quiet voice


quietvoice.cargo.site

Materials speak their language with various features. It creates a deft communication providing information that our brains translate into thoughts and emotions. Paper is the one kind of body language of printed communications. Before you read the content, touch, and smell communicates, evoke emotions, and even sometimes challenge expectations. This documented effect is called embodied cognition, and it’s something we all experience. Our brains translate the feeling of various senses into distinct emotions and impressions. This revelation that each material contains a message makes material choice increasingly important.


quiet voice

quietvoice.cargo.site

Materials speak their language with various features. It creates a deft communication providing information that our brains translate into thoughts and emotions. Paper is the one kind of body language of printed communications. Before you read the content, touch, and smell communicates, evoke emotions, and even sometimes challenge expectations. This documented effect is called embodied cognition, and it’s something we all experience. Our brains translate the feeling of various senses into distinct emotions and impressions. This revelation that each material contains a message makes material choice increasingly important.


Read the whole process here.





I like paper, and like how the message can deliver indirectly. Because English is not my mother language, I always have difficulty expressing what I am thinking about and what I feel. Paper gives me a comfortable platform that allows me to deliver my message to others. I think the message on the paper not only the text, pictures, or images on it but also the feeling when you touch and hold the paper by hand. I do believe this feeling you get is as important as the content.


Due to those experiences, I began to think about what is the possibility of paper. Besides color, texture, and thickness, what could be another feature of paper?


I love to observe the things around me, especially people. I understand people’s personalities by reading their actions, ways of speaking, and movement. I can quickly feel people’s emotions by how they are acting. In design, I choose paper for each project I made is similar to how I observe people by all kinds of features to detainment which paper can present the content I have. The texture, the thickness, and the color of paper create another layer of communication beyond the content I print on. By touching and observing, I created my unique perspective of design. Therefore, if the paper has its personality, just like the people around you, what will it look like?

Based on the research, I use a website called 16 personalities as my reference, which roots in two different philosophies. The personality types are based on five independent spectrums. All letters in the type code (e.g., INFJ-A) refer to one of the two sides of the corresponding spectrum.

Four personality aspects, when combined, define the personality type: Mind, Energy, Nature, and Tactics. Each of these aspects should be seen as a two-sided continuum. The percentages you would have seen after completing the test show which categories you fall under, and how strong your preferences are.

Based on this resource, I replaced four main scales representing the different senses of feeling: Smell, Touch(Texture/weight), and See. Each of these aspects should still be seen as a two-sided continuum but separated by two to four various percentages. Each percentage uses different ingredients to display different traits of personality.


The final output is a 224 pages book with 16 different kinds of paper. Each paper has a unique character using various smells, colors, textures, and thicknesses. The content is the paper itself. I choose to put all of the contents in the page header to give the audience a space to feel the paper without distraction.

Due to the coronavirus, our thesis show went online. My project requires the audience to do a lot of closes looking and touching to get the full experience. I realized it would be a challenge actually to show people about my point of view. Therefore, I scanned all of the paper I made and made a website to narrow down the original personality test. This website gives the audience a non-tangible way to explore my papers.