Here is an elaborately packaged single pencil from famous fountain pen manufacturer Pelikan. Perhaps the pencil is over packaged?
The cartoon Pelikan is looking quite friendly and relaxed.
Since Pelikan’s acquisition of Herlitz, I’ve been wondering if Pelikan would launch some new branded products. I’m not sure if this pencil qualifies.
It does look nice, but seems to be an average writer.
That packaging is a bit much, so at odds with the plainness of the pencil. Are the colors meant to appeal to kids? (The pelican’s sneakers look like something from Yellow Submarine.)
Wow, I’m with Michael on the packaging. Reminds me of design by committee.
I won’t rule out the possibility that this packaging is not meant to be a retail packaging but is a part of a PR campaign. Now and then I see similar packagings in Germany when a new or improved product is presented, even it is a single wooden pencil.
Those are pretty nice. Are they available in the U.S.?
It’s the irony of it that appeals to me. Exams get more and more computer dependant but what do they recommend for filling in the OMR sheets? A pencil – a wooden pencil at that.
Interestingly the 2B pencil is OMR tested, while the usually required grade is an HB.
Since this is a single packaged pencil and intended for a computer exam, I wonder if this might be intended for a vending machine, perhaps in the hall where an exam is given?
All, thank you for the comments. Some excellent observations. The pencil might very well be a sample or for a vending machine.
Speedmaster, the pencil came from a random Ebay seller in Malaysia, so it probably isn’t available in the US.
I really like the font they used on the pencil. The colors remind me of those water-soluble “grease pencils” from Staedtler (some of the best I’ve used).
The font used for “Exam Standard” seems to be “Eurostile” by Aldo Novarese (1962) – a true classic.
I guess they assume that the exam takers must be really clever…no erasers needed.
Joel: Many, if not most, so-called “exam” pencils come without an integral eraser. Separate handheld erasers have their own market and are typically so vastly superior to pencil-mounted ones that the latter are generally seen as superfluous on specialized sketching, drafting, and testing pencils. I suppose a mounted eraser may be nice for “emergency” corrections, whatever that entails, but it’s pretty much always a second-rate option. For someone who buys into the marketing of a specialized “exam grade” pencil, it does not take a significant leap for them to assume they will need a similarly specialized “exam grade” eraser.
Actually, of all the hundreds of pencils I have laying around, I think I only have about half a dozen with erasers, and they represent the bottom-end that I never use.
And to the Michael that posted regarding 2B and HB for tests: There seems to exist a bifurcated market with regard to test pencil grades in East Asia. Many pencils marketed for exams, and particularly the cheapest cartridge pencils and mechanical pencils (>0.5mm), are 2B. Almost all of the 2mm lead I find locally is 2B. Specialized wooden “mark-sheet” pencils sold by the major Japanese firms on the other hand tend to be a HB, though they frequently also have B and/or 2B variants.