Behind the scenes: Silent Shadow

May 30, 2022

We’ve added another emerging designer to our roster of artists and illustrators. For our latest limited edition design, we’ve teamed up with the award-winning Yico Liu for Silent Shadow

Our latest release is the first time we’ve worked with Yico, who graduated from the University of the Arts London and studied Visual Communication Design in the US as an undergraduate. 

Having lived in China, the UK and the US, Yico takes inspiration from the three cultures for her bright and colorful designs. 

She was also a finalist in the prestigious 2021 Communication Arts Illustration Competition, winning a bronze medal in the student category. 

And now she’s designing for our latest watch release! 

Inner demons that hold us back was the inspiration behind her design, which features a character’s face with blue transparent monster hands covering and caressing it. 

Here’s what she had to say about her inspiration: 

“My design is about those feelings and thoughts that hold us back. 

"I visualize these feelings as being like a monster who I can’t see but who messes things up for us. 

"Sometimes the monster covers our mouth or covers our eyes to stop us from seeing or expressing ourselves as we want to.

“The monster in my design is a bit ambiguous - at some times it looks like it’s cuddling or stroking the face while at others it’s smothering or strangling it, like maybe sometimes it’s nice to not see or not speak. 

"The design fits into a larger body of work that I’ve made which explores the different monsters that people are carrying with them. 

"The title of the watch refers to the idea that while we can try and outrun these monsters they are as tied to us as our shadows.”

We worked closely with Yico to bring her concept to life and agree on the story behind her unique design. 

Silent Shadow encourages its wearer to confront and make friends with the hidden monsters we all have within us. 

Once the design and the mechanics were agreed upon, our talented team went to work with mixing each individual color in the design one-by-one. 

Printing the two monster hands, which represent the hours and minutes, using semi-transparent ink was a particularly fun part of the process for the team. 

It also gave the monster hands a ghostly feel to them. 

The team then hand assembled 100 pieces of Silent Shadow in our London workshop ahead of the release.