We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Albert Salamon about their original and creative watchface apps collection design work. Albert Salamon is an award-winning communication designer, that makes our world a better place with their original watchface apps collection works.
Albert Salamon ("AS") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work TTMM (after time) watchface apps collection. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
AS : My dream has been to design my own watch. Thanks to the Pebble Kickstarter program my dreams have come true.
AS : My idea was to design a NEW TIME, suitable for the 21st digital century. New technology has given us a new space, which is priceless but, at the same, time it obliges us to get it right. We cannot simulate mechanical clocks: it has to be done in new ways.
AS : I plan to port some of TTMM watchfaces for other smartwatch platforms like Android (moto 360) and iOS (iWatch from Apple).
AS : It took about a year to design 40 watchfaces, as well as coding and testing them. Then we developed the Android and iOS apps for all 40 models.
AS : This this is the natural outgrowth of my previous TIME projects, Dominus and Genuse. I think that TTMM project was undertaken because of a lack of any original design on Pebble and because of my own, personal question about what TIME is.
AS : I designed it for myself in the hope that other people would find it useful and that they might like it. I did not have any business propositions, but I would be glad to work with Apple.
AS : Pebble device limitation: black-white screen with only 144x168 pixels and 20Kb memory. It was a considerable challenge to design readable, original, beautiful, stylish and clever watchfaces.
AS : Nope. It was a journey in time to my imagination.
AS : Everyone who is tired of traditional watches simulation and is looking for something new.
AS : Most watchfaces look like real clocks from the past (analogue clock, dixie, LCD matrix, flip) and are primarily designed for a circular or square frame. Only a few watchfaces have tried to adjust their design to fit Pebble' framework
AS : TTMM is a new name (sound) for TIME. It comes from HH:MM code. TTMM is the core of watchface names: TTMMINUS, 4TTMM, 9TTMM, DOTTMM, BETTMM, DIGITTMM, TTMMLINE, TTMMIS, ATTMM, TTMMCHAR, BITTMM, ETTMM, TOOTTMM, SETTMM and more. TTMM AFTER TIME.
AS : Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Pebble api, XCODE.
AS : Purity and simplicity. TTMM discovers new formulas to display time. In 9TTMM minutes are divided in six groups of nine dots. Each dot represents a single minute. Every ten minutes the group transforms itself into one square. In 4TTMM each hour is displayed by four square quarters. A slowly flashing quarter square represents a five minute period. After ten minutes the square blinks rapidly. Fifteen minute periods are signaled by a lit-up square.
AS : Michal Zylinski programmed apps for Pebble and TTMM app for Android. Karol Kozimor programmed TTMM app for iOS.
AS : Technology made this project possible. The Pebble watch give us a new space for presenting time and other useful information. This watch has changed our style of living and ways of using information.
AS : The project is based on my own Pebble Store research; I concluded that there are more than 5000 watch apps, and thanks to free watchface generators, most of them are picture with digits. Only a few models are nice and well designed.
AS : Screen, memory and font limitations. That is why I designed my own fonts with graphics or letters.
AS : I regard the TTMM collection to be well designed and original, and that is why I decided to submit it to a professional jury.
AS : I have been through whole process - from idea, through to concept drawing, programming production, tests and improvements, App Store submission, choosing the name and identification and, last but not least ,- constructing the webpage, writing promotion texts for portals and magazines. That's how I discovered that design is only 10% of the product, and that you must really believe in it and be patient. It was an important lesson.
AS : TTMM is a huge sucess. Untill now 30,000 people have downloaded TTMM app and if we multiply it by 40 models we have over one million watchfaces on wrists. This is something big for me.
