hopes for life.


Designed to last a life time, this diary runs for 82 years, our current life expectancy.

This project came from asking people their expectations for their lives. Peoples' responses were so packed full of expectations for having it all I began to recognise that to spend your whole life trying to reach some point in the future would be a waste of the life you're living now. The diary was a response to the burden that we often feel of waiting to start living our lives.

The design won first place in an international competition set by New York designer Stefan Sagmeister. The brief was to 'Touch someone's heart with design' The diary has one week per page for eighty two years.
I hand stiched and bound this exact working version for an exhibition at the Sea gallery in London. Viewers at the exhibition were asked to write an expectation for their life in the diary at the date at which they hoped to reach it.

Described by Stefan Sagmeister:

"A daily planner for ones entire life, allowing you to have your an entire lifespan in front of you on your desk. Because of its size, it allows you at all times to see where you are in life, what you did so far, where you were 10 years ago, reminding you about mortality, and encouraging to spend a life wisely. Waste not a moment, Tibor [Kalmans] mantra, is beautifully brought to life. The fact that all this is possible from a humble piece of graphic design made it easily the winner in my eyes."