Crimes against typography: adventures in watch design with Matt Smith-Johnson
D.C. HannayIf you know me, you know how much bad design pains me, especially in the realm of watches. “Features” that make no sense, awkward font gaffes, and lazy design choices are so off-putting to me, that I feel they should be criminal offenses. So I really appreciate it when someone gets it right. Matt Smith-Johnson of Sentient Creative is a designer who seems to nail the brief every time he gets his hands on a watch project. He’s done work for both major companies and microbrands, and his list of watch industry clients includes Laco, Seals, Dietrich, and Vero. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s currently co-developing a new microbrand as we speak. I recently had the opportunity to get inside the mind of a true creative, to find out what makes him, er, tick.
D.C. Hannay: OK Matt, so what’s your superhero origin story? Were you artistic from a young age?
Matt Smith-Johnson: Oh yes, I have always loved art. I used to watch my grandfather paint, and I took every art class in school. Childhood was a bit turbulent for me, so I would always escape into music, art, and drawing. I used to sketch out album art for the bands I was listening to on bootlegged cassettes—stuff like Judas Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, and others. I wanted to be like (underground artists) Pushead or Ed Repka at the time, making cover art for bands, or illustrations for skateboards. My grade 4 or 5 teacher told me that a graphic designer gets to do that sort of thing for a living. From that point on, that became my purpose in life.
DH: Oh man, old-school metal! I was totally into music and skate art when I was a young punk. When did you first become obsessed with watches?
MSJ: For some reason, I have always felt that watches were important since a very young age. I had a purple, grey, and green Timex IronMan I wore all the time as a kid. I remember begging my grandfather for a watch even before that, which was a very 80’s three-hander I couldn’t even tell the time on. I just had to wear a watch for some reason.
DH: So you started learning fine arts, then switched to graphic design. What changed? Was it a desire to make things that people could see outside of a museum?
MSJ: Actually, I only took fine-art courses in high school, and took elective courses for things like pottery… I was lucky, my high school had an amazing art program with lots of resources. I didn’t know how lucky I was at the time. The idea of museums never really appealed to me. My favourite artist was (and still is) Keith Haring… the idea of doing artwork in public spaces and making it for everyone, rather than exclusive, that appealed to me. But yeah, I really was still driven by my teacher’s advice all those years ago, and I just knew I’d do graphic design in college. Never questioned the path, even when I got to design school and found it was a very different discipline. It was difficult, and I was discouraged initially. But design college ended up being one of the best times in my life.
DH: So you’re freshly out of school and in the workplace. How does all your previous experience lead you to designing wristwatches and their packaging?
MSJ: It was a long and convoluted journey to designing watches. Fresh out of school, I had two part-time jobs, I was in a band, and I was working on a clothing brand with my step-brother, which was doing okay. Really, I was just trying to pay my bills and move forward. Now that I finally had my degree in design, I didn’t know where I was going to end up. I did a lot of very different things.
DH: And how did your first watch design project come about?
MSJ: It was 12 years after graduating college, in 2017. I went to Wind-Up NYC, with the hope that, somehow, I’d find a gig designing an actual watch. No real plan, to be honest, other than to go and enjoy myself. I met Michael Seals of the SEALS Watch Company, and after hitting it off, he asked me to design some unique dials for his Model A wristwatch. At the time, I was known in the watch industry a little, having rebranded ABlogToWatch in 2013, then I became a contributor and gained some traction. I also continued to work with ABTW in developing their brand and ongoing design work, so I got to meet people that way. Still, what I really wanted was to get my hands on a watch design project, and Michael Seals gave me that opportunity.
DH: Do you work strictly in two dimensions, i.e., dials, caseback art, and packaging, or does your work extend to things like case design and component specification?
MSJ: I design everything when I can, and I lay everything out as 2-D elevation drawings in Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes my sketches will be included to show depth/axonometric views, or I’ll work with a 3-D artist to make accurate renderings from my elevations. I mainly focus on the visual concept, but I do make sure I understand the technical limitations or required specs for things like water resistance. I’m mindful of that stuff, but I don’t look at it too closely at the beginning. That way I can be imaginative and make something unique.
DH: What watch project are you most proud of?
MSJ: The VERO Workhorse. It was the wildest concept I shared with VERO at the time, and they went for it. They knew it was a quirky watch, and perhaps a bit risky to put into production. But founder Chris Boudreaux just said, “F••• it, I like it. I want to make it regardless.”
Upon launch, the Workhorse was an immediate success. It felt good that my design could deliver on the faith that Chris put into my work.
DH: My favourite design of yours has to be the Laco RAD-AUX field watch, the unofficial tribute to the Fallout game series. It has such a gritty, lived-in look that doesn’t seem inauthentic like many artificially aged objects do. What’s the story behind this epic bit of fan service, and did you face any unexpected roadblocks throughout the journey from design to finished product?
MSJ: I think it seems authentic because, like the faux patina, it’s equally fictional. I wanted to use Laco’s artificial aging to make something that doesn’t or couldn’t exist, rather than try to inauthentically recreate something. My initial inspiration came from Iris Häussler’s Ou Topos installation which I saw in 2012. I was a bit stumped on where to go with the idea at first, but then Ariel Adams suggested the Fallout angle. It was the direction I needed, and I just saturated my brain with research on the series to start. After gaining a more comprehensive idea around the lore, I knew I could make something that looked like a purposeful object from that universe. Sure, anyone could put the Vault-Boy logo on the dial and call it a day…but that isn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to make an in-game item that existed in the real world. Every object in that game has careful consideration behind it, and it makes for an immersive and convincing experience. I designed the RAD-AUX concept in its entirety, packaging and all, for a once-in-a-lifetime pitch to Laco. They loved it, and that project gave me much more credibility as a watch designer.
DH: Our daughter is a huge gamer, and loves the Fallout franchise. How cool would it be to see one of your designs actually written into the code of a new video game? Do you have any ambition to straddle the virtual and physical worlds with an in-game watch that has a real-life counterpart?
MSJ: I would cry tears of joy if they put the RAD-AUX into the Fallout universe. I’m not sure what has changed since 2018, but I actually linked the watch to Vault #43. Through some of the artifacts included in the box, I suggested an unexpected outcome that still ties into the known facts of that vault. As for ambitions to make other gaming-related watches, if it could be done in a meaningful way, I’d be all for it. I think there is plenty of untapped opportunity for that.
DH: Your work on Vero’s Smokey Bear models shows a real affection for vintage poster art. What are some of your influences, watch-related or otherwise, that inform your different designs?
MSJ: The graphic designer in me loved that project. I’m particularly proud that my visage of Smokey Bear (as seen on the Smokey ‘44 dial) will become part of the Smokey asset library. It was easy to find inspiration for Smokey – the visual resources available were incredible.
As for other designs, I approach each project with a blank slate. I have taken inspiration from all sorts of places, and I see each design as a kind of problem-solving. So perhaps, inspiration is not the correct word. Direction, finding other things that point to the solution I’m looking for, that is always unique. It’s one of the things I like best about what I do.
DH: As a follower of your @teenagegrandpa Instagram account, I know you’ve got some out-there pieces in the collection, including two examples of the Omega Speedmaster Teutonic. What are some of your personal standouts in the watchbox, and what’s on your wishlist?
MSJ: I recently acquired a strange and relatively unknown Mares Tectron. It was designed by Giulia Moselli, who seems to be a designer partially forgotten by history. It’s a really cool watch, I’d love to know (and share) more about this piece as a way of honoring Moselli’s legacy. As for my wishlist, I hope to one day have a URWERK, and I have been chasing an Omega Recife for some time. The latter seems to have escaped my financial reach at present. It stings that I missed out when they were considered “undesirable”.
DH: That’s relatable. I remember when original TAG Heuer Formula 1s could be had for peanuts, but now they’re heating up, and nice ones are getting pricey. To put a bow on this, is there anything coming down the pike that you’d like to give us a hint about?
MSJ: As always, I have some cool stuff with VERO on the horizon. Around the time this article goes up, the U.S. Forest service watches will be available. They’re a smaller field watch version of the Workhorse. There are four other projects in the works as well. VERO has been amazing to work with. I’ve also helped build a watch brand from scratch, which is exciting. The watch itself is being prototyped right now, and I’m hopeful it will launch later this year. But that’s all I can say for now!