The Adleta Perpetual Calendar
The Adleta Perpetual Calendar
Don Adleta
1981
The guiding principle behind the design of this calendar is to minimize in order to maximize. The design maximizes two sides of fourteen discs to create a perpetual calendar. These fourteen discs take the place of numerous sheets of paper that would be used for traditional calendars over a lifetime. Seven discs were created to allow the year to start on any one of the seven days of the week. An additional seven discs are provided for leap years. The calendar reduces and reuses materials indefinitely.
The Adleta Perpetual Calendar was conceived during post-graduate studies in Typography and Graphic Systems in 1981 at the Basel, School of Design. Developed in Switzerland with the guidance of Wolfgang Weingart and Max Schmid, the Adleta Perpetual Calendar was created by researching various decoders. Visual research resumed in 1992, resulting in a limited edition for FRoNT 5 that received a Silver Award for Most Innovative from the World Calendar Marketing Association. Graphic and industrial design details were refined in 1993, during a teaching appointment at the Wellington Polytechnic in New Zealand. The prototypes created in New Zealand were presented to the MoMA, Department of Sales and Marketing in 1994. Further design refinements were implemented. Production of a limited edition of 1000 was printed at The Tribune Press, Nelsonville, Ohio, during the summer of 1995. A sales campaign was completed for holiday sales of 1995. The calendar was distributed worldwide and sold out within the first year. It is in the permanent collections in Novi Sad Museum of Art and Design, Serbia, in Zurich’s Museum für Gestaltung, and was available at the Museum of Modern Art Bookstore, NY in 1995.
The next edition will be limited to 1000 and will be distributed internationally during the 25th anniversary of its first year of use.