LEKKER - CLOCK SHELF
Individual project
Fall 2018
Materials: wood, paper, nails, paint, clock parts
This project was inspired by the De Stijl design movement. Dutch for "the style", De Stijl was founded in the Netherlands in 1917 as a reaction to the devastation caused by World War I and the need for order in the new world. By reducing art to its simplest form, an abstract expression of utopia and harmony was created. The movement was seen as a universal visual language for the modern era due to its emphasis on minimalism.
De Stijl offers a stark contrast from the popular Art Deco movement by removing all decorative excesses. The key elements of De Stijl are the 3 primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), black and white, and geometric forms, usually lines and rectangles. The geometry and color choices came from the mathematician MHJ Schoenmakers. Works are often inspired by organic forms but then simplified into their basic shapes so they appear blocky and minimal, but still balanced.
Famous De Stijl artists include the painter and theoretician Piet Mondrian, furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld, and artist Theo van Doesburg.
The design categories for this project were utensils (knife, spoon, and fork), headphones, a stereo device, a clock, or a hat. I decided to design a clock, so my next step was to research clocks. For this step I worked in a group with Hannah McAuliffe and Inika Gupta.
Next I created a trend board to see what was popular in the both the world of De Stijl and clocks.
I really wanted to create a modern De Stijl clock, so I focused on interesting uses of geometry and color. Using the clock timeline and trend board, I chose a few concepts to move forward with.
The next step was prototyping. For this I used foamcore, paint, and clock parts to create works-like and looks-like mini models. I also created another concept, Concept C, just to test out if a regular old wall clock would be interesting (spoiler: it wasn't).
After prototyping, I decided to move forward with Concept A. All that was left was to build it and work on its branding. For the name I chose Lekker - a Danish word to go with the Danish design movement.
The final model is a 3 ft x 3 ft wooden clock, shelf, and piece of wall art. It features a silent clock mechanism in the center, and multiple places to rest your small to medium sized items.
