A poster design created under the theme "Apparatus", for
Illustration & Heritage.
Time is not just a backdrop to creation, it is the apparatus that shapes illustration itself. Unlike brushes or pixels, time is intangible yet decisive: it determines depth, complexity, and the unfolding of stories. In artistic practice, time guides both the process of making and the perception of the finished work.
Digital tools have transformed this apparatus, bending time from a rigid constraint into something elastic and accelerated. Artists can now reconstruct, compress, or expand their workflow, shifting from slow, handcrafted methods to rapid, machine-assisted creation. Yet as machine-generated images increasingly compress the hours once devoted to craft, questions emerge: what remains of artistic value and storytelling when time is no longer invested?
This poster visualizes time as a spiraling clockwork, collapsing inward. Each shrinking ring reflects the acceleration of artistic production, illustrating our transition from the patient rhythms of tradition to the compressed velocity of technology. Numbers from many languages align vertically, reminding us that time transcends culture. Though symbols differ, their meaning is universal, time is the shared apparatus through which creation unfolds.
