The Hexagon Project - Bakabaka Design - Bakabaka Design

The Hexagon Project

Do you know that feeling when a small idea keeps on growing and changing? That’s what happened to my Hexagon Project.

It started with a single, purple hexagon. No big deal. I put in the number ‘001’, and intended to change or add a small thing to the illustration every day. And increase the number, of course.

The Hexagon Project was born.

: 001

: 002

: 003

: 004

: 005

: 006

: 007 James Bond

: 008

: 009

Uncommissioned work for inspiration

For a designer, I think uncommissioned, free work very important. Free work is work that you do for yourself, not for a customer. It’s inspiring, and allows you to challenge yourself. Learn new techniques. Try new software. It broadens your views.

I made the Hexagon Project to commit myself to doing free work. It’s one of those things that I tend to forget about in the daily grind. I set an aim at 366 Hexagons to keep myself occupied for at least a year.

Trivia

Quickly, I found ways to make small references and jokes, usually related to the number. You may have spied (ha!) the James Bond reference in 007, above. 020 has one to Amsterdam, 030 to Utrecht. Of course, 042 references The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

: 020 Amsterdam

: 024 Twenty-Four

: 030 Utrecht

: 035 mm film

: 042 Stay close to your towel

: 054 Genjimon

Originally, I posted this project on social media during 2015, 2016 and 2017. In most posts, I used the trivia as a comment.

However, finding a fitting trivium wasn’t always easy! The project taught me a lot, including that Penelope had 108 suitors, that TAKI 183 was an influential graffiti artist, and that Derrick had a total of 281 episodes. Wikipedia was one of the biggest helps here.

Plans and surprises

The project tended to surprise me. Lots of the effects I created in the different hexes are logical progressions. Functions in Illustrator, which I tweaked the variables of by a little every day.

Some things I planned meticulously. The bee in 056-066 is an example. But often, I was surprised by a simple process that turned out very beautiful. One of those was the concentric circle pattern in the hex on the lower right that lasted from 183 through 243.

I did plan the end. The idea of ending at number 366 was there from the start. I also knew I wanted to come full circle: have 366 be identical to 001.

Judge for yourself, in 36 seconds:

Hexagon Project Prints

Have a favourite? Tell me, and I can make you a print of it. Get in touch, and let me know which one you like!

Here are all of them, in order.

: 001

: 002

: 003

: 004

: 005

: 006

: 007 James Bond

: 008

: 009

: 010

: 011

: 012

: 013 Warehouse 13

: 014

: 015

: 016 A full byte

: 017

: 018

: 019

: 020 Amsterdam

: 021

: 022

: 023 The Big Lebowski

: 024 Twenty-Four

: 025

: 026

: 027

: 028

: 029

: 030 Utrecht

: 031

: 032

: 033

: 034

: 035 mm film

: 036 Views of Mt. Fuji

: 037

: 038

: 039

: 040

: 041

: 042 Stay close to your towel

: 043

: 044

: 045

: 046

: 047

: 048

: 049

: 050

: 051

: 052 cards in a pack

: 053 Herbie

: 054 Genjimon

: 055

: 056

: 057

: 058

: 059 Feminism in the 60s

: 060

: 061

: 062

: 063

: 064

: 065

: 066 Route 66

: 067

: 068

: 069

: 070

: 071

: 072 Ars Goetia

: 073

: 074

: 075

: 076

: 077

: 078 cards in a Tarot deck

: 079 atomic number for Gold

: 080 Around the World with Passepartout

: 081 ZX81

: 082

: 083

: 084 years in Uranus’s orbit

: 085

: 086 ’86ed’

: 087

: 088 Chinese lucky number

: 089

: 090 degrees in a right angle

: 091

: 092

: 093

: 094 ‘continued on page 94’

: 095 Luther’s theses

: 096

: 097

: 098

: 099 Who rolled a 7?

: 100

: 101 Dalmatians

: 102

: 103

: 104 keys on a standard Windows keyboard

: 105

: 106

: 107 17 USC 107: Fair Use

: 108 suitors for Penelope

: 109

: 110 meters in Olympic hurdles

: 111 Eleventy-one

: 112 Emergency phone number in Europe

: 113

: 114

: 115

: 116 years duration of the Hundred Years’ War

: 117 Lockheed F-117

: 118 oganesson, the heaviest element synthesised

: 119 project 119, for more Olympic Gold for China

: 120 ’till 120′

: 121 holes in a Halma board

: 122

: 123 Egyptian ATM network

: 124

: 125 125-(Oh)2D, Calcitriol

: 126 seventh magic number in nuclear physics

: 127

: 128 number of characters in ASCII

: 129 AD, birth of Galen of Pergamon

: 130 speed limit on Dutch roads in km/h

: 131 iodine-131

: 132 Yo Soy 132

: 133 133+, Leet

: 134

: 135 Stony Plain Indian Reserve 135

: 136 KHz, lowest frequency for amateur radio

: 137 heaviest possible element according to Bohr

: 138 ‘We are 138’ by Misfits

: 139 AD: Zhang Heng dies, Chinese scientist

: 140 characters in a Tweet

: 141 AD: Haley’s Comet passes Earth

: 142 staircases in Hogwarts

: 143 pager code for ‘I love you’

: 144 tiles in Chinese Mahjongg

: 145 miles in the Grand Union Canal Race

: 146 BC: the Third Punic War ends

: 147 maximum break in Snooker

: 148 Dunbar’s number

: 149 Nix v. Hedden: are tomatoes fruit?

: 150 power stars in Super Mario 64DS

: 151 Bacardi 151

: 152 You’ve got Mail: NY152

: 153 Dewey code for mental processes

: 154 sonnets by Shakespeare

: 155 maximum single break score with a free ball in snooker

: 156 hourly gongs a day

: 157 Riverside Avenue by Reo Speedwagon

: 158 international goals for Mia Hamm

: 159 highest score in darts without a checkout

: 160 characters in an SMS

: 161 Fiorina ‘Fury’ 161

: 162 games in a season of Major League baseball

: 163 NetEase or 163.com

: 164 grey squares on a Scrabble board

: 165 AD: Antonine Plague breaks out

: 166 Ferrari 166S

: 167 ECMA-167 or ‘Universal Disk Format’

: 168 hours in a week

: 169 non-equivalent starting hands in Texas Hold’em

: 170 AD: Ptolemy’s work on cartography is published

: 171 E171, or TiO2, a white colorant

: 172 Cessna 172

: 173 Hours in Captivity by Neelesh Misra

: 174 average bpm in Drum and Bass

: 175 paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code

: 176 pill imprint 176, acetaminophen

: 177 number of double wins by Martina Navratilova

: 178 Heinkel He 178

: 179 AD: the Romans replace a fort near Regensburg

: 180 Final Destination

: 181 destroyer escort USS Haynes, DE-181

: 183 TAKI 183, influential graffiti writer

: 182 Blink-182

: 184 age of the oldest tortoise (in 2016)

: 185 hexagons walk into a bar

: 186 Kosmos 186

: 187 Californion Penal Code for murder

: 188 AD: Himiko, shaman queen, starts her reign

: 189 ISO standard for ceramic tiles for floors and walls

: 190 intended Pokémon in the first generation

: 191 unlucky number in aviation

: 192 19-2, Canadian police drama series

: 193 episodes in first TM Ninja Turtles series

: 194 Palestine 194

: 195 independent countries (in 2016)

: 196 yoga sutras of Patañjali

: 197 Au is the only stable gold isotope

: 168 X-Men: the 198

: 199 Lives: the Travis Pastrana Story

: 200 http status code 200

: 201 Star Trek TNG episode 11001001

: 202 E202, potassium sorbate

: 203 Bell number for 7

: 204 indemnity article in Aouth African penal law

: 205 places named ‘San Antonio’

: 206 bones in an adult human skeleton

: 207 steps in the staircase in El Miguelete, Valencia

: 208 mountains above 3,000m in Switzerland

: 209 congeners of Polychlorinated biphenyl

: 210 cards in the Magic: the Gathering set ‘Conspiracy’

: 211 national associations in FIFA (in 2016)

: 212 a fragrance series by Carolina Herrera

: 213 hip hop trio

: 214 radicals in the Kangxi Unicode block

: 215 marijuana

: 216 digits in the number in the film ‘π’

: 217 Personae to collect in Persona 4

: 218 BC: emperor Qin Shi Huang evades assassination

: 219 Work 216: Landscape by H.R. Giger

: 220 electricity mains voltage

: 221 B, Baker Street

: 222 possible square hexasticks

: 223 million ‘white’ Americans (in 2016)

: 224 ounces in a stone

: 225 kg weight lost by Manuel Uribe

: 226 ‘fuck’s in Scarface

: 227 NBC sitcom

: 228 the 228 incident

: 229 hours in the longest DJing session

: 230 space groups in counting chirality

: 231 cubic inches in a US fluid gallon

: 232 million international migrants in 2013

: 233 13th Fibonacci number

: 234 U-234, important uranium isotope

: 235 full moons in a metonic cycle

: 236 possible positions after two rounds of reversi

: 237 The Shining

: 238 BC: the Rosetta Stone was created

: 239 chapters in the Book of Mormon

: 240 mg/dL cholesterol or more: heart disease risk

: 241 by Reel Big Fish

: 242 Front 242

: 243 earth days in one Venus rotation

: 244 holes in 24 hours: world record

: 245 million widows in the world (2016)

: 246 total female senators in the USA as of 2009

: 247 around the clock

: 248 positive commands in the Torah

: 249 butchers in Brussels in 2014

: 250 Mandarin slang for ‘simpleton’

: 251 Freedom 251

: 252 trading days in an average year

: 253 by Geoff Ryman

: 254 episodes in the Buffyverse

: 255 maximum value of eight bits

: 256 2 to the power of 8

: 257 different convex polyhedra with 8 vertices

: 258 AD: Nanjing University is founded

: 259 episodes of Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show

: 260 days in the Tonalpohualli calendar

: 261 lowest number without a Wikipedia page (2016)

: 262 Messerschmitt ME 262 ‘Schwalbe’

: 263 Prinsengracht: Anne Frank Huis

: 264 sum of all permutations of 2, 4, and 6

: 265 BC: Archimedes invents his screw

: 266 days in a typical human pregnancy

: 267 + a googol is a prime

: 268 BC: the first Denarius is minted

: 269 September 26th is the 269th day of the year

: 270 bones in a newborn human’s skeleton

: 271 ninth centered hexagonal number

: 272 article 272 of Dutch Civil Law

: 273 seconds in 4’33”

: 274 B-29 bombers attacked Osaka, March 14th, 1945

: 275 world record simultaneous clarinet playing

: 276 people saved by Paul in Acts 27

: 277 miles: length of the Grand Canyon

: 278 K-278 Komsomolets nuclear submarine

: 279 mm length of US letter

: 280 pK: lowest temperature ever created as of 1993

: 281 episodes in Derrick

: 282 episodes in MythBusters (2016)

: 283 constellations in the Suzhou Star Chart

: 284 language versions of Wikipedia (2016)

: 285 issues of Nintendo Power

: 286 Intel 80286 AT microprocessor

: 287 lawyers per 1,000,000 inhabitants in Japan

: 288 Glauke, asteroid in the asteroid belt

: 289 article of Dutch Penal Code about murder

: 290 unique cards in Magic: the Gathering’s first edition

: 291 Avant-garde art and design magazine

: 292 Birch Bark letter 292, oldest document in Finnish

: 293 HEK 293 cells

: 294 Toshiba 8TM-294 transistor radio

: 295 episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

: 296 episodes of Hamtaro anime

: 297 is a Kaprekar number

: 298 death toll of MH17

: 299 issues of Safarir magazine

: 300 This! Is! Sparta!

: 301 AD: San Marino splits off of the Roman Empire

: 302 http code: temporary redirect

: 303 non-leap years in 400 years

: 304 three-nought-four, trick-taking game

: 305 Child ballads

: 306 Records, based in Saskatchewan

: 307 Grand Slam wins for Serena Williams (3-9-2016)

: 308 BC: Cleopatra of Macedon dies

: 309 road between Whitianga and Coromandel

: 310 poshest areas in Los Angeles

: 311 Nebraska reggae, funk, hip hop and rock band

: 312 Urban Wheat, ale by Goose Island Brewery

: 313 license plate of Donald Duck’s car

: 314 project, Buffy’s ‘the Initiative’

: 315 NCR 315, computer from 1962

: 316 title of an episode of ‘Lost’

: 317 AD: first verified reference to tea

: 318 earth masses in Jupiter

: 319 song by Prince

: 320 Airbus 320

: 321 3-2-1, game show with Ted Rogers

: 322 part of the Skull and Bones logo

: 323 Brucia, asteroid

: 324 Canal 3/24, Catalan tv channel

: 325 Rickenbacker 325 guitar

: 326 AD: Constantine the Great executes his son and wife

: 327 Agent 327, Dutch comic series

: 328 sum of the first 15 primes

: 329 study to effects of Paroxetine

: 330 dimples on a British golf ball

: 331 model in particle physics

: 332 BC: origin of a preserved body in Susa, Kazachstan

: 333 numerological name of Chronozon

: 334 by Thomas M. Disch, SF book

: 335 Mr. 335, Larry Carlton

: 336 possible moves by a Knight

: 337 episodes in original CSI

: 338 Spike & Suzy issue #338

: 339 Ze339, herbal hay fever reliever

: 340 Latécoère 340

: 341 BC: Epicurus is born

: 342 rpm, ice skating spinngin world record (2017)

: 343 Guilt Spark

: 344 million km traveled by Pokémon Go users (1-3-2017)

: 345 Braille pattern for ä, ar, or >

: 346 longest unicycle chain (2017)

: 347 BC: Plato dies

: 348 Ferrari 348

: 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag

: 350.org

: 351 people in a mob forming a pac-man

: 352 +352, Luxembourg calling code

: 353 cappucinos in an hour: world record

: 354 days in a lunar year

: 355 / 113 ≈ π

: 356 Porsche 356

: 357 .357 Magnum

: 358 Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

: 359 Battle of Wolf 359

: 360 degrees in a circle

: 361 positions on a Go board

: 362 Dallas 362

: 363 AD: Huns reach Europe

: 364 BC: sunspots discovered

: 365 Icelandic media corp

: 366 Vincentina, asteroid