会融合在一起。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 铜奖

The Dark Side of the Moon 情书是 A' Design Award 铜奖得主，这是授予以创造力、独创性和敏锐见长的杰出设计的极具声望的认可。铜奖得主是技艺娴熟、创意惊人的作品，印证了其设计师丰富的经验、想象力与机智。预计The Dark Side of the Moon 情书将成为一件备受推崇、令人钦佩且被珍爱的物品，兼具显著的专业性与创新性。这件赢得 A' Design Award 铜奖的设计融入艺术、科学、设计和技术领域的最佳实践，并因注重细节而出类拔萃。The Dark Side of the Moon 情书出色地满足需求，触动渴望，迷住情感，并吸引好奇心。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The 'Dark Side of the Moon' is a love letter, telling a traditional Chinese love story, not only with words, but also by the way the package is opend, by the choice of printing technology, the used materials, the graphic design and illustrations. The storytelling begins as soon as the package is opened: the full moon on the front wanes, the dark side of the moon becomes visible. The story unfolds together with the unfolding of the letter, guiding the reader from chapter to chapter.
Dimensions & Packaging: Folded with package: 12 * 12cm
Unfolded letter : 36 * 36cm
Tags: graphic design, illustration, print, type design, package design
Production Technology: Since the letter is folded paper, the paper needs to have the property to be folded and unfolded multiple times without being torn apart, so we chose a kind of DuPond paper, which can't be ripped apart and which is translucent - two attributes love should have. Since The Love Story is about the sun and the moon, the letter also has a sun and a moon side. The translucency of the paper makes the two sides of the letter flow together when held up against the sun. If you hold the letter down while reading, you cannot see the other side.
Design Challenge: Since we are a package design studio, we have an interest in paper. Commercial projects for clients often don't give the opportunity to use more special papers and printing techniques. When visiting package factories we can discover new papers and think about ways to use it and combine materials with stories through design. The used 'pocket purse' folding method, which originated in Japan, but became popular in 18th century Europe as love letter folding method, needed special paper. It made the layout and choice of paper challenging, but also became the designs key component. Since it's not only a creative design project, but also an actual product we sell it was difficult to find a producer who was fit for this folding method.
Research: As a Chinese/ German design studio, we are interested in finding a way of melting those different cultures in a project. The tradition of writing love letters is not that popular in China, throughout its history. So we came up with the idea of a Chinese love letter, using a folding method which also made its way from East to West. The story of Houyi and Chang'e is over 2000 years old and has many versions, but all have an outdated moral. So we rewrote the story first, before we started with the layout. From the beginning we planned this love letters to be a series, so we choose a package which has a CD feeling, since still many of people collect or collected CDs. Like love letters CDs seem from another century, but we think of them in loving nostalgia and hope to revive them in a new way with our design.
Inspiration: In this uncommissioned project we have combined our love for print design, story telling, illustration, graphic design and materials. The goal was to tell a story without the traditional form of a book. On the letter is space for a personal massage, this story can/should be shared with someone and reconnect those old stories with modern life again. The letter itself is folded like a 'pocket purse' - a Japanese Folding technique popular in Europe in the 18th century for writing love letters.
Project Duration: started August in Hangzhou and finished November in Hangzhou
Operation Flow: Telling stories is as old as humanity. Love stories are especially popular. Giving presents to your loved ones is today more a requirement rather than an act of showing love. So we thought about a way to reintegrate old love stories with the rather old tradition of writing love letters. So this design is a present, where personal messages can be added while at the same time it is a documentation of an old love story using new design.
Image Credits: Qianli Ma, Maria-Luisa Uth