rethinking the calendar
I love wall calendars, even if I stop flipping the months as of march. Recently, Ilya was rethinking the way that a calendar works on an events page, which led me to a big search for innovations in the calendar model. I found a bunch of interesting design ideas on organization of information, included below, but not too many lightbulb ideas on form.
However, thanks to Creative Review, I now see something that (like the clocks) makes me smile.
Instead of the typical punch or peg, this calendar is strung. The string that hangs it is built into the very design of the pages; hence, an illustration of a pencil, an iced cream, a witch’s cap. Thus, the montly art carries itself off of the page and into the realm of “visual illusion” like a bright little idea. Which should make the flipping-forgetful curious about what is in store for next month (and hence, moving foward in the year).
I found some inspiring ideas for rethinking the calendar model from this contest, which asked participants to redesign the calendar so that it could easily (and legibly) live at business card size. In particular, my favorite involved some bright colors:
The next two stick to a standard layout of 1, 2, 3 type of days, but with some nice function and flipping and bending playfulness:
I still think there is potential for a calendar on a vovelle (could it be a perpetual calendar??), but I haven’t found one that tickles my fancy as of yet.