Stories

Colour Wheel

Simple and beautiful, Colour Wheel replaces mechanisation with physics.

Design is a wonderful thing and it can be interpreted in so many ways.

Peter Frank Milligan discovered simple is often best in conceptualising his Colour Wheel Clock, designed as a most literal interpretation of the phrase ‘moving through time’.

Peter’s focus for this design was to create something elegant but functional. Using simple tools and manufacturing techniques he brought the clock to life.

“This is one of my favourite pieces because of the solution behind the mechanism, it’s elegant and simple using only the momentum of the clock hands and gravity to move the coloured tabs as the hands pass over them. It’s a standard clock movement so everything has to work with the subtlest pressure,” Peter says.

The design called for a material that was incredibly light and strong. The search for this led Peter to look in the most unusual places.

“The thinnest aluminium sheet I could get my hands on in the design department storeroom was this recycled aluminium printing plate, so I happily felt like I was saving the planet at the same time!”

Words: Ellysia Burton
Image: Supplied by Peter Frank Milligan