Time Design relies on a few key elements: recurrence, subjectivity, intensity, and scope.
Scope: The range of actions or viewpoints within a given moment, and, conceptually, the range of ideas one’s mind can grasp.
his single-panel sketch compacts an efficient narrative: We see a toaster oven, still plugged in, and a grave site next to the counter where toast never materialized.
Subjectivity: Depicting a subject experiencing the passage of time through emotion, action, or movement.
In this three-panel sketch, we see Subjectivity at work, with intensification. The subject is seen waiting in the first pane, and then a stylization of toast as a clock signifies a passage of time (to reinforce/intensify the wristwatch from the first pane), and then in the final panel, we see a skull with attached cobwebs. This peak intensity, coupled with a toaster that still hasn’t produced toast, exaggerates the feeling of waiting – literally forever.
Intensity: Sequential exaggeration of particular attributes within a series of images.
n this final sequence, a four-panel sketch, we see a similar use of intensification. The subject ages, and dies. The toast materializes only after the subject has passed.