A set of great handy stationery designs are extremely critical for any product designer! These are the tools that help and support you through your creative process. They can either make or break your entire design process, so it’s imperative to have a collection that really lets you work easily, efficiently, and effectively. And, we’ve curated a collection of innovative and nifty stationery designs that every product designer must own! From a modular pencil that reduces waste to a SpaceX-inspired pen, these products are sure to meet the unique needs and requirements of your creative process. And not to mention, they’re also super fun! They add a pop of life and color to your workdesk, while also managing to liven up your mood with their quirky + functional design. Which one of these stationery designs do you plan to use? Oh, and you can thank us later! Enjoy.
1. Tsugite
Tsugite is a reusable pencil system that uses a Japanese joinery method called tsugite. Park conceptualized Tsugite to come in a pack, stored with around twelve pencil bodies and their corresponding ends. The pencil body was crafted to form an arrow-shaped end piece that links into a horseshoe-shaped pencil tip. Once the pencil’s tip is too dull for use, the same body can still be used and another tip piece can be attached. While no hardware or joinery pieces are required to join the two modules together, users can rest assured the pencil tip and body are secure in place considering this same crafty joinery method is relied upon to build homes.
2. The O N Tape Dispenser
This is the O N tape dispenser by Fountain Studio, designed specifically to address all these issues while being aesthetically functional and good-looking. Most of all, it brings one-handed use to the good old tape dispenser, a feature that all of us will highly appreciate. The design of O N is centered on the two holes at the bottom. The first hole keeps the tape bonded and pressed to the rubber pad for uninterrupted, continuous usability. The second hole has a button along the cutter sign to cut the tape off when required. This way, the user doesn’t have to bring the second hand into play which can be an irk at times with conventional tape dispensers.
3. The DRILLOG
A cross between a brush, a pen, and a quill, the DRILLOG is stationery at its absolute finest. Designed and made in Japan, the dip-pen features a drill-inspired nib that catches ink in its different hollow grooves when you dip it in ink, and the ink gradually travels down to the tip by virtue of gravity, giving you a new, elevated writing experience that doesn’t just translate to great penmanship on paper, it’s also a sheer pleasure to look at as the ink gathers in the nib’s finely machined spiral grooves, and travels down as you write.
4. The Nominal Pen
Inspired by the democratization of space travel and how one private company, founded by Elon Musk is leading the charge to make space-travel accessible to all, the Nominal Pen is literally designed to look like a rocket… making it perhaps the most literal take on the ‘space pen’. The pen’s name comes from the term ‘nominal’, often used for when everything’s going smoothly and according to plan. Designed as a celebration of SpaceX’s recent achievements of being the only private company to send humans to the ISS and bring them back (while even retrieving parts of the spaceship to be reused at a later date – something nobody’s ever done), the Nominal Pen models itself on the Falcon series of rockets (the Falcon 9 Block 5 in particular).
5. Project Rotate x Yuki Kawae desktop Zen garden hand rakes
This collection between Project Rotate and Yuki Kawae features several different hand rakes, each capable of creating unique designs in the sand. A six-piece groove set consists of six handheld sand rakes that create wider sand designs. While the handle is made from natural wood, the rake is made from white trimming that takes on various shapes and patterns. The groove sets’ counterpart would be Project Rotate’s six-piece ridge set. The ridge set’s geometric rake trimming differs from the groove set’s curved, rounded trimming, but both sets are wide by design and form a unique base pattern for desktop Zen gardens.
6. Loop
Meet the Loop pencil – this clever design not only makes it easier to use the pencil till the end of its life but also uses the eraser to double up as a stand to keep your desk clutter-free! Loop has three parts and each has an important function to optimize the product – the pencil, the clip, and the eraser. Once the pencil becomes shorter, you use the clip which acts as an extended grip and it also doubles up as an attachment so you can clip it on your documents just like a pen. The eraser doubles up as a vertical pen stand so that the desk doesn’t have a cluster of pencils and you can easily find one that belongs to you. Loop’s simple yet modular design makes it effective, reduces waste, and maximizes the use of the product.
7. Fahredin Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter
Fahredin Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter is a WFH multi-functional, organizational wall accessory that allows users to organize their office and add some greenery in the process! Defined by an assembly system close to LEGO building blocks, Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter come with base grids that attach to walls with 3M strips, requiring no hardware or tools in the process. Once users form their base grid on their chosen vertical surface, the fun begins. Stocked with over 20 different modules, Kosumi’s Wall Organizer and Mess-Free Planter come with hangers, magnetic clips, transparent storage containers, planters, and cubbies.
8. The four-side long tail clip
JaiYi identified that the existing clip while doing wonders to hold the paper in place also faces some ergonomic troubles – firstly, the pin’s handles tend to slip when we apply force to it. Secondly, the pressure points in the design are the creases in the pin which take the entire load, causing them to crack. On identifying these concerns JiaYi applied her design skills to transform the classic, and take it to the next generation along with us with the four-side long tail clip! The four-side long tail clip makes two simple yet radical changes – it elongates the handle of the pin, allowing us to apply the same amount of pressure while exerting lesser force and it adds a new pressure line, halfway through the design, helping relieve the pressure on traditional three creasings.
9. The Transforming Pen & Stylus
A uniquely versatile writing tool, the Transforming Pen & Stylus can be used and carried in a variety of ways. In its smallest avatar, the entire instrument measures just 75mm or under 3-inches in length, and when expanded, becomes a 115mm-long instrument that you can comfortably and effectively write with. The entire Transforming Pen & Stylus is made up of 3 machined metal parts that can easily be disassembled for maintenance, along with a replaceable ballpoint refill and a fiber tip stylus that can be replaced too.
10. The Co-Box
Meet the Co-Box, an electric pencil sharpener, minimal and geometric by design that is a worthy addition to every design nerd’s desk. The design is a white square shape, accentuated by an orange circle, reminiscent of the button we would see on our Braun machines. The circle also acts as an entry point for your pencil. The shavings get collected in a transparent box, to be disposed of at your convenience. The design history of our 20th century is filled with iconic design moments, each one a point in time when the object became a part of our everyday life, almost seamlessly – all because of the nature of their design.