The Pencil: Making Its (Erasable) Mark on Design

Design needs inspiration, but it also needs something to help people communicate ideas to each other.  Sometimes it requires pictures, words, or some other source of visual communication.  They can be provided with ink, but what about the pencil?


Credit to Red Pencil Design


Pencils are exclusively important in the art world as well as the design world.  In fact, it's essential in any society that provides written language or some form of art.  Unlike ink and markers, it's semi-permanent.  With an eraser, you can do away with any mark you've made.  Sketching uses a certain type of pencil while scantrons only take certain pencils.  This shows that there are, quite obviously, different types of pencils with different types/thicknesses of lead.  Then there are the mechanical pencils that allow you to put lead in them so that they can last longer than a pencil that needs to be sharpened (but eventually becomes useless).  Last, there are even colored pencils.  They aren't as erasable as pencils (though some may be), but different tints and shades of colors are used in creating certain colors through the pencil.  Some work better with markers, ink, paint, oil, or whatever medium there is involved with creating a piece of art, but others use colored pencils because they can provide an excellent amount of pigment and can be used to shade and blend well.


Bambi: by Alice White


Although pencils are mass produced in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, they represent more than just something to write or draw with.  Pencils represent what humankind has done: they managed to find a material to make a mark on a surface: this was evident through drawings on cave walls.  Then we were able to use it to create written languages: it's a little easier than having to carve words/characters into tablets or rocks.
Pencils are part of the reason why we can design what we design today.  They are part of the process in creating design, therefore they will always be part of design, whether it's what they create or what is created for them (i.e. the design of the pencil itself).  They've made their marks, and as long as humans are imperfect, there will always be erasers to help erase those imperfections along the way.