Designer Yaheng Li’s project Quarantine Tales explores how human emotions repeat across history. Presented as a newspaper-style graphic narrative, the work follows two fictional storytellers living through two different pandemics: Elissa during the 14th century Black Death and Panfilo during the Covid pandemic.
Their voices run in parallel across the publication, documenting ordinary daily moments, fear, isolation and small acts of resilience. Although centuries apart, their experiences begin to mirror each other, revealing how people cope with crisis in remarkably similar ways.
The project draws inspiration from both the Fluxus movement and The Decameron, the 14th century collection of stories written during the Black Death. Fluxus encouraged artists to focus on everyday life and simple actions, and this spirit guided Li’s approach to documenting the quiet details of pandemic life.
“Quarantine Tales began as a way to document ordinary days in the spirit of Fluxus,” Li explains. “But it quickly became a bridge between two pandemics.”
Visually, the project is deliberately restrained. A calm beige colour palette runs throughout the publication, paired with a structured grid system that gives the narrative a sense of stability and rhythm. The design reflects the emotional intention behind the work.
“I chose a quiet beige palette and a strict grid because I wanted the project to feel like a calm room,” Li says. “When everything felt unstable, design became a way to create structure, slow down attention and leave space for hope.”
Created entirely by Li, Quarantine Tales combines writing, design and art direction into a single narrative system. The format echoes a broadsheet newspaper, reinforcing the idea of storytelling as a way to organise and process events while they are unfolding.
The result is a quiet but powerful reflection on how storytelling has long helped people navigate uncertainty. By placing two timelines side by side, Quarantine Tales reminds us that while the world changes, the human experience of crisis, connection and hope remains strikingly familiar.
Yaheng Li is a visual and interaction designer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, originally from Shanghai. His work moves between graphic design, digital products and narrative systems, often exploring how design shapes perception, memory and culture.
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