Hands TV

When is tricky these days, but it’s the only question my expectant monkey mind can ask. Time feels especially squishy this year, as my daily schedule drifts further and further away from the traditional 9-5 work window and months slip by and weeks drag on. It’s been hard to get my arms around time, but my best estimate is that I do this thing every other week or so, and I want to tell you about it.

Whenever I When? myself into agitation; whenever an iffy day gets its claws into me in a previously unimaginable 2020-ish way; whenever I find myself pausing on walks wanting to knock the phones out of people’s hands; whenever it’s a gloomy November in my soul and I have to pause for a moment to remember the month, I escape to the sofa to cleanse myself with a couple hours of what I have endearingly named Hands TV.

Black gloves, screwdrivers, wrenches, rotary grinders, isopropyl alcohol, sandblasters, and toothbrushes… all working on chainsaws, toy trucks, unidentified military components, and Game Boys. Time-lapse restoration videos have become my escape from 2020. I fire up the YouTube app and sit through hours of dudes scrubbing and grinding on old busted junk until my shadow lifts and progress, justice, peace, safety, and a smile feel possible again.

I began watching Hands TV out of curiosity. An interest in Japanese woodcut prints led me to videos about Japanese joinery and hand tools. The algorithm extended this logical path into a delirious wish for decontextualized restoration videos of Egyptian daggers, and off I went down the autoplay road. It’s been true love ever since.

The rules of the genre are straight-forward:

  • Only restore items that fit on a workbench
  • The first and last shot must always be your hands placing the object on the workbench
  • No talking, no music
  • No faces, only hands
  • Wear gloves most of the time
  • Jump cuts galore
  • After disassembly, Knoll all the parts together for one hero shot
  • Sanding and grinding sequences should be sped up to 2-3× (you eventually acclimate to the sounds that resemble dental work)
  • Use time-lapse footage when needed, especially when soaking parts in rust remover or ultrasonic cleaning solution
  • Tersely label what you’re doing with text in the corner
  • Always provide a link to your screwdriver kit and merch
  • Chekov’s blowtorch (if you see a blowtorch in any shot, it will be used)

Hands TV has become a way to fill time while stuck in my quarantine haze, an unlikely antidote to media-induced despair, and a counterpoint to doomscrolling. It is care as entertainment: a fulfilled wish to watch something come together instead of fall apart, and an opportunity to witness a reversal of neglect with low emotional and cognitive overhead. This perspective is a tiny bit treacly and very much an overreach, but it’s been a tough year, I’m exhausted, and tri-hex screwdrivers now get me emotional. Beyond all that, there is very often fire and burnt stuff. If you’re curious, I’ve linked a few of my favorite videos below.

Vintage Pencil Sharpener Restoration by Odd Tinkering
Seized 1960s Chainsaw Restoration by Will Matthews
Antique Kitchen Scale restoration by my mechanics
Antique Rusty Cleaver Restoration by The Small Workshop
Game Boy restoration by TysyTube Restoration

Frank Chimero Designing & writing

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer from New York. Currently, I’m on sabbatical walking NYC, investigating new creative tooling, and researching Brian Eno’s collaborations with machines.

Email me    More info

Portrait of Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design A short book for new designers about the design mindset

Buy from Amazon Buy from Indie Read online Download

Writing Selected essays
and lectures

An anvil tied to a balloon
Everything Easy is Hard Again Is it twenty years of experience in tech or five years, repeated four times? 2018
A grid of wood cubes
The Web’s Grain Design by thinking inside the box model 2015
Time lapse image of a galloping horse
What Screens Want Design as choreography instead of composition 2013
A rose growing out of a pile of dirt
Only Openings Some problems must be tended instead of solved. 2014
Two torn pieces of paper matched together
Designing in the Borderlands Designer as translator, integrator, and merchant of ideas 2014

Blog 2009–?

About CV and bio

Hi, I’m Frank Chimero, a designer and writer from New York.

Previously, I was Creative Director and Head of Brand at the payments platform Modern Treasury. Before that, I co-founded and led design at Abstract, a design workflow and knowledge base startup that was later aquired by Adobe.

I also spent fifteen years running a solo design studio and consultancy, designing across product and brand for technology and media companies. Clients include Facebook, Microsoft, Nike, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and many early stage startups. I helped design a few things during that time you’ve probably used, from NPR’s online audio player to Wikipedia’s article pages.

In 2012, I wrote, designed, illustrated, and published The Shape of Design, a little book for new designers about the design mindset and making things for other people. Since the book’s launch, it has become a staple text in design education and found an enthusiastic audience beyond the design community.

I have a big love for museums, beat-up pocket-edition paperbacks, ambient music, antique JRPGs, and Phil Collins. (Nobody’s perfect.)

Experience

  • Sabbatical
  • Creative Director and Head of Brand Modern Treasury
  • Creative Director Fictive Kin
  • Self-employed Studio Frank
  • Co-Founder and Head of Design Abstract (acq. Adobe)
  • Self-employed Studio Frank

Select interviews

Select press

Awards

  • ADC Young Guns 8 Art Directors Club
  • New Visual Artist Print Magazine

Speaking

  • AIGA National Conference
    US
  • AIGA Regional Events
    US
  • An Interesting Day
    NO
  • Awwwards Conference
    DE
  • Build Conference
    UK
  • Creative Works
    US
  • Cusp Conference
    US
  • dConstruct
    UK
  • Design Speaks
    US
  • Design Thinkers
    CA
  • Do Lectures
    UK
  • Etsy
    US
  • Harvard University
    US
  • How Design Live
    US
  • Interlink Conference
    CA
  • Kerning Conference
    IT
  • Mailchimp
    US
  • Mirror Conference
    PT
  • New Adventures
    UK
  • Portable Series
    AU
  • School of Visual Arts
    US
  • Shopify
    CA
  • South by Southwest
    US
  • Substans
    NO
  • Webstock
    NZ
  • XOXO Festival
    US