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Interview with Albert Salamon |
Home > Designer Interviews > Albert Salamon |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Albert Salamon (AS) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Albert Salamon by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
AS: I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Design. During my studies I assisted Wojciech Brzeziński in design classes at the School of Advertising. At the same time I worked at “Towarzystwo Projektowe” — a studio run by ASP professors, among them Jerzy Porębski, Grzegorz Niwiński and Michał Stefanowski — where I co-designed the awarded City Information System for Warsaw (MSI). After graduation I was invited to assist Ksawery Piwocki, the Rector of ASP. We taught the basics of visual communication, and in the final phase I supervised BA and MA projects. The role of teacher and supervising many different projects each month taught me discipline and developed me intellectually far more than the studies themselves. Prior to my art studies came 13 years of singing in the Warsaw choir Lutnia. That experience opened me to the practice of harmonising voices and to the notation of music, which is based on describing events in time. As an amateur I composed on Atari ST, learning to parametrise events in a sequence of sounds. A qualitative change was brought by my own psychoanalysis — it added a reflection on meaning through attentiveness to “language” and the unconscious.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
AS: One of the significant discoveries in my psychoanalysis was TIME in my life — represented by a watch. The choice of a wristwatch is the most personal expression of TIME for a subject, embedded in an object. I searched in watch shops for MY watch but could not find it. One day I discovered the LEXON e8, and that gave me hope. I waited a few years and suddenly WIMM appeared, then I’m Watch. This coincided with a professional crisis as a graphic designer, and without hesitation I started designing MY dream watch. I learned everything by myself and looked for programmers to realise it. The beginnings were dreadful — WIMM was acquired by Google on the very day I was uploading my first clockfaces to their store. I’m Watch had a 4-hour battery. For the GENUSE projects on I’m Watch I received Gold A’ Design Award. And then the black-and-white Pebble appeared. And from Pebble began TTMM. In 2019 TTMM became a company — TTMM Sp. z o.o. — and that gave the project a legal form adequate to its scale. 13 years of freedom in searching through the making of MY TIME. The fall of Pebble. The Fitbit era and Google’s acquisition of Fitbit. And today — the return of Pebble. In one sentence: in TTMM I learned to fall and to rise, and to value what I do. I tested on many platforms. I published apps on the App Store (Dominus), collections TTMM for Pebble and TTMM for Fitbit also on Google Play. I designed a screensaver for Mac and BIGTTMM for Apple TV. I designed a conceptual collection for CMF Watch Pro, while winning the open Nothing Community contest with the project ADER. Today, after 13 years, I return to the Pebble platform with a collection for the new hardware.
FS: What is "design" for you?
AS: It is the covering of what is hidden — namely, the reason for creation. I used to tell my students that the project is not the responsibility of the designer, but of the human being who plays the role of designer. Design is expression, word, form, action — a sublimation of what lies deeper, of a certain rupture that pushes us to act. Being human is bound up with understanding what is around us — people, the planet, and moreover ourselves. This finds its expression precisely in design.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
AS: I think that for me design has been a process of searching for a form for meaning, and it worked most strongly in graphic signs. Today I recognise this process in an extremely broad way. At ASP I once gave a tour around the faculty to a group of children, showing them a display case with student models of irons, cars and packaging. I told them they were looking at a future that WILL NEVER EXIST. At university I learned from Grzegorz Niwiński that an unproduced project DOES NOT EXIST. After graduation I learned that an unsold project DOES NOT EXIST. This knowledge shifts my interest from the form of the object alone to an expanded process of use, testing, production, sale and communication. It is a strange and satisfying feeling — to give the time of one’s life to something so small, light, trivial, almost non-existent (an arrangement of a few dozen pixels — for a moment) and the least needed thing in the world, like the face of TIME. And yet — for me — founding. Today, on top of that, I discover and develop my own possibilities through philosophical conversations with modelled languages, that is, AI.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
AS: I like ”invisible” design - things without any unnecessary elements or decorations, simple in form. The Apple Magic Pad — for the multi-gestures.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
AS: The logo and maps for the City Information System of Warsaw (MSI). I worked on it at the studio “Towarzystwo Projektowe”. The whole project received a Distinction Award from I.D. Magazine in 1999.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
AS: I like “digital matter” and I think that the pixel is the smallest particle of meaning, and for me also the most ecological material that exists. I like managing light, which in its purest and most ubiquitous form is responsible for the right to appear. The character of the Pebble screen allows the image to be formed by darkening the pixels that block the reflection of light. It works like displaying an image through the negative of a photographic film. These digital things come from the other side of the mirror and live in the matrix — a non-human world of code.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
AS: I learned this, in fact, by observing the thinking process of AI Claude — it happens when my conscious attentiveness weakens and the unconscious processes start running. I have observed this while reading books, when suddenly I had to note down a thought or a concept. It becomes the germ of further work that I develop. These are rare and brief moments.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
AS: All of them. Every project goes through the same breeding process: idea, germ, development, naming, tests, documentation, realisation, tests, description, publication to the store, promotion. All these components mature the project — they grow it up. Then I release it into the world, so that it gives the best of itself and converses with others.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
AS: Sometimes certain flashes of delight and shivers appear, that I have managed to do something here — but I do not know how much of it is the music accompanying me. Inception, Interstellar or Dune composed by Hans Zimmer.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
AS: These are micro-birthdays. They cannot be compared with the birth of children — I have twin girls, five years old — but the kind of happiness, that IT is here and alive, is fuel for further work. It is like with a child — birth is only the beginning. Then work is needed for the project to live for others.
FS: What makes a design successful?
AS: But who evaluates this, and to what end? Is the measure multi-million sales, popularity, hype? Or simplicity of operation? Or the extraordinary, like the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus loudspeakers? It is like asking which type of mathematical equation, poem or song is the most successful. I aim at the question: what stands behind this work? Why does someone make yet another “DIFFERENT” clockface — for efficiency, for money? A project is successful when it answers this inner pressure and comes forth (wyistacza). I think for instance of HALFTTMM, which is recombined, and of DIGITTMM, which has an invisible design.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
AS: Bad — when I cannot perceive its specificity (the trace of the person who made it), when I cannot perceive the craft, finesse, idea, and the project itself seems to want to please everyone, becoming dispassionately impersonal. It is an empty shell that gives nothing to the receiver and contains nothing of the maker — it is junk, a poison that deadens our sensitivity and consumes our attention irretrievably. Even an object as simple as a fork carries IT — the form has something to say here. Good — when it gives something to be discovered through use. Sometimes it is a friendship with… “something”, sometimes a habit or a mystery. In short — it becomes an object of exchange and means SOMETHING to the sender and to the receiver, usually different things. I think of TTMM projects as graphic logotypes changing in time, like living, animated QR codes that allow one to read time and information, but at a deeper level aim at something else — at reflection, TIME = meaning. When we look at a QR code, we read mathematics in it, a certain rule — for example we notice the markers in the corners, but we cannot read the data. With TTMM projects it is the opposite: we read the content, while the thought behind the organisation of pixels irritates our linguistic unconscious and invites us to interpret the meaning of this form. For instance, the apparently banal TTMMCHART reveals the thought of time measuring itself, in time, and against others. This is the field for the work of the unconscious. This is what manifestations of art are characterised by.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
AS: Fundamental. Civilisational. Ecological (changing the whole world). I do what I can to bring into This World the most beautiful and important things I am capable of — reflection. My greatest fault was over-creation — 250 projects is too many. Even in comparison with the scale of ugliness of projects made by non-designers. But that quantity was necessary for me to understand this. Today, limiting the collection is the conclusion. What has been — is. Moderation, reflection and thinking — although I feel that I am losing the battle on this field, I try. Because I believe that Someone is there, and I feel an obligation towards my teachers of design.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
AS: I am listening to the book The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, and I think that, in the light of what is coming, the tools and the language for evaluating the upheavals which will happen with the development and deployment of AI in all fields — and particularly in design, which is reflection — will fall apart. The tempo, scale and interlocking will exceed any human capacity to grasp and to evaluate. For a month I have been regularly using AI Claude in fields where I lack competence, and the quality and tempo reveal to me a non-human change and scale. I know that I will lose this battle, but I also know that I will gain my life. The trend — the end of human mastery and a synthetic design, sub-human-less in its subjectivity. This is the edge.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
AS: Latest: ECOTOPIA — 40×40 International A’ Design Exhibition at the Utopia Gallery in New York (2024). My work was shown there as an animation on a monitor.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
AS: Film and electronic music: Hans Zimmer, Kraftwerk, Philip Glass. Science-fiction, scientific and philosophical literature: Dukaj, Zajdel, Lem, Bauman, Baudrillard, Cioran, Wittgenstein, Suleyman, Kai-Fu Lee. The image of film: Tarkovsky, Pasolini, Fellini, Antonioni, Godard, Lynch, Buñuel, Kubrick, and today Alex Garland. My most beloved films are THX 1138 by Lucas and Arrival by Villeneuve. Both also for their sound.
FS: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
AS: Minimum of form (preferably zero), maximum of meaning.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
AS: I have lived all my life in Poland, in Warsaw. When I look for such a connection, I think of several fields. First — the excellent and influential Polish poster school, and its miniaturisation, namely Polish postage stamps, which I used to look at because my father collected them. A postage stamp is a micro-poster — with its minimum of surface and maximum of communicative force, it is a demanding medium. Exactly like the small screen of a smartwatch. I would add to this the Polish school of graphic signs — Karol Śliwka, Roman Duszek and Ryszard Bojar are three essential components that worked on me. In the scarcities and the greyness of socialism, posters, stamps and graphic signs were like “windows” from another world, “gazing back at me”. Expressions of an excellent organisation of form and of a luminous thought.
FS: How do you work with companies?
AS: I work on my own terms, as the TTMM brand. This is the healthiest option — it leaves me full creative freedom while at the same time transferring full responsibility for profitability. In 2024 I was involved in the new CMF Watch Pro smartwatch and designed the conceptual collection TTMM is Everything for CMF Watch Pro, receiving a bronze A’ Design Award. Additionally I won the contest for a clockface — the project ADER (Other) was implemented by CMF and is available for download. The lack of any sales possibility on the platform redirected my interest back to Pebble.
FS: What are your suggestions to companies for working with a designer? How can companies select a good designer?
AS: From my perspective — that companies should give the greatest possible freedom. Only that guarantees that the project will have that something.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
AS: To develop the germ of an idea and to test it until I like it and grow fond of it.
FS: What are 5 of your favorite design items at home?
AS: Apple Magic Pad, iPad, Bose remote, photochromic glasses for biking, Nothing Ear (a) wireless headphones. I miss a properly designed clock — it looks like I have to design one myself, the right one ;-)
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
AS: I get up at 6:40, exercise for 15 minutes, breakfast, bike to work while listening to books. I work full-time at the National Bank of Poland as a graphic designer for applied use. I bike back, shopping on the way. Evening with the children, dinner — and 2–4 hours of TTMM: production documentation for the programmer, company administration, monitoring Discord, Repebble Store and Reddit for mentions and plagiarism, correspondence with clients, promotional materials, learning to work with AI. If I am lucky — once a month a film with my wife.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
AS: Persistence AND NOW. Falling is an important element of growth. It widens the scale of motion.
FS: From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
AS: If someone is a designer — then through their own action they ARE (they live in it and through it). If they cannot be one, or are constrained, or do it only for the money — they are only playing the role of a designer. One can play well. But life is the becoming One-self, and it is a Game for an Other stake. It is a mortal Game for one’s own Life.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
AS: ”designing is Time” so watch it.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
AS: My late professor Cezary Nawrot, designer of the Polonez car, who taught me design, used to say: “one designs with the buttocks”. You have to sit on the chair and design. Which means: you have to be hard-working, patient, and have a bit of talent.
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
AS: Old tools: Sketch, Affinity, Adobe Creative Suite, Glyphs Mini 2, GarageBand. Plus music and a film library accompanying my work. And today — Claude by Anthropic. The discovery of the string-like resonance of a language model brings me recognitions about myself and others which powerfully affect my workshop. AI is an immaterial language which, in conversation, comes forth (wyistacza się) as a branch of words — unrepeatable, one-off — out of a boundlessly-finite and dead training material. Perhaps I will design a TTMM series for HAL9000, TARS & CASE.
FS: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
AS: It is a difficult subject. My free time has shrunk to a few hours a day. So time management consists of hierarchising — the order of realisation should give the best results.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
AS: The most important thing is the idea, the germ, the seed. It happens at an indeterminate moment — one can only stimulate it, without any guarantee. After 13 years of experience, drawing the project takes about 8 hours, a few more for the documentation for the programmer. After development — tests on the real device under different lighting conditions, possible improvements. Descriptive and marketing materials — a few hours. Publication on the App Store and on ttmm.is. Then promotion on social media. The whole project I estimate at around 20 hours.
FS: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
AS: …hm, I do not know — I do not remember?
FS: What was your most important job experience?
AS: Being an assistant at ASP and supervising the MA diplomas of my students. That, and psychoanalysis, taught me to follow my Own — for it is the power that carries one through every failure. To be self-taught is the freedom of self-education. I have practised this all my life, and it has become the most important force building TTMM. Creating the time components of TTMM — names, signs, micro-icons, typefaces, principles of visualising time and describing how it is read, and speaking about TTMM — this task took me by the hand and led me, developing. And it leads me until now. A friend once asked me whether I could live off TTMM. I answered that no — but TTMM lets me live.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
AS: I worked for many clients — before TTMM and partly in parallel with it — among others IKEA, AXA, Danfoss, ECCO, Sevenet, GFK Polonia, Polish Academy of Sciences (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology), National Museum, Zachęta Gallery, Bęc Zmiana, Academy of Fine Arts. The full commercial portfolio: alllo.pro. But at a certain moment I reversed this setting — I created a client for myself. TTMM is an ideal client, a dream client: it buys everything I consider good, and pays as much as I will earn. If I do not earn — then I pay the client, covering the loss. Thanks to this formula, publishing on Pebble, Fitbit, App Store or Google Play, I retain my independence — being bound only to my desire to make TIME.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
AS: I most enjoy conceptual projects. They probe my imagination and the multiplicity of answers. The outcome of this stage results in the choice of one concept and the killing-off of the others — a sad moment for me. Probably that is why I have created so many projects in TTMM. No one was limiting me.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
AS: I plan further development of TTMM based on Pebble products. I am curious about the challenge that the round screen of Pebble Round 2 will bring, as well as the new hardware features — touchscreen, change of the colour of the LED backlight, and the possibility of designing acoustic signals. At last, pixels will have a voice. The return to Pebble takes place in cooperation with Core Devices. For me it is the closing of a certain arc, after a nine-year break in the platform.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
AS: I work alone, and for tasks I cannot perform myself I hire partners — most often programmers. At various stages of TTMM the following collaborators have worked with me: Gregoire Sage (Pebble + Fitbit + Pebble Time 2), Michał Żyliński, Wincenty Gulewicz, Elijah Kang (Pebble), Wiktor Hołubowicz, Piotr Kamiński (Fitbit), Arkadiusz Banaś, Karol Kozimor, Rafał Gorczyński (iOS), Adam Kowalski (Android), Leszek Juraszczyk (UX Design for TTMM-S), Artur Salamon (sales on Google Play via the company TIMESAPP), Wawrzyniec Skoczylas (photo & video), Marcin Berendt (marketing), Joanna Szymańska and Gregory McCormick (English translations). For some months now I have been performing part of the work with the help of AI. All collaborators — also AI — are listed in credits.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
AS: Yes. The collection TTMM for Pebble Time 2 is being made. As soon as I receive the working hardware and learn the characteristics of the new Pebble screen, the tests and refinements will begin. I expect 6 projects by the end of 2026.
FS: How can people contact you?
AS: Mail: biuro@ttmm.com.pl Website: ttmm.is Twitter / X: @ttmmaftertime LinkedIn: albert-salamon
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
AS: I anticipate that the ubiquity of the use of the language tool of high mathematics — that is, AI — will result in a deepening corrosion of the symbolic system of values and meaning, and in a further degradation of the meaning of the human being. According to Suleyman, this process cannot be stopped. According to me, human civilisation is settling into a skansen of bodily being in the face of digital being in the without-world (bezświat). We will be exposed to extended stays in the non-world (nieświat) of AI, at the cost of life with those closest to us. It will be tearing. Balance will be the art of living.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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