Re-design the traditional almanac and make it relevant in modern context

The Calendar Project by Five Metal Shop is an experiment to see how an almost obsolete object with a quiet cultural significance might be brought back and made relevant again in a modern context by using modern printing, papers, illustrations and design.

An analog signal printed on paper with only Pantone colours

With one intangible day passing, a piece of nicely illustrated paper is left behind for you to mark the day, to scribble something to somebody, or simply to tear the page out and forget about the day…it’s all fine.

One thing a paper almanac is better than a digital calendar is: it leaves a trace in your daily life.

100% Hand-binded Calendar.  
Limited print each year

The paper we’ve decided to use has made the project almost impossible.

0.05mm is the thickness per page of our Calendar. It is often ½ of the thickness of your normal writing paper.

This semi-translucent paper is our attempt to simulate the seemingly intangible texture of time. And this design decision has resulted in a redesign of the printing process.

This Calendar cannot be machine binded because the paper is too fine. Each Calendar is carefully printed, cut to the right size, and hand-binded from Jan.01 to Dec. 31 every year and delivered to you.

Hence, we can only afford to do a limited run every year and hence, sometimes you might get a “special” copy that’s missing a certain “dates/page” because it’s a 100% hand-binded product and nobody is perfect.

Key design element in the layout

Days are our hero for design.The typeface we tweaked for you to read clearly the month, dates, and the illustrations we created for special days.

If you are interested, you will see the dates of the lunar calendar and the time of sunrise and sunset every day. (in Taiwan / Hong Kong time.)   

 

Calendar Project 五金行日曆｜Design

 ＃Typeface and Layout 

Within the size of 12.3x18.4cm, we rigorously designed the grid of the layout each day for you to read what day is today in half a second. 

We tweaked and used Anton、Slate、Gothicno13 typefaces on the page for they have different weight and focal point of the characters, serving their purpose respectively. 

＃“Blurring” on the weekends and holidays

Weekends are off. We don’t need to ‘see’ or calculate things too meticulously on ‘off days’. Hence we introduce “blurring design effect” on all weekends in the Calendar to encourage everyone to let go a little bit.

＃Illustrations on special days

We’ve created 80+ illustrations for the Calendar over the year. You will really need to use it, live it, and tear a page now and then to discover them.

＃Modern abstract 24 solar terms

Every two weeks, there will be one what we call ‘Jie-Qi 節氣” (solar terms). As you might have known midsummer (or summer solstice), these 24 ‘Jie-Qi’  are describing the relative position between the sun and the earth. These dates have always been the most important indexes for farmers on when to plow, harvest, and be mindful of the rain in agriculture time in East Asia for more than 5,000 years.

We can never get the bottom of it from our grandparents on how they know this is “the day” to plant seeds but we can design 24 abstract images in our Calendar to pay respect to the tradition and keep them somehow relevant through a touch of design.

＃Colour Design
We only use Pantone colours to print the Calendar Project.

Two Pantone colours are used in the Calendar each month. And we have used more than 65 Pantone colours in 8 years. On the left side of the Calendar, you will have a preview on the colour theme of the year and the sentiment we bury in choosing these colours. 

In 2019, it’s our first attempt to use Pantone neon colours on our paper. In 2022, in the year of the Tiger, we try to capture the colours that represent seasons in the forest. And in 2023, we deliberately design an outgoing and hopeful tone after two years of global “close-down” during the pandemic.

＃0.05mm per piece of paper
Printing craftsmanship and 100% hand-binded.

As mentioned briefly early, one of the key designs of the Calendar Product is the decision on this particular semi-translucent paper.

To be able to present colours correctly and beautifully on this paper, the experienced printing technicians will work with us to hand-blend each Pantone colour pigment and test them on the paper we use prior to the official printing.

The whole printing process takes up to 6-8 weeks depending on the weather before it’s going into the hand binding process.

Calendar Project 2024 - The Year of the Dragon

Colour Theme: mature and reflective. semi-translucent with shades of gray.

Nobody knows what a dragon looks like. And we’ve designed very light shades of gray across our colour tone this year like a dragon in the early morning mist. 

Compared with the 2023 exuberant colour tone, the 2024 colours are more reflective and sophisticated with a quiet light metallic pigments.

It is also our take on the post pandemic year.Maybe after the franzy feeling of desperately reaching out, it may not be a bad idea to be reflective of ourselves in 2024.

A metaphor of a dragon throughout the year.

Before any new month starts, we design a page for you to have a quick overview of the month or to make some private notes on certain days. 

We call these pages ‘monthly opening pages”.

In the Calendar Project 2024, we actually designed these 12 pages to be able to link into a “dragon” if you want to. A visual, pattern-rich dragon that unfolds at the beginning of each month.

 

 

Package Design

The Keep-it-Cool COOL BAG is our package design for the Calendar Project 2024. The size is perfect for keeping the Calendar cool, safe and sound while it is delivered to you. We hope it also reminds everyone to keep it cool in 2024 and enjoy life with your own cool attitude. 2 small sandwiches + a couple of beers, a tub of ice cream, various cheeses and cold cuts for a picnic…we hope you enjoy our COOL BAG and have a ‘cool’ new year. Keep it Cool ! ; p

 

Limited Run of Calendar Project 2024

【 Calendar Project 2023 】x1 copy NTD 1,380

➊ This is a pre-order item. The estimated shipping time is February  2024 in order of payment.
➋  Overseas shipping is the same for one copy & 3 copies of calendars. The shipping cost will be shown on your check-out page.
➌ OOO accepts international cards including Visa, Mastercard, and JCB, except for AMEX. We apologize for any inconvenience.

 

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Five Metal Shop Calendar Project 2024
五金行日曆「甲辰龍年 2024」

－ 384 頁全手工配頁撕線裝幀
－ 12 月份 0.05 mm 傳統超薄單光紙雙色印刷
－ 88 個 Icon 插畫設計＿ 24 節氣 ＋ 12 個月份 pattern ＋ 50 多個節日
－ Pantone 專色採用＿ 全新 6 霓虹色 ＋ 2 金屬色 ＋ 1 特殊色
－ 18.4 X 12.3 cm 掛牆擺桌上都剛好的尺寸