Five Metal Shop CALENDAR PROJECT 2024

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.

0.0 4mm 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 / HongKong 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.

 

＃顏色設計
整本五金行日曆，只使用特別色印刷

每個月使用２個特別色，「五金行日曆」八年來總共使用超過 65 個 Pantone 專色。

在每本「五金行日曆」的左側，看得見每個月的顏色變化。而每一年，我們隱藏了不同的色彩密碼在日曆裡：2019，首次嘗試把高難度的螢光色印在清脆薄紙上；2020，捕捉了台灣街頭的日常色彩；2022 虎年，呈現好似森林裡四季的色彩、光影變化；而 2023 進入後疫情時代，我們讓帶著玩具感的快樂顏色，串連起兔年的 365 天。

 

＃ < 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.

 

 

Limited Early Bird Offer Starting Now.

● Early bird discount  8/29 - 9/12  ● Up to 30% Off

Share the Calendar Projects with your friends and enjoy the discount together 🤜 🤛

①【 Calendar Project 2023 】x1 copy special offer NTD 1050（retail price $1380）
②【 Calendar Project 2023 】x3 copies special offer NTD 2999（retail price $4140）
③【 Calendar Project 2023 】x10 copies special offer NTD 6990（retail price $13800）

 

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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

 

📢 NOTICE 📢

1.Overseas shipping is the same for one copy & 3 copies of calendars. The shipping cost will be shown at your check-out page.
2. If your order includes multiple products, we will ship them together when all goods are ready for shipping. If you wish to receive the 'pre-order' and existing products separately, please create different orders. 
3. For HK and Macau clients, SF will collect the shipping fee directly from you. 
4. Five Metal Shop reserves the right to amend, pause or cease the campaign.