In 2019, I started working with the Stockholm-based design studio Humans since 1982. Humans had already hired an Industrial Designer, but were in need of someone who could bridge the digital and physical realms. While I contributed across many projects that can be found online at humanssince1982.com, I decided to present a particular project here: The ClockClock Project.

First introduced as an original artwork in 2009, the ClockClock concept entered as ClockClock 24 into a limited series production run in 2015. Originally, only a black and white version were available. The early sales strategy heavily relied on external partners and retailers to sell individual ClockClock artworks; with acquiring the MoMA Design Store as a prime retailer, this strategy proved successful.

While ideas for other editions had been flowing around for a while, it was only during the 2019 10-years anniversary that a full design team finally was in place and could make such a new idea a reality. So right after I joined the company, we set out to create a new, more competitively priced than ever ClockClock. The result of this work turned out to be the:

A departure from earlier works in both the ClockClock and A million Times series, ClockClock 9 breaks new ground for Humans since 1982, yet remains eerily familiar. Arranged on a tableau-like circular black surface, the clock hands are no longer confined in a rectangular array, enabling new layers of expressivity, putting them as clear actors in the foreground.

We tried and discarded many iterations of hand-placements, orientations, sizes and distances, before finally settling on the resulting form. While the hand-movements always have been an existential part of the artwork, in this iteration we took it one step further.

In my capacity as both Designer and Technologist on the project, one of my first works was to add new fine-tuning options for controlling acceleration and deceleration patterns to the existing in-house software in order to accommodate for new, more nuanced movements. I also improved our virtual simulation capabilities to enable faster and more nuanced iteration on choreography designs.

Based on this groundwork, a full set of new, format specific movement patters and choreographies were designed and meticulously fine-tuned, to live up to the artwork's full potential.

But not only the clock hand movements received a major update. From the beginning we were determined, to also reimagine the interaction with the artwork itself. The previous solution has relied on several buttons that – albeit working – were not very intuitive. In several research rounds, we tried different knobs, layouts and displays. But finally, we made a bold decision: The ClockClock 9 was going to be the first fully App-controlled artwork by the studio. For me, this meant putting my focus fully on the concept that would become:

ClockClock 9 introduced a completely new way of interaction to the A million Times, respective ClockClock, series. For the first time it is now possible to remotely control the artwork wirelessly with an app directly from a connected phone. Using the app as a control centre, several new core functions could be implemented, such as a daily scheduler, custom animation settings and remote firmware upgrades, dramatically increasing the customisation options the artwork owner has.

When we started the process, nothing was set in stone. This meant great freedom, but also a lot of ground work that had to be covered. In the beginning, I needed to divide my time between two main tasks: researching options for a technical implementation and getting a feel for the overall app functionality.

On the technical side, after investigating both native and React native options, I opted for adoption of the Flutter framework. It had some key benefits, like cross-platform out of the box and especially hot stateful reloading. This helped us immensely with iterating design and interaction ideas, as we constantly tested new things while major parts of the technical foundation were already being implemented.

We decided on an open JSON API over WiFi for communications with the clock, so that tinkering customers get the opportunity to write their own software or smart home implementations. On the app side communications are supported by platform specific native plugins, giving the app access to the native networking functionality of the devices, including mDNS service discovery and encryption.

The design and UX of the app follow two main principles: Elegant and minimal, to complement the iconic design language of the ClockClock, and modular, to stay extensible for future updates. As this is the first artwork implementing the possibility for remote firmware upgrades, it was quite crucial that we could add improved functionality to both the app and artworks later on. But also, the edition characteristic of the pieces demanded that choice: As new limited editions and artworks get released, they will also have to be integrated into the app.

In the end, we delivered a fully featured app on both iOS and Android just in time for the actual product release. But there was more: alongside the development of a new entry to the ClockClock series, we also worked on a strategic relaunch of the brand. The new ClockClock 9 was only to be sold directly by Humans since 1982, establishing our in-house web shop as a prime new sales channel. This of course required a complete redesign of the ClockClock web experience:

ClockClock 9 was introduced as a limited-edition pre-sale artwork. The completely overhauled website created space for an image and video led shopping experience, showcasing the beauty of both ClockClock products. In close collaboration with our sales team, I designed and created a unique ClockClock experience on top of the existing Shopify sales platform. Why not pay it a visit: clockclock.com?