← GOOGLE I/O COUNTDOWN

Each year, Instrument designs the website + marketing assets for Google's I/O conference. I was tasked with spearheading the concept for the I/O Countdown, an interactive "clock" that lives on the I/O website and builds suspense as it counts down to the conference start. The countdown would be an abstract art piece that naturally evolved over time, as well as a mathematical visualization that would appeal to our developer audience.

The final concept is centered on Euclidean rhythms. A Euclidean rhythm essentially takes the greatest common divisor of two numbers to generate a rhythm of beats in the most equidistant way possible. This concept was used to create our Save the Date puzzle preceding the I/O Countdown reveal so it felt appropriate to string Euclidean rhythms through both interactive experiences.

In the Countdown, a set of four Euclidean rhythms were generated using the current value of each time unit paired with the total value possible within that unit. For instance, 20 days left would create a rhythm of 20/75 and 33 seconds left would be 33/60. Each looping rhythm would be represented as a ring with the activated steps visible as dark circles and the currently played beat as a colored circle. Below are a few of the initial visual explorations showing the evolving of the inner seconds ring as the seconds count down.

Agency: Instrument
Producer: Erin Shorthill
Creative Director: Dan Schechter
Designer: Rosalind Chang
Motion: Clint Beastwood