Runxin Zheng

Certified and Concealed is a publication in three volumes. It turns fibreboard boxes – the kind used by Amazon – into publications. These boxes are everywhere, yet we rarely pay attention to what they carry beyond the goods inside. By using screen printing, labelling, and graphic mimicry, the project remakes their surfaces to expose the hidden systems of labour, logistics and extraction that make fast delivery possible.

The three volumes – Fibre & Fiction, Bodies in Transit, and Interfaces at Scale – each address a different layer of this system. Each box serves as a message: printed inside and out, folded and sealed, shipped and handled. Designed to circulate through Amazon’s own marketplace, the boxes move within the infrastructure they critique, transforming circulation into a form of publishing.

The work highlights packaging as more than mere waste. Boxes are designed interfaces: barcodes, icons, and certification labels are not neutral or technical; they are part of a visual language that shapes how goods – and people – move.

This project also challenges the assumption that sustainability is inherently good. In the context of the climate emergency, what we often sustain are systems of extraction, convenience, and growth, rather than ecological or social care. Instead of offering design solutions, the project employs graphic communication design to ask better questions: Why do we trust sustainability labels? What labour is required to make convenience appear effortless? And what role does graphic design play in making these systems feel invisible?

By treating the box as a publishing surface, Certified and Concealed explores how graphic design can reveal the systems it typically conceals. It’s for anyone interested in design, logistics, material systems or how everyday things carry bigger stories.