Enigmaker

UPDATE: #project3 was developed into the Tacticalendar, which you can now buy online!

We've been experimenting this week with fixings of all kinds, self-adhesive hooks, eyelets, grommets, nuts and bolts, magnets. It's all come back down to the suction cup!

The problem

The project was conceived to address these issues with calendars...

• Each calendar page applies to only one month in one year (unless you're very patient).
  • The most common answer; throw it away - not the most sustainable approach
  • You can't invest in a calendar, for example one using expensive materials which look nice
• The calendar is divided by months
  • Toward month end, you can see few or zero days ahead

The design

The concept, to create a wooden, nicely finished calendar suitable for all time, which will tell you which day of the week it is, and provide a space for appointments and notes for an arbitrary number of days ahead.

When a week is past, you can unhook it and wipe clean the panels. You move each week up one position, and rotate the spare week 'loop' to match the correct sequence and re-attach it as a future week, as indicated by the examples from the paper prototype above. I'd expect to provide at least one month ahead, but you could in principle have any number of whole months.

The main design feature is a rotating loop of dry-erasable day panels which each cover the first sunday, second sunday, third sunday of the month respectively. The loop contains a 14 day range, to allow for the possible number positions that each sunday and its preceding weekdays can have. The first sunday could be day 1 of the month through to day 7. The second sunday could be day 8 of the month, through to day 14. The other panels attached in the loop provide the numbered days preceding the sunday. They are attached to a panel which has weekdays as headings. The rotating loops ensure that you can always have the right numbers against the right weekday headings

In the prototype, these panels are card, covered with acetate, with an eyelet punched through cotton tape. This mirrors the final design based on laser cut bamboo panels with a laser-etched font, provided through the Ponoko fabrication service.