METHODOLOGY
​
The creation of Timecoins
​
This is my very personal method for creating visual digital art. It’s not efficient. It’s certainly not mainstream. It’s slow, frustrating, unconventional—but it's completely mine. It fits me. It gives me the result I want. That’s why I use it.
​
Why "Timecoins & TimecoinsNFT"? — The origin of the name.
Before anything, I needed a canvas, to bring stability to chaos, something that allows symmetry when needed—a foundation for the concepts I wanted to express.
​
I have a deep passion for time and for timepieces. Whether someone lives across time zones as a lifelong expat as I have, or someone living a steady “métro-boulot-dodo” routine, time defines us, time is our reference, it contextualize our lives, our realities. It’s our most inescapable constraint. So I wanted time to be part of the medium itself, to contextualize the theme, the subject of each Timecoin.
​
As I have a passion for and professional experience with watchmaking, I was considering watch dials to be my canvas—but something was missing with using watch dials as canvas, a universal symbol of value and an easier space to work with.
Round as a watch dial, simple surface to work with, signifying value... naturally a coin came to mind, it carries worth, heritage, and symbolism.
​
That’s how “Timecoins” were born, a fusion of time and value as my spacetime canvas. The Fleur-de-Lys custom logo with an embedded clock relates to my personal identity.
​
​
The 3 Stages of Timecoin Creation
Timecoins are not generated—they are imagined & crafted.
Stage 1 – the Digital Art source – The Concept and Story
​
This stage begins in the mind. Each Timecoin starts with a theme—a story or human/philosophical reflection/observation.
Some are universal, some personal. Some abstract, others concrete. Often paradoxes or deep truths. The hardest ones are those that resist visual representation.
​
I'm inspired by visual art I’ve seen everywhere, what speaks to me, what doesn’t, how I see emotions, contradictions, paradoxes, world symbolism, contrasts.
​
I research, reflect, and sketch (mentally, mostly). I aim to distill the idea down to its core— looking for the one symbolic element that says it all. Every detail on the coin has meaning, even if I let you interpret it your way. I plant a seed—you grow your own story, your own message from it.
​
Stylistically, I aim for visual pleasure. I like intensity, richness, contrast. I want to turn drama into derision, pain into irony. Not through sarcasm, but through beauty and depth.
I imagine on how to bring it all together in a surreal and/or organic style, to fit it on a coin, to include time as a unique monochrome or duochrome metallic style piece. I make multiple drafts on screen, to have a feel, quite a bit of trial and error, until I think I have a plan.
​
Metals I work with graphically are Silver, Bronze, Copper, Brass and rusted versions of them, with a new feel or old feel or a mix, mat or polished mirror finishes, and various types of gold colors, depending on the significance, contrast and level of premium value, on what fits best the expression I try to create.
Stage 2 – Digital Craftsmanship – Making the Timecoin – The Building of Components
​
Digital craftsmanship by hand - not generative art. The Timecoins are crafted in parts rather than as a single painted piece but are then finished as a single seamless pixel by pixel painting in the last stage. This is where the work gets technical, and is deeply personal.
​
Even if many (if not most) digital art are made from software tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop and image generators, those don’t work for me and I am not familiar enough with those for me to create as I want, the way I want with the control and details that I want.
​
I prefer to use my own life long self-built method of working which still involves various graphics, rendering and pixel by pixel editing tools in various combinations that served me well for industrial design and schematics I get what I aim for with authenticity.
​
Making a Timecoin is a case by case effort and process to reach the goal I have in mind, making each one truly unique. The toolkit and my manual method gives me the flexibility and control that I need.
​
​
Stage 3 – Digital Jeweling – Assembly and Final Refinement
​
Digital Jeweling is my favorite term for the final phase when the new Timecoin comes together also the most frustrating requiring lots of patience.
This stage us when I assemble the Timecoins components digitally crafted as analogue elements — I do not use graphic layers, instead I merge parts together manually starting with position priority on a single layer — very much like mounting tiny gems one by one into a piece of jewelry. Matching shadows, light, scale, and linework, manually adjusting elements just like an artisan would with physical components, hence the use for pixel by pixel editing to perfect matching of elements.
​
Over 100+ iterations can be needed in the process, when things don’t come together as wanted, I have to scrap it and start over with revisions on stage 2 or a full redo, over and over again, until… the art piece expresses what I want, until I can say… “this… is what I was going for”. I spend hours to refine it, to streamline it, while increasing intensity, like product design: iterate and distill until it “clicks.”. This stage is frustrating, delicate, and slow—but its worth it.​
​
Once it’s done, it’s done. Just like a painting, the creation has a finality, after its genesis, it may exist for ever.
​
Final Thoughts
​
Could I automate this? Probably.
But it wouldn’t be the same and I rather spend my time creating.
​
These Timecoins are not mass-produced. They are digitally hand-built my way, as analogue, organic, surreal pieces, deeply thought-through, and crafted for those who enjoy my designs, my style and see meaning in them.
​
I’m now semi-retired. Whether these NFTs sell or not, Timecoins are something I want to leave behind: a creative legacy from a lifetime of living the world, of global work, science, art, philosophy, and a love of time.
​
It’s either this… or writing a book. 😉
But I think this is more fun to look at.