4:20

almost 10 years ago from Carlos Hermosillo, Visual Strategist / Designer

Have you ever noticed how many times designers try to "sneak" the 4:20 into their mockups of anything displaying time? It kind of reminds me of what free masons would do when constructing public edifices, only a little less mysterious.

What are your thoughts about it? Do you think it decreases the professionalism of a piece? Or do you think it's arbitrary and irrelevant?

Just curious to see what the design community thinks. I happen to live in a region of the United States where "4:20" is a common theme and not that big of a deal, but I'm not sure how it plays out nationally and internationally (based on public knowledge and sociology).

Would love to hear your opinions on the matter.

23 comments

Joe Villanueva, almost 10 years ago
Is it actually on purpose? I thought it was simply a default result from the prominence of teehan+lax templates and the times just never changing.
7 points
- Carlos Hermosillo, almost 10 years ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture)
  0 points
- Aaron Sagray, almost 10 years ago
  I got nailed for this by an exec in our company. I had never put two and two together on that time in the comp, until I was punished :/
  Now all of our shiz says 9:41
  1 point
  - Zethus Suen, almost 10 years ago
    Punished? That's a bit too far isn't it? An informative memo would've been enough.
    0 points
    - Aaron Sagray, almost 10 years ago
      I'm being a bit over-dramatic. But it was a stern email.
      1 point
  - Carlos Hermosillo, almost 10 years ago
    Thanks for sharing that, Aaron. That's precisely the kind of repercussion I was curious to hear about. I don't personally know anyone that has had the same negative experience, but your story illuminates an often overlooked "plant" that some people might see in the room. Template or not.
    0 points
  - Aaron Sagray, almost 10 years ago
    "Also, we need to get rid of the 4:20 PM time. Please change it to 9:41 AM. I shouldn't have to remove marijuana references from our products. Not professional."
    1 point
    - Joshua Hughes, almost 10 years ago
      Seriously? Wow. That's one uptight boss...
      0 points
Coleman Tharp, almost 10 years ago
The "4:20" time is a joke stated in this blog post. http://www.teehanlax.com/story/teehan-lax
4 points
- Carlos Hermosillo, almost 10 years ago
  But who is the joke really on? In Aaron's case (above)—it was on him for not being in the know. I often feel this is the case with many designers, and that puts them at risk for being associated with something they possibly have nothing to do with. I guess for the sake of making this somewhat of a "PSA"—I decided to bring it up. I would hate to see creatives blindly present high-level work (no pun intended) without knowledge of the stigma associated with said time. It might be a joke to some, but it goes without saying that certain conservative individuals might find this low-brow and completely unprofessional.
  0 points
Daniël van der Winden, almost 10 years ago
Holy shit, you guys are really over analysing this.
2 points
Ari Sawyers, almost 10 years ago
I always change it to 9:41 AM. 4:20 just looks cheesy.
2 points
- Tierney Cyren, almost 10 years ago
  Why 9:41 specifically?
  0 points
  - Arian Behzadi, almost 10 years ago
    "We design the product launch keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly. And for the iPhone, we made it 42 minutes. It turned out we were pretty accurate with that estimate, so for the iPad, we made it 41 minutes. And there you are—the secret of the magic time."
    via http://qr.ae/TW7t3
    0 points
  - Chad Whitaker, almost 10 years ago
    It's the time displayed on all iOS devices on Apple.com. 9:41 was selected because it was roughly the exact time the iPhone was originally announced.
    More here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1611403/why-941-official-time-apple-product-photos
    0 points
Account deleted almost 10 years ago
I wrote a photoshop script that changes the time on my mockups so that I never look like a fool.
2 points
- Carlos Hermosillo, almost 10 years ago
  Brilliant, Tyler! Is this something you're willing to share with the community? I think many people might find this incredibly helpful and time saving.
  1 point
Jon Kantrowitz, almost 10 years ago
You're reading / thinking into this too much. The 4:20 time is from the Teehan+Lax iOS PSD, which many, including myself use to for wireframes and mockups. http://www.teehanlax.com/tools Unless time is relevant to communicating in your wireframe and mock, why change it...
2 points
- Fred Yates, almost 10 years ago
  I think most people, including myself, think T+L used that specific time in their PSDs because of it's reference to smoking weed.
  If that's not true, I think the truth is lost on most people.
  4 points
Marc Edwards, almost 10 years ago
All of our promo images show 3:03AM, paying homage to Roland’s epic TB-303 synth.
dewwww-dewwww-diki-dewww-dewww-di-dewww!
1 point
Jared Erondu, almost 10 years ago
LOL. Then just use 9:42 AM like Apple does --> http://www.redmondpie.com/heres-why-the-iphones-time-is-always-set-to-942-in-apple-ads/
0 points
Matt Sisto, almost 10 years ago
Lorem take me to your dealer ipsum.
0 points
Matt Sisto, almost 10 years ago
The guy that replaced me at one my old jobs noticed that I had done this a bunch. In my case, it's in production code in a few places. I don't think it is unprofessional, per se. Just silly.
Side note: DN guys. I'd love to be able to filter out message board style posts :-\
0 points

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