After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書 by Shu Wei Chang

After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書 by Shu Wei Chang is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award 銅獎 in 印刷設計 Competition Category.

銅印刷· 2022

After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書

by Shu Wei Chang

Client: Shu-Wei Chang

A' Design Award 銅獎 Winner in 印刷 Category

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Verified Award Winner

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Colors

The Design

About After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書

《雀仔跌咗落嚟之後》係一本結合咗洞洞書同立體書結構嘅圖畫書。呢本書尺寸為105乘150毫米,厚度大約27毫米,同一隻小雀仔嘅大小相近。隨住讀者逐頁翻閱,書入面嘅洞會逐漸變大,幼苗亦會愈長愈高,而本書本身就會變得愈嚟愈薄。封面係白色嘅,帶有沙粒質感嘅紋理,並喺凹陷嘅位置貼有一張印有綠色羽毛圖案嘅透明貼紙。呢個設計表達出時間嘅流逝,既帶嚟失去,亦帶嚟新嘅成長。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 銅獎

After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書是 A' Design Award 銅獎得主，這是授予以創造力、獨創性和敏銳見長的傑出設計的極具聲望的認可。銅獎得主是技藝嫻熟、創意驚人的作品，印證了其設計師豐富的經驗、想像力與機智。預計After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的物品，兼具顯著的專業性與創新性。這件贏得 A' Design Award 銅獎的設計融入藝術、科學、設計和技術領域的最佳實踐，並因注重細節而出類拔萃。After a Bird Fell Down 圖畫書出色地滿足需求，觸動渴望，迷住情感，並吸引好奇心。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

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

Unique Properties: By combining the structure of hole books and pop-up books, this picture book adopts "volume of book pages" into its narrative. While reading, readers would find out the hole bigger and the sprout taller page by page. With A6 size and thickness which is almost three centimeters, the book size is as big as the dead body of a bird. While readers turn each page and make the book thinner, they can feel that the body of a bird gradually disappears at the same time.
Dimensions & Packaging: 105mm x 27mm x 150mm, 15pages, back taping, debossing and a transparent sticker on cover
Tags: graphic design, editorial, book design, picture book, hole book, pop-up book, artist's book
Production Technology: In terms of color, the whole book is purely white as possible. Wish such kind of emptiness could make readers relate to "time," something we cannot see but can feel. Besides, there is no words shown on book cover. Instead there is a debossed rectangular pit where a transparent sticker printed with a green feather is at. It looks like a photo frame sealing a feather, which symbolizes that this book seals the death of the bird in this story.

Second, paper with sand-like texture is chosen for the cover. Hope readers can feel like touching the ground; that is, where this story happens.

Third, the copyright page is decorated with blue sky and is the very beginning of this story as well. So, when readers open this book, they would not only read the sentence, "A bird fell down onto the ground," they can dive into this story from the bird's-eye view from the sky.
Design Challenge: The most difficult part is how to actualize the binding. Before the final version, the design was revised three or four times. At the beginning, this book was envisioned to be the board book for babies. With the binding method which thick cardboard was pasted in pairs, it was planned that there would be a hole within this book. Yet, it would be almost impossible to make holes on each page aligned. In addition, if
chosen paper is thicker than 1 mm, it couldn't be printed or even bound. After long discussions and several revisions, 0.5mm cardboards with spine taping is chosen. Such binding needs more glue than ordinary books to bind pages firmly. It jams pages as well. So, after the printer made several experiments to find out the most suitable way for flipping through, it became the book you see now.
Inspiration: It's a story about seeds germinating after a bird died and fell down onto the ground, and the end but also the beginning of life. Via increase and decrease of its volume, this book want to bring out the plot and core concept: "there are two sides to life.", and make readers realize that time passing are not simply about reduction and death. Increase and birth are also what time passing brings.