ISO 8601

A typographic clock calendar — a different rendered image for every day of the year.

Every day, a different image.

ISO 8601 is a calendar system — an exploration of typography and time. Each day of the year renders as a unique typographic composition: the date expressed in ISO 8601 format, laid out as an analog clock face. The hour and minute hands point to the current time; the calendar grid fills in the day of the month.

The result is a system that generates 365 distinct images — all from the same typographic logic. The calendar is still running.

The constraint was the system.

The interesting design problem was what the format implied: dates as structured data, not as words. ISO 8601 treats the date as a number. That suggested clockwork, not calendar grids.

The analog clock face became the container. The date fills the face the way time fills a day: position as meaning, not decoration. The typeface is a single weight of a single family — the visual system holds because every element is load-bearing.