The cure for the common clock.
over 7 years ago – Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 09:37:24 PM

Okay - so first off, I'm excited to share this comprehensive article on ThePresent and Today from Berlin based Freund von Freunden (Friends of Friends).

Click on any of the photos below to link to a thoughtful article about time, life and why I believe that Today and ThePresent are necessary. 

 

-------------------------------------- 

        

BAMBOO MEETING

The last time I reached out I was planning to head up to Pawling, NY to visit my bamboo CNC vendor. That happened and we went through every detail of each of the 6 designs that needed to be covered. 

The most important thing about making things is leaving zero guesswork. It is a must to make sure everyone is on the exact same page right down to the last micron.  

I'm happy to report that it went really well and it was a particularly beautiful day.

Here is a three minute video where almost nothing happens that I shot while we were in Pawling, NY.

View Video

---------------------------------------

BAMBOO QUANTITY

I'll be producing the following pieces with the Pawling, NY firm.

TODAY

750 - 11" Bamboo Units (Face & Back)

500 - 5" Bamboo Units (Face & Back)

 

 

THEPRESENT

500 - 11" Bamboo Units (Face & Back)

250 - 5" Bamboo Units (Face & Back) 

 

The first order of dozens of 4x8 sheets arrived from California yesterday. This week I expect to be reviewing final draft samples of the exact same bamboo to make sure there are no more changes needed and that everything fits together beautifully before AND after the application of the sealer. 

The designs are so tight that even a few thousands of an inch of too much sealant can throw everything off. The in person meeting allowed us to go in depth about how to compensate for the infinitesimally small but critical application of the sealant.

All units will be sanded and sealed by the same firm. Walking away from the meeting we all felt so much more clear and calm about the scope of the job.    

STEEL FINISH

This was an easy choice - holding and looking closely at the stainless steel finish samples in person confirmed the initial instinct of going with FINE. It's more expensive because someone has to actually grind each piece down by pushing the metal against a type of belt sander - but it looks too good to pass up, so FINE it is!

 

 

PACKAGING UPDATE 

The first samples of packaging for each clock came in! As expected though, they were definitely on the bulky side. The samples had an unnecessary amount of EVA (hard foam) - the boxes were too large and a lot more was off in my opinion but I have to admit I was frustrated because it took so long and cost $940 to get samples that I wasn't happy with. Hard to tell from the gifs but it was pretty surprising how chunky they were. You would expect a Playstation 4 Pro to come out this box, not a wall clock.

I know what you might be thinking - hey! why not use that shape forming pulp stuff for packaging inserts? It tried, I really did - I called a dozen of those places and no one would entertain the idea of making only 2000 of something. 

To do business with the businesses that make the pulp forming stuff you have to make between 50,000-100,000 pieces per year as it's not worth it for them otherwise. 

That's probably the most challenging thing about making these clocks, or anything really at such a tiny scale. I'm the smallest client on every vendors books for the year and almost certainly the most demanding. 

The result is that they don't hustle and if I get too pushy they'll just drop me as they're not making money off of me anyways (this has happened twice). 

So far so good on this round as I'm being patient and methodical but I still feel like everything is moving too slow. For instance, our first meeting with packaging was July 15th...so, yeah - it's frustrating but I'm not letting it get to me... i think.

PACKAGING REVISIONS

Thrilled to share these with you. After several meetings hashing out the details I want to see in the box - RUX made some excellent revisions. These are going to be super nice boxes that will protect each clock during shipment to minimize or completely eliminate breakage during shipment (which I suffered a lot of over the past 3000 clocks)

 

 

 

It may not be clear here but the entire box will be black (inside and out). 

Why black Scott, it's not really "on brand" is it? 

Well, yes and no - the thing you are not seeing here is that a beautiful full color sleeve of each respective gradient will get pulled over the black box. 

More importantly though, having everything in negative space brings the focus to the richness of the clock. I'm very happy with it and excited to see the revisions in action - hopefully it won't take nearly as long because we are supplying highly detailed instructions (the ones posted above).

INSTRUCTION BOOKLET UPDATE

So these are the finals before full production and after handling them I already know what I want to change but I'll share them with you anyways! 

I've tried to list all the changes below - speak now or forever hold your piece, I'm fixing these up and putting them into production this week.

 

 

 Thanks to everyone who noticed the 6am mistake on the last update!

 Dropping the "Today invites you.." bit as it's too prescriptive. 

"Live every day like it's your first." will be on the left here - and thepresent.today [email protected] will be on the right - but don't try that email :) haven't set it up yet. It's good though right? I love it.

 

 

 

 

Also, clearly the graphic on the right is too big - will be shortened - also the season letters will be darkened a a bit more. I have to apologize to the anti-podeans, I won't be making custom instructions for you guys.

Going to lose the question and the answer as once again - it's too prescriptive - Give Yourself Time will be on the left and it will close with thepresent.today etc.

 

GLASS TESTS

It's a bit hard to tell - but the 1st glass shown here - is what I used originally and there have been more than a few cases where the clock fell and smashed. (usually during the night for some reason)

This time around I'll be using tempered glass which is the same as "safety glass". It's a more intense heating process that makes the glass harder and I'm doing everything I can to make sure that

1. the glass doesn't break during shipment

2. if the glass breaks from a fall it will not be able to cut anything or anyone.

In addition to the heavier packaging and tempered glass - we're also developing a custom hanging device and we will be including a screw for safe hanging.

LAST THING

On my last update I sent a flare saying that these clocks will not be shipped in December if I am not 100% satisfied with the quality. That is still the case.

Again, rushing my vendors is a recipe for disaster as most of them treat me like a charity project anyhow. You think I would have learned my lesson from the first 2000 pieces but last xmas season I was delivering 500 clocks to the MoMA and had to hire help that let's just say - missed a few spots. 

The result was that I delivered a couple of dozen in that batch of 500 to meet a deadline knowing that I wasn't 100% certain about the quality... 

I did not hear anything until a few months ago when a couple of bad reviews dissing the quality of the clock started popping up on the MoMA site. Since those bad reviews have gone up sales have dropped as most online buyers are looking for a reason "not" to buy. It's a hard lesson to learn as bad reviews for a product this young are poisonous.

 

I bring all of this up to give you further insight into my reasoning for leaning towards quality versus speed of delivery. But especially to thank everyone who wrote to me saying something to the effect of "don't send me anything that you are not 100% happy with."

The solution for anyone that needs to give someone something in place of the clock this holiday season is for me to make a personalized video message explaining why the clock is being made and why they don't have it yet. I'm happy to do this for anyone who wants it. 

All this said - Things are still moving along at a good pace and I expect to be making clocks by December - but again - seriously - that's if everything goes perfectly :)

There are still a couple of clocks left on Backerkit if you care to share.

There is so much more I want to go into but I'll leave it there for now.

Thank you for reading, for believing in this project and for your pledge to make it a reality.

In time,

Scott Thrift

"If you change the way you measure time, you can change the way you measure life."

 

Polishing Samples - Instruction Booklet Proof - Packaging Drafts - Bamboo Update - All Movements have arrived!
over 7 years ago – Sat, Sep 10, 2016 at 06:12:00 PM

Hello and thank you for your patience. 

SIX TIMEPIECES

I'm in the middle of creating six commercial grade, ever lasting timepieces and doing everything I can to begin shipping by December 10th. 

Here is the run down of what I'm making:

1. TODAY // STEEL & GLASS // 11" WALL CLOCK                  x1000

2. THEPRESENT // STEEL & GLASS // 11" WALL CLOCK      x1000

3. TODAY // BAMBOO // 11" WALL CLOCK                               x750

4. THEPRESENT // BAMBOO // 11" WALL CLOCK                   x500

5. TODAY // BAMBOO // 5" DESK CLOCK                                 x500

6. THEPRESENT // BAMBOO // 5" DESK CLOCK                     x250

I desperately want to make sure everyone gets their clocks as soon as possible. 

However, I'm MUCH more conscientious about delivering the best possible product, even if that means it arrives in March 2017. 

Every mistake in the past that I've made in production has come from rushing my vendors, causing them to lose sight of quality and deliver components that are unusable - which means I have to remake them from scratch & the project gets set back even further.

Don't get me wrong - everything is going exceptionally well, just a bit slower than I want it to at the moment. 

So this is my first flare that delivery for the holidays (especially international) is still possible - only if Every Single Thing Goes Perfectly from here on out, 

which would be amazing - but I'm not holding my breath.

If you are reading this and you're thinking - don't sweat it Thrift! - make it the way you you want it and ship it when you're happy with it (just send us updates on the progress!)... awesome, thank you. 

If you are reading this and you're considering throwing your computer in the garbage out of disappointment - 

before you do, send me an email to [email protected] with the subject "What happens if I can't give this clock as a holiday gift!?" I have a temporary solution to help bide the time.

Here is the last word (words) on this for now - I'm a deeply optimistic person. I have every intention of assembling the clocks in late November early December. I'm also aware from past experience that every single mistake that I made making these clocks the first time around grew DIRECTLY from trying to accelerate reality - to rush the process. 

This time around I'm being deliberate & persistent - but I'm not running around like my hair is on fire to make sure unequivocally that everything ships in December.

It's a much more methodical, conscious process this time. I hope I have your faith that these are going to be well worth the wait - but there is still a good chance a lot of you might get your clock in December.

Okay let's take a look at some progress already!

STEEL POLISH SAMPLES

This is a picture of four types of finishes that I need to choose from. I'll see these same sample pieces in person on Tuesday and decide. Right now I am leaning towards 'FINE'.

INSTRUCTION BOOKLET

Yesterday I picked up a proof of the instruction booklet for TODAY. The instruction booklet for ThePresent will look very similar. 

After flipping through it and giving it some thought I will be making some minor changes to the wording, font size and I'll be including a "legend" on the back that will guide you in the setting process for each clock. However, this is off to a great start in my opinion.

The blue letters you see on the front page there, mark the location for debossing. The final version will not have any ink of the front and only be legible from the deboss of the brand.

Having an instruction booklet may seem like a small thing but it is a huge deal for me. I've always wanted to have this and I'm so excited about it I can hardly contain myself.   

PACKAGING DRAFTS 

So the original packaging for ThePresent was "o.k" - Nothing to write home about, a bit clunky and highly susceptible to shipping damage - no matter the amount of bubble wrap (bubble wrap...ew.)

This time around I'm taking packaging very seriously. Not only will it keep the clock super safe, it's going to be...dare I say - attractive. These drafts will not give you that sense though! They are structural drafts. I will have them by Wednesday in person to try them out and make changes.

Now, I know what you're thinking - should I work with a company that supplies drafts using Comic Sans!? Based in NYC this packaging company is one of the largest and most reputable packaging companies in the world and they have come highly recommended - so my fingers are crossed. 

SMALL BAMBOO

11" BAMBOO   

 STEEL & GLASS

The cool thing is that even though I am making 6 products - I will only have to make 3 custom boxes. A beautifully printed sleeve of gradient color slips over the box which will signify the brand of time waiting inside.

We felt that the Amazon Echo box was a decent reference/starting point. 

These are still prototypes on the table - your clocks will look much better! 

BAMBOO

The 50% deposit (and first whopper of a check) has been given to the bamboo gods of Pawling, NY. I'm thrilled to be working with the same vendor who produced the prototypes of the bamboo version. I'm meeting with their team this Monday September, 12th (and bringing the lead designer at RUX along) to have an in person step-by-step meeting about CNC machining all of these parts and the processes that need to happen once they are complete. 

A test sheet will be run on bamboo to make sure everything fits perfectly. Mathematically it all checks out but like I said, I'm being super methodical this time around. 

Here are some of the final designs of the back pieces. If you're going to steal these and make your own versions - please let me know what kind of pricing you're being quoted! 

Okay, I'm going to stop there - there are so many more things happening - tempered glass samples, tolerances of the edge detail of steel to capture the glass in a way that prevents movement, deciding on the assembly/fulfillment vendor by letting them assemble the clock from the ground up and quote me, engraving tests, creating a new mold for the shorter hands needed for the 5" clocks, reviewing stage 8 versions of the printing process on bamboo (seriously, I've been working with Duggal since May 15th to get the print juuuuuuust right - it's going to be tremendous but I don't want to share until it's finalized) figuring out the right solution and angle for how the deck clock leans (it can also be put on wall) and so much more - 

MOVEMENTS

Probably the best news is that the movements - ALL OF THEM - are in my apartment!

Thank you for reading and again for your patience.

Please send any questions to [email protected]

I've limited the clocks left to pre-order to less than 10 for each version - 

you can still find them at https://today.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

But I'm unfortunately going to have to forego sales beyond this until early next year - when the prices will be 

5" Bamboo = $128

11" Bamboo = $179

Steel & Glass = $249

Thank you for your support and especially for taking the time to do the surveys. The survey helps me understand how to create a healthy self-sustaining business going forward. I'll never sell your info to anyone - I genuinely asked all those questions to get a better picture of the people who support this idea. You're the first to have it and the most vital part of the entire process.

I've got a lot of clocks to make but will do my best to get back to you if you email me with any questions - [email protected]

In time,

Scott Thrift

Walkthrough video of Backerkit Survey
almost 8 years ago – Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 08:59:45 PM

Hello and happy summer to everyone,

Since the project closed I've been building out the back end of the post Kickstarter campaign. 

There were so many of you that wanted to add things on to existing pledges and I want to be able to honor your wishes. So I've taken the time to test the system over the past week and as far as I can tell, it's ready to share.

Within a few minutes of this update - you will receive an email from Backerkit.

Backerkit is the service I am using to administer surveys, add-ons and more.

There is a survey that has a few questions that I would greatly appreciate if you could answer. 

In addition to those questions you will find a request for your address. You will also be able to add things on as you wish otherwise it's just a simple address collecting survey.

I've made this 2:30 video to walk you through the process.

I've been in a handful of meetings for the past two weeks while I wait for the funds to transfer to see what the actual number will be once Kickstarter, Amazon, PR & Marketing fees and shipping costs are removed from the final sum.

That number matched with the total amount of clocks to be made is incredibly important to know. The sooner you can answer the survey the better but I'm giving you until September 1st.

A little over 30 backers defaulted due to expired cc numbers and similar issues but this is to be expected. If you have a friend who wanted to get a clock or you were one of the backers who have now updated their cc info and want to pre-order Today - use and or share this link - 

https://today.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders 

Reminder - this link is for people who are NOT backers like yourself. The prices are slightly higher if it is pre-ordered through this link. The prices for backers are locked in at KS prices until September 1st and add-ons can be managed only in the Backerkit survey.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This image below can be downloaded and used as a desktop background or a lock screen / background for your mobile device.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It feels strange not to mention it but recent world events have been tough to handle for all of us. I hope the near future is full of boring news.

I've been developing an update that connects a fascination with cinema to the inspiration behind both of these timepieces. However, every day I've planned on posting something unspeakable happens and I've held back. I'm reworking the video now and will release this week.

I don't feel that Kickstarter is the right platform to discuss or examine tragic world events and so I want to let you know that I will continue to update in a way that is consciously agnostic of the news.

Hopefully, in time we will grow as a global civilization towards something more harmonious. I think the way we approach and relate to time has a lot to do with making that transition more pleasant and more likely. 

I feel honored to be working on this project and I'm so grateful for your support.

Sincerely,

Scott Thrift

727 Backers !?
almost 8 years ago – Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 11:25:51 PM

New Press

BLACKBOOK

MY MODERN MET

MENTAL FLOSS

LOST AT E MINOR

MANZARD CAFE (Hungarian)

link for sharing: http://bitly.com/todayclock

this is amazing...thank you.

scott

Yesterday
almost 8 years ago – Wed, Jun 08, 2016 at 05:28:53 AM

TODAY reached over 500 backers & broke 100k!

The main reason I decided to launch this campaign was the impact living with the prototype of Today has had on my sense of timing. It actually does the thing it claims to do - to make you feel like you have more time. It's so encouraging to see this going over well, thank you for your support!

I hope you'll consider sharing this project with people you think might enjoy a new calming perspective on time in their lives.

http://bitly.com/todayclock

I'm here now and forever to help with any questions you may have about Today or ThePresent.

Let's see how far this thing goes!

In time,

Scott Thrift