Press Release
Love Letters Calendar by Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou Receives the A' Design Award in Social Design
Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou recognized for social design by the international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 16, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has announced that Love Letters Calendar by Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou, designed for Yezi Designs, has been granted the A' Design Award in the Social Design category. The recognition forms part of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the A' Design Award
The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.
More About Love Letters Calendar
Love Letters is a calendar designed to connect daily life with biodiversity awareness. Each of the twelve cards carries a letter from an endangered species, inviting reflection, personal pledges and the marking of important dates. Every card folds into a self standing structure without binding, and can later be placed in its paper envelope for mailing or archiving. The set is offset printed on FSC certified uncoated paper and housed in a drawer style paper box that can be reused as a keepsake or teaching object.
About Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou
Zilan Zhou, a grad student from Savannah College of Art and Design in the U.S., is currently pursuing an MFA degree in industrial design. Zilan Zhou always passionate about design, and she believes that design is a process of finding opportunities and creating value for society.
Award Record
This recognition makes Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou a winner of 2 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2020 - 2021 to 2025 - 2026 of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Social Design Award
The A' Social Design Award is an international design competition recognizing excellence in social design by social impact designers and think-tanks worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to social designers, social brands, social manufacturers and social design professionals from all countries. Entries typically include community projects, social campaigns, public installations, educational programs, sustainable initiatives and healthcare solutions. Awarded social designs are published at https://dezigners.org/design-category/social
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://dezigners.org/180625
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/180625
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!180625
- Laureate Profile: https://dezigners.org/d/282572
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://yefandesign.com/collaborative-design-animal-stamp/
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Love Letters Calendar
- Function
- Calendar
- Category
- Social Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Social Impact
- Colors
- Tomato, Burly Wood, Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray and Black
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Yezi Designs
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Yefan Liu and Zilan Zhou
- Country
- United States of America
- Recognition
- A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #180625
Credits
- Team
- Yefan Liu, Zilan Zhou, Jiayi Chen and Kangwen Shi
- Image Credits
- #Main Image: Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025. #; Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025. #; Photographer Yefan Liu, A Calendar of Love Letters, 2025.
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- This project reimagines the calendar as a tool for emotional storytelling and environmental action. Each month features a letter from an endangered species, inviting reflection, personal pledges, and meaningful dates. The foldable card becomes both calendar and time capsule, using ritual, empathy, and biodegradable materials to turn awareness into active care, a purpose led experience connecting biodiversity loss to daily life.
- Inspiration
- This project makes biodiversity loss personal and actionable by breaking it into monthly rituals, reflection, pledges, date marking, and small acts of care. Drawer style box and red envelopes create a sense of reveal, while foldable calendar cards combine animal storytelling with practical use. Guided prompts turn awareness into everyday action, embedding ecological urgency into time based rituals.
- Research
- Type of research: iterative design and user centered study. Objectives: to create an engaging, emotionally meaningful calendar. Methodology: multiple prototyping rounds and user testing. Tools: physical prototypes and feedback sessions. Participants: 15 users evaluated interaction and usability. Results: optimized foldable structure, size, and display clarity. Insights: users valued emotional engagement and eco consciousness. Impact: informs sustainable, interactive product design for daily life.
- Challenge
- The main challenge was integrating a daily use object with abstract concepts to encourage genuine user engagement. This required designing a full interaction flow, from using the calendar, writing messages, to mailing actions, and adding playful, foldable features to the calendar cards. Constraints included production feasibility, material limits, and balancing usability with emotional and eco conscious objectives.
- Realization and Technology
- The calendar is produced using FSC certified uncoated paper with high opacity to enhance durability and color accuracy. Offset printing is applied for production, combined with spot color control to ensure consistent tones across animal illustrations in different batches. Multiple rounds of prototyping and user testing were conducted to optimize the calendar’s size, thickness, and interaction details for daily use.
- Operation and Interaction
- Most calendars function as tools, this one is designed as a relationship. The project bridges personal ritual and planetary care through a system that encourages reflection, action, and emotional continuity. Love Letters transforms a calendar into a twelve month exchange between users and endangered animals, packaging empathy and awareness through monthly interaction. The drawer style outer box symbolizes preservation and is designed for second life use as a keepsake or educational object.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in March 2025 in Georgia and Michigan, USA, and completed prototype testing and design refinements by September 2025. Since then, it has been in ongoing serial production, ensuring quality, consistency, and readiness for distribution.
- Specifications
- The finished product measures 110 mm × 230 mm × 40 mm. The calendar set includes 12 illustrated calendar cards, 12 paper envelopes, and a calendar storage box. The cards are designed to be folded into a self standing three dimensional structure without additional binding. After use, each card can be placed into its corresponding envelope for mailing or archiving. The complete set is housed in a paper based calendar box suitable for storage and distribution.
- Keywords
- Emotional calendar, Eco conscious design, Endangered animals, Interactive daily ritual, Foldable cards, User engagement, Mailable cards, Educational gift, Modular structure
