apparently I solve problems by making clocks

There seems to be a pattern emerging.

If a room doesn’t have a clock, my response is not to buy one. It is to design and make one. This is now the second time this has happened.

My new office at QUT has the same issue as my therapy room—no easy way to check the time when I’m meeting with students without making it obvious.

So the goal was straightforward:

• readable at a glance

• not overly distracting

• and, this time, a little more personal

making it mine (literally)

For this version, I used my terribly crafty hippo logo as the centrepiece. It felt like a reasonable way to claim the space, without having to label everything explicitly. The construction is similar to the previous clock—layered timber, combining different tones to create some contrast without needing anything too bold. There’s something quietly satisfying about seeing the layers come together, even if it mostly involves hoping everything lines up the way it did on screen.

the final test: does it blend in?

The real question wasn’t whether it looked good up close—it was whether it would sit on the wall and do its job without drawing attention.

It’s positioned above the door, which means I can glance at it easily, while hopefully no one else is giving it much thought at all.

Which, for a clock, is probably the ideal outcome.

At this point, I’ve made multiple clocks for spaces that didn’t have them.

There are definitely easier solutions.

I am choosing not to explore those.