HANDBUCH | Book & Editorial Design

Desiging a Visual Exploration of the Stories We Carry in Our Hands

INSTITUTION
New Design University

EXPERTISE
Editorial Design
Illustration
Storytelling
Visual Research
Interviewing
Bookmaking

YEAR
2016

ROLE
UX Designer,
UX Researcher

| Short Case Study

Handbook is an illustrated book that explores the aesthetics and semantics of hands, revealing what they express about identity, culture, and connection. Through visual studies and short narratives, the book celebrates hands not only as tools of function, but as storytellers. The work merges art, research, and personal dialogue into a tactile reflection on what our hands hold, create, and reveal.

PROCESS & MY ROLE

This was my first self-initiated design project and a pivotal step in my development as an illustrator and storyteller. I approached it as both an artistic and ethnographic study collecting stories, observing gesture, and translating emotion into visual form.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way hands carry stories — from age, labor, and health to personality and emotion. I wanted to explore hands as visual language and social archive, and to use illustration as a way of giving form to those observations.

TOPIC FRAMING

VISUAL NARRITIVE EXPLORATION

I interviewed strangers and friends, collecting stories behind their hands — their memories, professions, losses, and habits. These conversations shaped the structure and tone of the book. Alongside this, I studied gestures, symbolism, and cultural representations of hands.

INTERVIEWS

OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH

VISUAL ANALYSIS

Each story was translated into a full-spread composition using illustration and minimal text. The visual language was intentionally delicate, reflecting both the physical fragility and emotional strength of human hands. The editorial structure was designed to invite quiet, reflective reading. The book was printed and hand-bound, becoming a physical object that captured both the content and the process behind it.

EDITORIAL DESIGN

ILLUSTRATION

LAYOUT

PRINTING

BOOKBINDING

RESULTS

Handbook remains one of my most personal and formative projects. It taught me how to engage deeply with a subject, how to uncover meaning in overlooked details, and how to translate intangible insights into something tangible and visual. It also marked the first time I shared my work with a broader audience, when the book was exhibited at Vienna Design Week.

Looking back, this project was a starting point for how I approach design today, through research, conversation, and a visual language shaped by curiosity and care.