I was interested in this third year project, so I took it up. I was to design a product with the theme being 'Slow', to find a way to meaningfully counter-balance a life of increasing speed. I decided to design a variable salt timer with a a pepper shaker added on. As the salt flows down, it gives the illusion that time is passing slowly hence letting the user feel relaxed and calm while cooking or doing other activities. The timer, having no ring, would be a drawback, but some would look at this as a sign of not being bound by time.

The inner and outer chambers of the timer would be isolated. The inner chamber contains pepper while the outer chamber contains salt. The outer chamber is sealed off and used as a medium for the measurement of time.The two sides of the timer are linked by a rotating joint, which regulates the amount of salt that can pass through. Therefore for different positions of the joint, the time taken for the salt to pass through is different. The black and white colors offer good contrast.