World Clock
I chose this wild design because I fell in love with this clock the moment I saw it at the store. It is very simple yet elegant with a rustic feel about it. I just noticed that the background of the continents is a mess of postcards with stamps. This gives it a very homey feeling, and I just absolutely love it. It is as if a loved one has traveled the world and sent post cards back from the places they have visited. Then they made a collage of all the postcards and put an overlay of the world onto it. I also really like how they used the roman numerals. They’re not perfect and symmetrical like most clocks are. They’re a little off-kilter and slightly faded like they have aged overtime. The continent overlay also overshadows the roman numerals, putting more focus on the world than on the numbers.
The only thing I really hate about this clock is that it doesn’t have a second hand which is more of a technicality than a design feature. It only has a minute and an hour hand. However, the minute and hour hands on the clock are very intricate, and they kind of remind me of a weather-vane on top of a barn.
I also really adore the deep blue they used in outlining the clock hands and in the frame of the clock. The frame of the clock looks like distressed barn-wood that was painted blue years ago even though it is made of plastic. Everything about this clock just screams authentic. You would never know how cheap it actually was.
I actually have to disagree about the perceived authentic feel of this clock. My reading of this design is that it immediately feels inauthentic based upon its use of imagery to attempt to evoke a certain aesthetic without actually using or properly referencing the techniques that define that aesthetic. Because of the choices of material in particular, you can tell that this is a mass-produced item putting on a facade of charming hand-crafted imperfection. Take, for example, the misaligned roman numerals. This would appear to take on an authentic feeling aesthetic if it weren’t obvious to the viewer that every iteration of this clock produced has identically misaligned roman numerals. When it is simply attempting to emulate the hand-made rustic look, but it is clear that it is in fact mass produced, it comes across as dishonest and inauthentic to me. In addition, the use of various visual elements, including the numerals, world map, and letter-esque background do not seem to combine into any cohesive of purposeful design. It reads as a haphazard placement of feel-good imagery without reason or message. Essentially, the rustic look of the clock takes attempts to take on the authentic style, but does so in such a way that it feels like a misrepresentation. For these reasons, the aesthetic of the clock feels inauthentic to me.