Process

Before beginning to start my clock, I did a lot of sketch regarding possible ideas for clocks. All of these revolved around the idea of attracting attention and hopefully motivating. Some ideas included making the clock into a stop sign like a symbol, where the hands where the little characters hands.

After several ideas and iterations, I finally came across an idea that I liked and decided to pursue. which was to create a clock with a repeating pattern "NO EXCUSES", and with a cut out of the words "NOW". This decision was made because I think it best fits the aesthetics of a modern clock, and it conveys the message of motivation the loudest.

After creating the sketches, creating the Fusion 360 model took a long time. Reason being that even though my design was not all that complex, the complexity of the repeating no excuses patter was too much to handle for Fusion 360. After multiple attempts, from using the text built into fusion, and even creating my own word vectors in order to simplify the design. The design was too complex. Creating multiple words and then moving them around in a simple place would take over 4 minutes to complete. This really hindered my ability to work, so I had to resort to illustrator. In illustrator, I was able to create my outline and export to a usable format. Once I had all my DXF files I had to use the laser cutter. 

In the laser cutter, I had the issue of having over 6 steps to create my clock. After several discussions with multiple students, these were the steps that I did to create my clock.

1. Score the NO EXCUSES patter first

2. Etch the patter of no excuses

3. Cut out the word not, from inside to outwards

4. Cut out the reminding border and circles for hanging

5. Cut out back piece

This whole process took over 2 hours.