Canned Time

When I went to visit the school we also talked about what the largest amount of time you could buy might be - we discussed what you would do with a whole day of time. It felt like a whole day of time needed to be a big container so I thought of using a keg for this. I started adapting the branding to work across this differently shaped container. I thought that the big container also had potential to play even more with clock mechanisms, so I got to work adding a working clock pointer. The part that contains the mechanism and the pointer itself have been laser cut from plywood and painted to match the keg and the rest of the branding.

I also had help from an another little inventor for this one!

Now the cans are ticking; it is time to apply the labels. Thanks to the help from the pupils, we’ve created four different types of time, each with their own colour and unique set of ingredients. Now I just need to stick them to about 40 cans!

Once I’d got the branding sorted I got to work on what would be contained in the can. I thought it would be a fun idea to make the cans tick so that people could hear them and it would also emphasise the concept. For this I used clock mechanisms that I needed to adapt to fit into the can and for the pointers to tap the inside of the can to make a sound. I needed to come up with a slightly different method for the smaller cans so that the mechanism could fit in to them.

Visiting the school where Richard works was such a fun experience. The pupils got really involved and came up with some wonderful extra ideas through our conversations together as a class. We talked about what different times there might be, what ingredients the time would have, what the effects of stopping time for the drinker would be, and when it might be right or wrong to use a can of time. 

Each student also signed paper, as I had an idea of having an individual on each can as the ‘mixer’ of this particular batch. The pupils also selected one of the design route to go with, they liked it because they thought it felt like a luxury product and also was the closest to the original drawing Richard had sketched.

I’m really excited to get started on packing time in cans. I loved the idea - it’s such a playful concept to work with. 
Like all my projects, I’m starting by playing with three different possible design routes to show Richard the pupils at his school to see which direction would be best to go in. 
Each route gives the time a different feel, from a more playful and retro look to a product that looks a little more premium.