(Why)
This project begins with illustration and expands through animation, graphic design, book design, logo design and product design, allowing the illustrations to flow into multiple possibilities. The themed derivative works include a calendar, board game, notebooks, and other related products.
(Who)
Bookstores are my favorite spaces—places where time slows down and people reveal their inner rhythms. Through observation and research, I noticed that those who linger tend to share distinct patterns of behavior, leading me to categorize bookstore lingerers into four archetypes based on how they engage with books and space.
①The Knowledge Hunter
Bookstore: The Open Door Bookshop, Roma, Italy
It is a quiet, welcoming space where literature, conversation, and cultural exchange naturally intersect, inviting visitors to linger without purpose and feel at home.
Drawn by curiosity and purpose, they move with focus, scanning spines and pages as if following an invisible trail of questions.
②The Aesthetic Seeker
Bookstore: P stop, Changsha, China
An art shop/ bookstore that brings together illustration, design, and independent publishing, connecting creative practice with everyday life in an approachable way.
They are captivated by the visual and tactile beauty of books, from covers and layouts to paper textures, or the atmosphere of bookstores.
③The Nostalgic Soul
Bookstore: Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, Boston, US
It is a highly photogenic independent bookstore located in a historic 1840s townhouse in Boston, designed to feel like a warm, multi-story private library.
For them, bookstores are portals to memory, carrying the scent of the past and echoes of personal history.
④The Quiet Observer
Bookstore: The Old Bookstore, Flateyri, Iceland
Founded in 1914, this historic bookstore in Flateyri is a fourth-generation, family-run space that preserves Iceland’s literary heritage in the heart of the Westfjords.
They linger silently, watching others and the space unfold, finding comfort in presence rather than possession.
(What) (Product) (Calendar)
This marks the starting point of my Off Work in Bookstores project. In 2024, I first designed a calendar documenting independent bookstores. Based on visits I made with friends, I selected 12 indie bookstores from around the world to represent the 12 months of the year. The illustrations of the bookstores continue the style of my previous Off Work music illustration project, featuring line work, halftone textures, and my signature color palette. For the calendar pages, I applied graphic design techniques to create a cohesive visual treatment that harmonizes with each bookstore’s colors. This calendar is a multidimensional work that combines illustration, graphic design, and product design. In 2025, I developed a new calendar based on the previous format and selected another 12 indie bookstores.
(Spec) Medium: Digital Illustration / Printing: Double-sided, Digital Printing; 1st Printed in Shanghai, 50 copies / Size: 6*9cm / Binding: Photo Album / Paper: 120g art paper / Language: English / Paper Number: 32pps
Storage Book and Film is one of my favorite independent bookstores in Seoul. This short animation is created from a frontal view of the bookstore’s façade. The male figure in the scene is Mike, the owner of the bookstore. As he walks up the slope toward the entrance, the scene transitions through different weather conditions, capturing a fleeting, flowing moment in time.
A Passing Moment at Storage Book & Film
Building on the 2026 Calendar - September bookstore’s visual, I expanded the illustration into a notebook cover design and collaborated with Malaysian stationery brand Mossery.
(Where)(24 Indie Bookstores)
The icons for bookstores 1–12 are designed based on the characteristics of the shops themselves, while the icons for bookstores 13–24 are based on the attributes of their corresponding months.
The bookstores are displayed sequentially on the map by country and city.
(How) (Product) (Board Game)
Bringing it all above, I’ve designed a board game that takes you through these 24 independent bookstores. Gather your friends and embark on an indie bookstore journey with the ultimate chill 'Off Work' attitude.
Step 1. Pick up Your Character
Based on (Who), there are four types of Bookstore Linger characters in the game, each with a unique character skill. Activating a character skill provides a powerful advantage. Each skill may only be activated once during the entire game. Thus, this board game supports 2 to 4 players.
Step 2: Look at the game map
The map starts at “GO,” and the finish is reached by completing one full loop and returning to “GO.” The 24 independent bookstores on the map are selected from the(What) (Product) (Calendar). Their order on the map follows each bookstore’s geographical location, arranged from east to west and from south to north (Where)(24 Indie Bookstores) . In addition to bookstore spaces, there are four special spaces: “Swap” , “Chance”, “Lucky Draw”, and “Pause”.
Swap: When a player lands on the Swap space, they must choose one book card from another player and exchange it with one of their own book cards.
Chance: When a player lands on the Chance space, they gain an extra move and must roll the dice again and move forward.
Lucky Draw: When a player lands on the Lucky Draw space, they must draw one book card from the treasury. The Reading Stars on this card are added to their total score.
Pause: When a player lands on the Pause space, they must skip their next turn and cannot move.
Step 3: How to win the game?
Players take turns rolling the dice, which determines their movement across the map and their chance to enter bookstores. When a player lands on a bookstore space, they should draw one book card from the three available at that bookstore. Each book card is marked with a certain number of Reading Stars.
After completing the entire journey, bonus Reading Stars are awarded based on the order in which players reach the finish: the first player receives 4 Reading Stars, the second receives 2, the third receives 0, and the last player loses 1 Reading Star. The player with the highest total number of Reading Stars wins the game.
Step 4: A Challenge
When a player enters a bookstore, in addition to drawing one book card, they also receive that bookstore’s exclusive Music Card. Each Music Card features a song recommendation unique to that bookstore. After all players have completed one full round of the bookstore journey, they will use the Music Cards they have collected to create their own original storybook.
The title of each song serves as a keyword, and the story must include all keywords from the collected Music Cards. Once the story is completed, it is categorized as a book card with a Reading Star value of 6. These new book cards are then placed into the Lucky Draw, where they may be drawn again in future rounds.
Step 5: Let’s Play the Game!
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