EDITORIAL
Student project at Pratt Institute
Project time
2023
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Co-designer
Yumi Tsang
Confined and bored, college students used the most accessible materials—shipping boxes—to create handcrafted pets, representatively, dogs. These dogs lived in dormitories and dormitory corridors; college students “walked” cardboard dogs on campus, put masks on them, took them to COVID tests, and even hosted dog pageants. Cardboard dogs have become a medium for college students to destress and establish connections with their peers during the campus lockdown. Later, the materials for making dogs expanded to papers of all sorts and, thus, dubbed paper puppies.
The Handbook of Paper Puppy catalogues 102 cardboard dogs made by college students in China during the quarantine in 2022. In best recognizing the use of paper, the most accessible product during the quarantine, the book is handbound with a paper accordion. The workshop seeks to connect people and build communities by inviting campus students to share their memories of having or a puppy. Each participant is prompted to write down their story on a customized paper puppy to exchange with one paper puppy written by others.
Collaboratively, we developed the concept, created the logo, designed and hand-bounded the book together. I independently designed the puppy illustrations and stickers.