Understanding
Media:
The extensions
of Man
Work
Discover / Define
In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan explains that technology and media extend our senses and abilities, changing how we think and communicate. He says “the medium is the message,” meaning the form of media matters more than the content. New inventions reshape how people live, and he predicted a “global village” where media connects everyone.
Identity / Deliver
The book explores how media and technology act as extensions of human senses and abilities, shaping how people think, communicate, and experience the world. The quote “the medium is the message,” means the form of a medium influences society more than its content. Inspired by this concept, I explored how different mediums convey language and communication. By incorporating street signs and languages other than English, I designed a street art inspired book that visually shouts at the reader. The use of red emphasizes power and importance compared just as a stop sign or traffic light silently commands attention, these visual cues convey messages that are quiet yet impossible to ignore.
Design Process
Typography
Typography
Typography
Black Pack VF:
Black Pack VF works well for the street style book because it is bold, heavy, and visually impactful, matching the energy of urban culture. Its variable font flexibility allows dynamic layouts, and its strong forms balance well with dense Chinese characters. Overall, it creates a modern, edgy street aesthetic while staying readable.
Neue Haas Grotesk:
QingHuaXingKai(青花行楷):
Neue Haas Grotesk paired with QingHuaXingKai creates a strong contrast between modern clarity and expressive tradition. Neue Haas Grotesk is clean, neutral, and highly readable, making it ideal for structure and body text.
QingHuaXingKai, with its calligraphic and fluid strokes, adds cultural depth and personality. It combines the structure of regular script with the fluidity of brush writing, giving it an elegant, handwritten feel. The strokes are expressive but still readable, which makes it suitable for titles, cultural themes, and decorative text.
Together, they balance precision and emotion, one providing order, the other expression making the design feel both contemporary and rooted in Chinese visual culture.
Color Palette
Color Palette
Color Palette
Red is a powerful color that quickly grabs attention and shows importance, similar to how media shapes how we understand messages in Understanding Media. Like a stop sign, it communicates clearly without words, showing that how something looks can be just as important as what it says.
Printed Booklet
Feature three
Printed Booklet
A printed booklet that unfolds like a journey through the city. As the reader flips each page, they move through shifting streets, guided by signs, lights, and visual pauses. Every moment becomes a stop along the way, where each element carries its own message, inviting reflection and discovery.
Final Design
Feature four
Final Design
“The medium is the message” means the way something is shared shapes its meaning more than the content itself. It shows that the form of communication changes how people feel and understand the message.
Medium Is The Message
The form of a medium embeds itself in the message, shaping how it is perceived, rather than the content itself. The true message is the change in scale, pace, or pattern of human life that a new technology introduces
Experience The World
Media and technology act as extensions of human senses and abilities, shaping how people think, communicate, and experience the world. Think of STOP signs, street sign they all communicate and shape experience towards people.
Extensions of Man
Different mediums convey language and communication. Media is any technology that extends human capabilities, such as the telephone extending our voice or the wheel extending our feet.
Focus on Structure
We focus on the content (the message), while the medium secretly changes how we interact. An example on the use of red emphasizes power and importance clike STOP signs and traffic lights silently commands attention, these visual cues convey messages that are quiet yet impossible to ignore.
