The Magnificent Seven - Part 2
Pelikan No 1 Mechanical Pencil
By Pencil PaulThe Pelikan No.1 pencil designed by Luigi Colani, a brave move by Pelikan at the time of its introduction in the 1980s. Produced in collaboration with the Swiss born designer Professor Luigi Colani, the pencil and pen share the same molded one piece body with integrated clip, a very clever and practical item in use. The side button in black advances the 0.5 lead, is very comfortable in the hand, and easy to pocket clip. Unusually the leads are fed into the open nozzle end as the rest of the pencil is a sealed unit The pencil is shown with its usual black plastic packaging, from which it is 'hatching'. Packaging also by Colani. The 'bone' white colour is the most common, however there are several others and if you have a spare arm and a leg they can still be purchased from some online sites. I would strongly encourage all interested in this design to visit the online Colani Design Museum. In his career spanning over 50 years, and still going strong, he has designed over 5,000 industrial and consumer products. I also show the pen variant to illustrate the 'Shark in a tank' packaging. I wonder if this influenced Damien Hurst?
 |
| Pelikan No. 1 Mechanical Pencil |
Posts
7 comments:
I do believe the pencil could be twisted open in the middle to reveal a generic Schmidt pencil mechanism, and through which leads may be fed more efficiently.
Oh Goodness, what a hansom writting instrument. Very nice.
Nice find. As far as I know, there was a black version too, with a metal clip.
However, I don't think these ”design limited edition things” are for me, but it is purely a matter of taste. BTW : The Guardian Guide describes his design ideas like this:” a whole host of futuristic concepts that will have us living in pods and driving cars so flat that leg amputation is the only option”.(Jessica Lack) – I think I agree. Seen his ”kitchen satellite” ?
Hi Lewis, my No 1 pencil does appear to be a sealed one piece unit.........of course there may be other variants, Cheers
Hello Thufer, Goodness indeed! the organic theme is very strong in all of Luigi Coloni creations, and there are other designs to view by following the museum link, Thanks
Hi Hedrik, yes I do have the Black with metal clip version, as far as I am aware the No 1 pencil was a general release item from Pelikan, however I do understand that some of Coloni designs are very 'out there' and not to everyones liking, myself I enjoy being challenged as to the norm for any design, I agree some work well, and some never make it off the drawing board, Cheers
Thanks for the review and the fine choice of the reviewed item.
I have a white one as in the photos, with the black package. The packaging was quite amazing for me -- it's tight, but the pencil fits without problems.
I googled for the black one with metal clip, it looks interesting, too: http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.geocities.jp%2Ftokeihakase%2Fcolani.html (here the ball point).
During the googling I also saw this image of the different colors: http://img2.blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ybi/1/46/53/guru084da/folder/8920/img_8920_212894_0?1250926426
Hi 2nd Astronaut, yes I too like all of these, the other colours seem to sell for a lot of money. Do please look at the Coloni link you will see more there, plus lots of amazing stuff, the White steam loco is one of my favorites! Cheers
Post a Comment