Muse Smartwatch Face by Alex Pan Yong is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 鐵獎 in 介面、互動及用戶體驗設計 Competition Category.

鐵介面· 2021

Muse Smartwatch Face

by Alex Pan Yong

Client: Artalex

A' Design Award 鐵獎 Winner in 介面 Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #110651

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Colors

The Design

About Muse Smartwatch Face

Muse 是一款看起來不像傳統手錶的智能手錶。它的圖騰背景是指示小時的關鍵元素，並與眩光般的筆觸一起指出分鐘。它們的組合禮貌地傳達了時間流動的感覺。整體寶石外觀極大地呈現了異國情調的用戶體驗。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 鐵獎

Muse Smartwatch Face是 A' Design Award 鐵獎得主，這是授予滿足人們對設計精良的創作所期待的專業與工業要求的優良設計的聲望認可。鐵獎得主展現出其創作者的高超技藝、高度專業化、專家級的理解力和創造能力。預計Muse Smartwatch Face將成為一件備受推崇、令人欽佩且被珍愛的創作，既實用又創新。這件贏得 A' Design Award 鐵獎的設計整合了行業最佳實踐，並擁有與專業知識和才華相結合的稱職技術特性。Muse Smartwatch Face因其嚴謹而受到尊重，旨在提供有助於讓世界變得更美好的生活品質改善。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The Muse is a smartwatch face that tells the time while doesn't look like any traditional watch face as we usually thought. It looks more towards the combination of stone and gem. The feeling it conveys is more close to the nature while still keeps the beauty of gem.
Dimensions & Packaging: The dimension of this design is 400 x 400px on Android watch, 360 x 360px on Samsung watch. It supports both round and square smartwatches.
Tags: gem, nature, stone, ancient, gemstone, nostalgia, luxury, informative
Production Technology: I aimlessly drew a sketch on my iPad. The sketch turned out to be the main element of the design. The app I used on iPad is Procreate. Once finished the drawing, exported into Photoshop, separate different layers for different hours. Then, export these layers (12 layers) into png images. After that, import these 12 layers into Facer (watch face making app), use programming to control which layer should be highlighted in which hour. For example, layer 1 will be highlighted when 1 am/pm. So, that's how to tell the hour. For the minute, I use a glare-like stroke to represent the glare from the light (the beauty of nature). At the centre of the watch face, I put those essential information such as date, step count, battery level, so that the user can still grab the information really quickly. For the numbers around the watch face, I use roman numerals to give the sense of antique, as well as add on different colours to make the overall looking more like ancient gemstone.
Design Challenge: The hardest part of this design is to make the overall looking "less-look-like-watch", and feels ancient. I want to make it look more like a gemstone rather than a watch, meanwhile it still tells you the time and other information.
Research: Nothing much about the research. The idea just came out suddenly from my aimless sketch. At that moment, I had the feeling of making it a non-traditional watch face. Just follow the heart.
Inspiration: The inspiration came from a casual sketch that I was aimlessly drawing on my iPad when I sit in a bar. As the strokes went on, the sketch became a kind of totem. Then, the idea came out. Let this totem-like graphic tells the time, combining the feeling of nature. Let it be the main element of my smartwatch face. Make it looks like a kind of gemstone.
Project Duration: The project started in February 2020 in Singapore and finished in September 2020, and is released on Face app and WatchMaker app in September 2020.
Operation Flow: The design is already released on Facer app. Go to Facer app or website (facer.io), search "Artalex", and look for the name "Muse". Click the "send to watch" button to sync the design into your smartwatch. You need the Facer app installed on your smartwatch.
Patents: Copyrights belong to Alex Pan Yong, 2020
Image Credits: Image #1: Photographer Pan Yong, Main image, 2020.
Image #2: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2020.
Image #3: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2020.
Image #4: Photographer Pan Yong, Single shot, 2020.
Image #5: Photographer Pan Yong, Group shot, 2020.