ISSEY MIYAKE WATCH "B"

Brand Identity, Fashion Design & Animation

Project Overview

The mechanical watch “B” is a story about the shape of time. The transitional mechanism makes each second one of a kind. The "B" stands for BAO BAO, one of ISSEY MIYAKE's beloved sub brands.

My personal objectives in the project were to challenge my design sensibility, hone my 3D rendering skills, and experiment with new ways of storytelling.

*This project is not affiliated with ISSEY MIYAKE

BRAND RESEARCH

DESIGN PROCESS

Origami

Sketching Patterns

ISSEY MIYAKE's unique design aesthetics and philosophy could be seen from their history and products. By exploring their signature elements, it came to me that, besides the patterns, their designs were all about the three-dimensional structures.

Animated Patterns

Digital prototyping

Patterns were drawn in Illustrator and animated in After Effect. The prototype visualizations helped me choose the ISSEY MIYAKE elements to move on with.

Watch parts were printed to test the scale and tactile feedback on human body.

Between 2D & 3D

Rendering & Prototyping

Constantly switching between 2D and 3D tools to quickly iterate ideas:

Blender animations for simulating how patterns would behave under different lighting.
Photoshop for generating ideas for aesthetics and timekeeping layouts.
3D printing for exploring ergonomics on different users and configurations of internal components.

While iterating watch faces with BAO BAO's patterns, I discovered interesting elements such as stars and arrows. However, after going back to the respondents, they felt that these were not the ISSEY MIYAKE they knew. Therefore, these elements were dropped for the final design.

I made the video in Blender 2.79 to explore motion graphics.

Staying true to the brand's visual language and figuring out realistic configurations with balanced aesthetics and readability were the biggest challenges for me.

This is a mechanical watch with an ever-changing face. It provides users a new way to perceive time. The diamond body represents the shape formed by four triangles from BAO BAO's iconic patterns.

The "minute hand" is a piece of clear PVC with heat transfer patterns. The "second had", although mostly covered, could be seen under the transparent seams, creating the mesmerizing illusions on the watch face.