This project is to use an accordion book to show my life experiences.

Step 1: Brainstorming

After making a list of things I’ve done in 20 years, I decided to break the book into parts. There are 4 points: Starting point – my hometown Changchun (China). End Point: Parsons. and 2 turning points: Yale and Boston College. Between Changchun and Yale, I will include “Ballet” and “Piano,” which I learned in China at a young age. Between Yale and Boston College, I wasn’t sure what to include at first, but I jotted down some key words related to these two places. Between Boston College and Parsons, I intended to talk about “Theatre.”

This book is in chronological order.

Step 2: Starting to Design

Starting point, my hometown Changchun. Changchun is a clean, beautiful city with a national park. So I used green. Also, the entire book are made of geometrical shapes, to indicate my interest in puzzle.

The idea for this book is to use decoding and deciphering to reveal my life experiences. I am really into PUZZLE so I applied maze, cipher and sudoku in this project. Another reason why I use this idea is that I want the book to be INTERACTIVE, so that readers can fully engage in it.

First thing you encounter is a maze. You need to choose one thing you think is true about me. Is my sign Libra? Was I born in the year of Rabbit? Am I a ESFP type of person? I use geometrical shapes in these 3 to achieve stylistic unity. These things are what I was born with, so they are the starting point. When you have one in mind, you should follow the path with according color. For example, you picked Libra, so you follow the blue line to go into the maze. One of these three is true, and one is half true, and one is wrong. Important: because this is an accordion book, you won’t know which one is true until you go to SUDOKU page. On Sudoku page, blue line leads to “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance;” pink line leads to “but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.” These two sentences combine into one, which is my life motto – the Matthew Effect from the Bible. You can tell from the meaning of it that blue line is true, you get hint for later puzzle right away (the hint is not in PDF, it’s in physical book because you need to scratch/remove the tape to see the hint). Pink line is wrong and you have to start over. Yellow line is half true, that means you have a chance to go onto the right path. In the Yellow hint, I gave “the color of  7 in upper right corner.” So if you do the Sudoku correctly, you’ll get the color to work on in later puzzle.

Then you go to turning points in my life, which are Yale Boston College. (Chronological order). There are key words.

Here is another phase of solving puzzles. There are two ciphers I wrote. The hint you got from first phase will help solving this cipher on the left. If you chose yellow line at first, you don’t have hint for the cipher on the left. You only have hint for blue and pink cipher on the right. But you might still solve the one on the left, though it’s harder. The two pages on the right is my class schedule when I was at Boston College. I wrote months and days in German, which means I can speak German.

So the answers of these puzzles are key activities in my life.

After these you go to my next turning point, Parsons. 😉

Step 3: Make it into a physical book

Printed on Plotter;

folded along the lines on template;

using book glue to glue outside cover and inside cover.