• Interaction | Interface | Web

  • Graphic | Information | Motion

  • Service

  • Experimental

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What is a book

Class:Graduate Studio 1

A motion graphics piece aiming to answer the question"what if there's no books in the world?"


About this project

Answer the question “What is a Book?” in a 60 to 90 seconds digital presentation. My work is a bold guess of the world without any books.


Design Research

Survey on the question "what if there's no books in the world?" and gather results from 314 people.



Project Details

Duration: 4 weeks

Course: Graduate studio 1


Design Process

Since the form of book has been explored extensively in both media studies and design disciplines, I tried to think outside the box by assuming no books have been invented in the world, and answer the question in an interesting way.


Skills involved

  • Video editing in Finalcut pro
  • Visual effects design in After Effect


Honestly, this project demonstrates nothing except my mastery of after effects. I don't have particularly strong emotional attachment to any printing medium. That's why I dropped Yale's famous graphic design graduate program- I don't regret. Specially, here I want to say thank you to my Carnegie Mellon University peers, because their enthusiastic participation, I finished my 314 survey result. This video demonstrates their cool ideas about a new world "without books". Book has been considered as a container of knowledge for the last thousands of years, the emerging of digital medium changed everything. I learned that as a designer, you "always need to hold a critical thinking, observe this world with a fresh eye, and have empathy to your users. "


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Screenshot 1


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Screenshot 2