Words on the eye
Five rounds tried to tell the visitor what the loader is and how to move through it, with text and marks laid on or around the eye. All five were rejected.
The job
A visitor lands on an eye. They need to know that it can be scrolled through time and clicked to enter. The obvious answer is to tell them.
The rounds
- An eye study. Readouts around the eye, like a specimen sheet.
- A U-shaped orbit. The eras' names running in an arc under the eye.
- Edge bands and slices. The neighbouring eras peeking in at the left and right.
- Capsules at the corners of the eye. Then lines and ticks leaving them.
- Instruction without text. The eye acting it out, the cornea as a menu, a ring on the cursor.
completely not looking good… just give me the way it will look
looks disconnected from the idea
Why they all failed
Each one added a layer between the visitor and the eye. The layers differed. The mistake was the same: something laid on top, explaining.
What replaced them
No words on the eye. The message moved into the thing itself: each era's own picture technology says which era you are in, and one sign in the pupil says it opens.
Lineage
You are hereWords on the eye20 Oct 2026