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Struggling with design work, sketching, or managing academic pressure? Whether you're a student balancing deadlines with creativity or an educator seeking clarity in your teaching approach, this blog offers focused, practical support in Design & Technology — from visual communication to process thinking and digital fabrication. Since 2007, Design Journal SOS has helped readers overcome real classroom challenges with grounded strategies and insight. 💬 Have a topic you're curious about? Or found something here that helped you? I welcome your questions and reflections — they keep this space alive and evolving. 🔗 Follow for updates: Facebook /designjournalsos (Copyright © 2007–2025 Daniel Lim)

02 December 2025

Wooden Metatron Standing Clock - Adobe Illustrator and Laser Cut

Availability of technologies like the laser cutting machine with illustration softwares (the Adobe Illustrator) has made design and prototyping the Archangel Metatron Standing Clock an easy affair.

 

The Archangel Metatron Standing Clock was almost designed rom scratch. I got the Metatron sacred geometry online and had it vectorised. 

I held the naked clock mechanism on one hand, and visually determined a nice mounting height with a steel rule from the table top. The spine, was designed as I measured (and noted) the dimensions of the clock mechanisms case. There, was where I figured out details of holding, securing, and how it may stand on two layers of a rounded base. Decisions about the final dimensions are scribbled on scrap paper (below left).


So what inspired the act to design, and make? Firstly my living room is missing a clock. Secondly I wanted to see how quickly I can create one. Thirdly, a Metatron geometry reminds of balance and harmony in the universe. 

#metatron #archanglemetatron #clock #clockdesign #standingclock #designandtecnology #productdesign #lasercutting #adobeillustrator #innovation #creativity #time

Tinkercad 3D Design & Print - Pencil Extender

A pencil extension gives life to ... ... pencils. Pencils that are too short to be practically held. 

One way is to buy a pencil extender, but, it is way more cool to design and print one yourself. And that's what I did.

However, that being said, one can always improvise and use any available material(s) such as rolled paper at the end of a short pencil and some tape. But if you have access to a 3D printer and a free platform like Tinkercad, that'll make it look much cleaner and more product-'designerly'.

Below you'll see the 3D model of the pencil extender and the actual product in use. The extender has slotted 'windows' on both sides so users can 1) see where the end of the pencil is, and 2) use the slot to 'dig' an ultra short pencil out if the entire pencil is stuck in the holder. 

A regular pencil stays nicely in the holder, however I still use tape to bind the opening of the holder to make a tighter fit, so the pencil may be more stable when it's being used.







In design, there will be iterations. No matter how well the thought or plan is. As much as I wanted the pencil to work first time it is printed, reality is far from the truth.

I eventually went with version 3 (the image below shows up to version 2) where I continually modified the hole and the side gaps of the holder, with more aesthetic refinements. 


So here you have it.  A short pencil extender. And now all pencils are loved till they are no more.

#pencils #productdesign #productinnovation #innovation #creativity #pencilextender #designandtecnology #technology