Ric Bell has an old notebook from 2012. Inside, among other scribbles and to-do lists, is a note he penned to himself: “Post a calendar on a 12-sided shape.”
Bell, a designer who runs the London studio Post, doesn’t remember why or how the idea occurred to him, only that he felt moved to, somehow, create a three-dimensional desktop calendar. Now he has: the DodeCal is a dodecahedron-shaped, Scandinavian-looking calendar made out of sycamore wood. It costs $96 (£79), and comes in a limited run of 100, for the year 2017.
DodeCal costs considerably more than a standard calendar in part because of the mental and physical labor that went into its creation. A regular dodecahedron has twelve equal pentagonal faces. This lends it a nice, uniform shape. But a calendar month, which follows a rectangular layout, would fit awkwardly on a five-sided face. So Bell opted to engrave his calendar on a rhombic-dodecahedron, which comprises 12 four-sided, diamond-shaped faces. “It is such a complicated shape,” Bell says of the final, tilted arrangement.
Slide: 1 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: The DodeCal is a dodecahedron-shaped, Scandinavian-looking calendar made out of sycamore wood. Making it wasn't easy.DodeCal
Slide: 2 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: A regular dodecahedron has twelve equal pentagonal faces. This lends it a nice, uniform shape. But a calendar month, which follows a rectangular layout, would fit awkwardly on a five-sided face. So Ric Bell, DodeCal's creator opted to engrave his calendar on a rhombic-dodecahedron, which comprises 12 four-sided, diamond-shaped faces.DodeCal
Slide: 3 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: To perfect the fit and finish, Bell recruited two experts to help: a bespoke furniture maker who holds a degree in math and a second-generation toy maker. Their combined craftsmanship (plus plenty of trial and error) led to a geometric solution that could be replicated with the help of a CNC-milling machine.DodeCal
Slide: 4 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: A machine sander removes any unwanted edges, but each block is finished by hand with fine grit sand paper and two coats of wood oil.DodeCal
Slide: 5 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: Lasers etch the gently italicized letters and digits onto each side, making the DodeCal an exceptionally attractive at-a-glance calendar.DodeCal
Slide: 6 / of 6 . Caption: Caption: The branding all revolves around the dodecahedron's diamond-shaped sides. DodeCal costs $96 (£79), and comes in a limited run of 100, for the year 2017.DodeCal
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Granted, rendering a rhombic-dodecahedron in AutoCAD, or even on paper, isn’t terribly difficult. But crafting the wooden DodeCal—which relies on machine- and hand-crafted techniques—is a precise, multi-step process. For structural integrity’s sake, each side can only vary a half-millimeter from the others. To perfect the fit and finish, Bell recruited two experts to help: a bespoke furniture maker who holds a degree in math and a second-generation toy maker. Their combined craftsmanship (plus plenty of trial and error) led to a geometric solution that could be replicated with the help of a CNC-milling machine.
First, Bell and his team join three pieces of wood to create a solid block. Next, they slice off 24 precisely measured, pyramid-shaped chunks of wood to produce a rough rhombic-dodecahedron shape. Lasers etch the gently italicized letters and digits onto each side, making the DodeCal an exceptionally attractive at-a-glance calendar—one you’ll likely wish could last into 2018.
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