DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: All my life I dreamt about designing my own clock. Thanks to Apple my dreams come true.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: My idea was to design something having a lot to do with ”digital matter”, with simple interface. Of course I also wanted to do something beautiful for everyday use.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: I am going to develop Dominus for other platforms such as Android, Windows Phone, Pebbe and Mac.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: I think it was growing for a few years and when the time came I drew it in an hour. Production, ergonomics and software adjustment took months.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: My inspiration was www.tokyoflash.com where i saw many original clocks. It encouraged me to realize one on my own.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: I designed it for myself hoping that other people will find it useful and that they will like it. They could support or reward my work with symbolic one dollar, which will help me realize my other dreams.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: I don’t really know - maybe my principle which is to make things as simple as possible.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
: Yes. I like (have and wear) Lexon e8 watch from which i learnt that showing time could be smart and nice.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: Everyone who is looking for something new and likes sci-fi stuff - are they people from the Future?
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: Most clock apps look like real clocks from the past (analogue clock, dixie, LCD matrix, flip) primarily designed for circle or square frame. Only a few apps try to adjust their design to ”digital matter” of applications and be proper for the mobile devices framework.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: Dominus is a game about time so its name originates from the Dominoe game.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Soundtrack PRO and iOS device simulator.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: I think that it is the simple albeit not obvious comparison of AM and PM times to fruits. Green color corrensponds to time that is growing and yellow corresponds to the time that is already "mature".
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: Łukasz Grzejek composed alarm tunes which took inspiration form American Beauty, he tried to make them apt for everyday use. Łukasz Hostyński and Robert Hnatyk from Concise Software did an excellent programming job. Thanks to them submission process was fast and smooth.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: Technology made this project possible - especially touch screen technology - it opens new field which enables us to design interactive reaction of ”digital things”.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
: The project is based on my own iTunes Store research with conclusion that there are more than 2000 clock apps and most of them are ugly or imitative and only a few are nice and original. Because we live in the 21st century I think that apps could become something different from typical "textual menu" programs, on the contrary, they should explore new forms of interfaces and interaction with people.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: The most important challenge was raising funds. I gathered money for many months, doing some rather not satisfactory jobs. But it was worth it.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: I thaught that Dominus plus was a cool clock and that’s why I decided to find out what professionals think about such a new thing, do they like it as I am?
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: I went through the whole process - from idea, through concept drawing, programming production, tests and improvements, than - iStore submission, choosing the name and identification, and last but not least - constructing webpage, writing promotion texts for portals and magazines. That's how I discovered that design is only 10% of the product and you must really believe in it and be patient. It was an important lesson.
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
: Now there are more than 2000 people using Dominus plus and this is my greatest reward. It satisfies me. Thanks to them I feel like doing more apps.