Tone and texture

Sun Xiaoxi's book designs usually feature simple elements but are able to convey emotions. His signature works include Che Pi, which won him the German Red Dot Design Award this year, Murmurs of Earth and director Wang Xiaoshuai's book Bobo De Guxiang (Flimsy Hometown). [Photo provided to China Daily]

Titled Che Pi, the palm-sized book is wrapped in paper printed with the musician's prologue, and readers need to tear it away to open the book. That pun on the book's name, which in Chinese means "peeling off the cover", refers to the interviews (chat).

"That also fits Zuoxiao Zuzhou, as he once told his fans, 'Don't believe a word from me'," Sun says. "So you can just throw the prologue away after reading it."

The book contains his interviews published in newspapers, magazines and websites in the past decade. Each left page in the book has a question on it, with the answer on the right. Sun adjusted the fonts in a way that the length of an answer didn't matter－it never goes beyond a page.

Short replies are in bold fonts and the longer ones in stylish fonts.

"One day or two, sometimes a year," Zuoxiao Zuzhou had said in answer to a question about how often he changed his T-shirts.

Sun says the book's layout conveys emotions. "Good designs use simple elements."

When Zuoxiao Zuzhou asked Sun whether he needed photos for the book cover, Sun said, "No."

"I wanted the text to stand out to emphasize the power of words," says Sun.

No colors or photos－just words running through pages.