Yanwen Ding

This exegesis discusses how I designed a storybook that would enable me to share the traumatic experiences caused by the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. In the story, I wanted to relieve the stress I experienced through the use of humorous exchanges between the characters (Meng and Fangfang), which encouraged them to live with a positive attitude. In the study, I investigate the narrative structure of picture books and collages, and conducted experiments with the interplay between images and text; these are discussed in this exegesis using an in-depth analysis to support my claims, as well as imaginatively reconstructing designers’ autobiographical narratives. The picture book project, My Wuhan Experience, which is based on practice, has been created on the basis of auto-ethnographic and iterative design methodologies.