After A Bird Fell Down Book

After A Bird Fell Down Book

After a Bird Fell Down Book is an innovative picture book that masterfully combines cut-out and pop-up book techniques to create a profound narrative about the cyclical nature of life and death. Created by Taiwanese graphic designer Shu Wei Chang, this conceptually sophisticated publication measures 105mm x 27mm x 150mm and spans 15 pages, featuring a minimalist white aesthetic that emphasizes the temporal aspects of its storytelling. The book's distinctive design incorporates a debossed rectangular pit on its cover, adorned with a transparent sticker bearing a green feather print, symbolically preserving the story's central motif. The narrative unfolds through an ingenious structural design where each page turn reveals an increasingly deeper hole while simultaneously presenting a gradually emerging sprout, creating a parallel visual metaphor for decay and growth. The book's materiality is thoughtfully considered, utilizing sand-textured paper for the cover to evoke the earthen setting of the narrative, while the copyright page features a blue sky design that establishes the story's initial perspective. The publication's physical form, approximately the size of a bird's body, creates a tactile connection between the reader and the narrative, with its thickness diminishing as pages are turned, physically manifesting the theme of transformation. This work, which earned the Bronze A' Design Award in the Print and Published Media Design category, represents a significant achievement in editorial design, successfully merging structural innovation with metaphorical storytelling. The book's binding technique, developed through multiple iterations and extensive experimentation, employs 0.5mm cardboards with spine taping to achieve the precise alignment necessary for its complex structural elements.

picture book design, editorial innovation, metaphorical storytelling, structural book art, minimalist aesthetics, life cycle narrative

— Adam Dawson