the framing of motion

“Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.” — The times change, and we change with them.

When Philip came in, he carried this Latin phrase not just as a new life motto but also as an abstract inquiry into how we experience the passage of time. During our open-ended consultation, he shared a memory from his childhood: sitting in the back seat of his parents' car on rainy drives home, watching raindrops race across the window as the outside world blurred past.

We reflected together on how modern life is so often observed through frames (windows, viewfinders, photographs, and digital screens) freezing moments in time as they slip away in real life.

Guided by this nuance of framing, we represented time's velocity using a sequence of three distinct visual boxes. Within each frame, abstract shadows stretch and blur with increasing speed, mimicking the rush of scenery viewed from a fast moving car. Overlaid across all three frames are delicate raindrops, acting as a fluid bridge that connects the sequence. As the water bends, absorbs, and refracts the shifting shadows beneath it, the design shows how we too absorb the chaos of time and adapt to it.

A childhood memory has now evolved into a profound visual thesis on change through time and he can look down and know that no matter how fast the world moves outside the window, he possesses the ability to evolve along with it.