Wuhan Diary: A Visual Chronicle of Pandemic Emotions

Yu Chen's Award-Winning Design Captures Human-Nature Relationship Amidst COVID-19

Yu Chen's design, titled 'Wuhan Diary', is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. The diary is not just a collection of images, but a narrative of the pandemic's impact on society and individual emotions. The unique properties of this design lie in its ability to translate complex emotions and social environments into visual language. Using programming, Chen presented a series of case studies on terrain-based visual languages, collecting public opinions during the pandemic period. The color and density of rolling mountains in his designs represent the social environment and his personal emotions during the pandemic.

The realization of the Wuhan Diary involved a blend of various technologies including posters, augmented reality (AR), motion graphics, and interaction projection. The diary, presented as a poster measuring 420mm×594mm, incorporates elements of motion graphics and programming to create a dynamic visual experience. The design tags associated with this project include Visual Diary, Motion Graphic, Mood, Program, and Motion.

The project, which began in January 2020 in Wuhan and concluded in April 2020, was a collaborative effort between Yu Chen and Titouan Millet. The design was inspired by the city of Wuhan's battle against the epidemic, with Chen recording the events and mood changes during this period. His aim was to allow more people to understand the thoughts of those living in Wuhan during the epidemic.

Chen faced several challenges in realizing this design. The goal was to combine land elements with social data from the epidemic period to create dynamic graphics that would resonate with people's experiences. A basic three-dimensional earth shape was built, referencing the ubiquitous earth elements in Xu Bing's works, public opinions, and confirmed case data of the epidemic. The data was parameterized, combined with colors, and imported into UNITY to create a visual earth shape.

The Wuhan Diary has been recognized for its creativity and innovation, winning the Silver A' Graphics, Illustration and Visual Communication Design Award in 2021. This prestigious award is given to designs that demonstrate outstanding expertise and innovation, and introduce positive feelings, amazement, and wonder. The intellectual property rights for this design are held by Yu Chen.