Kuro Time Design is 1 year old !
Today 1 year ago I launched this watchfaces blog.
When I bought my first Fossil Hybrid HR watch, the black Collider version, as soon as Fossil allowed to use your own pictures as backgrounds, I began designing simple watchfaces. As it was fun enough to have a chance to last more than a couple of monthes, I decided to make a blog to share it, hoping not to be fed up too soon. One year after I'm still at it !
As it is a project driven by fun, I don't answer to people asking me to change this or that ... it would be endless and time consuming. You don't like what I do ? Don't use it. You would like something different ? do it by yourself and share it, then you will contribute too. Otherwise you can pay me but don't expect it to be cheap.
Here is the very first watch face I shared ... And I'm confident to say it's not my best 😅 :
A FREE PROJECT
It's a personal project not designed to make money, so I didn't monetize this blog.This is my own investment in making something for my pleasure and sharing it for free. After all, during many years I used free resources of the internet, so it was time to offer my little contribution. I don't get the slightest money or advantage from this blog. I didn't even bother to place a link for people who would like to make a small donation (some asked me if they could pay something for my watchfaces). I should, OK, I know ...
AN INDEPENDANT PROJECT
It was an unambitious project. I just wanted to have my sharing space for watchfaces. I didn't do it for any sort of fame but didn't want to be used by others as well. The blog turned out to have quite a lot of visitors for such a small thing and so ... I had to turn down some offers from people who wanted to take my work for their personal advantage.
NOT BEING USED
The world is full of this kind of people so here is my suggestion : as soon as you produce something, some people will try to take your work to make money for themselves. They are like parasites, they don't create anything but wanna use others work to make money. If you don't intend to make money for yourself from something you do with your heart, don't let other people use you and stay as free and independent as possible. WATERMARK YOUR WORK, include your signature, even as design elements whenever it's possible.
NOT BEING CENSORED
Choosing a platform was not so easy. I wanted to share it by myself on the most neutral network possible. I don't need anybody to share my humble work, today making a blog like this one is extremely easy. So, if I can give another advice, choose wisely your platform. You don't want anybody with a cultural or religious bias report your work and get it removed because a bigot saw anything sexual somewhere or something that doesn't fit in their narrow minded vision of the world.
BEING COPIED
If your work is watermarked properly, clever people will always find a way to remove it. But it will take some more time and efforts. So it may prove quite useless for people who doesn't want to really work on something. Ultimately, it is always possible to copy what you make. But it will take time and work, and doing so, people will often change things, they will appropriate your ideas and turn it into something new. This is good. This is creative. Sometimes I have seen my watchfaces simply ripped of the Kuro brand and was angry because it's just lame. That's bad, period. But when I see people taking inspiration in some element from my watchfaces to make actually new ones, I'm proud and happy !
KEEPING IT FUN
As it's not commercial, I don't need to force myself to work on it. That would kill all the fun and inspiration. I design watchfaces when I feel it, when ideas come. And I can take long breaks when I'm too busy or have no idea. This is why updates of this blog are not scheduled. But with more than 160 posts in one year ... it's not too bad !
WHAT'S NEXT ?
I'm not fed up yet with this blog, so expect new watchfaces and some papers from time to time. Have fun !
... AND THANKS FOR ALL THE LOVE ...
Kuro