The Weight of 3am | Design Musem of Chicago
design objectives
the exhibit:
The exhibition “The Correct Time” aimed to showcase how time unites all people of all backgrounds via the design of clocks through both tangible and abstract visuals.
the design:
The Weight of 3am was created for “Designers Look Forward”, a collaborative piece in the exhibit where 24 artists were assigned an hour of the day and asked to create a clock face representing that time. Each piece should reflect the artist’s interpretation or relationship to the given hour. I worked with the eponymous hour of 3am.
“The Weight of 3am” by Nicolas Emerson
creating the design
the inspiration:
Awareness of the length of a day comes heavy when the hour of 3am is seen on the clock. Whether one has been awake late into the night or one has awakened before a reasonable hour, 3am exacerbates the length of the day and makes those 24 hours weigh heavy on the mind.
the design:
For The Weight of 3am, the story informs what the clock face represents.
I quickly realized it was incredibly important to showcase the whole 24 hours on one face. Coincidentally, that half of that face is mine, in profile.
The profile silhouette encompasses half the hours of the day in the dark, bringing the feeling of night and day to the viewer.
The face stares at an orb over the number 3, representing awareness of the hour.
Within the silhouette is a distribution of the number 24 in varying sizes and type sets - specifically worn and textured type - to elicit a feeling of movement, pressure, and scatter. This number is also the largest on the clock face, further reinforcing that, while the face sees the hour as “3”, what is on the mind is the weight of the entire 24 hours.
The left side of the clock face modeled in Procreate before moving on to
Adobe Creative Suite for the typography
about the client
The Design Museum of Chicago champions the role of design in improving the human condition, offering a diverse array of exhibitions across disciplines such as graphic design, architecture, and systems thinking. Founded in 2012, it is a collaborative space inspired by the community and for the community, emphasizing education, inspiration, and innovation.
The Correct Time, an ehibition at the Design Museum of Chicago
Deisgners Look Forward, the installed piece
The museum located at E Randolph St in downtown Chicago