Two pretty important words in my world at the moment, check out how this design collaborative have used them to create a beautifully simple drawing instrument.
I'm a fairly big fan of drawing equipment. I own too many (but not really) pencils, pens, stencils, straight (and crooked) edges and other things that I probably have rarely used to make marks on things (but might one day), so you can imagine I'm a fanboy of this kind of stuff.
The Marks & Philosophy 'Dovetail' was designed based on the simple premise that scribing or drawing a perfect, accurate and consistent arc was surprisingly difficult, so the trio went back to simple techniques and materials to conceptualise, craft and package the Dovetail set.
There's an obvious throwback to an older generation of carpentry tool design and functionality here, which for me is tied to my grandfathers tools which I still remember polishing and sharpening with my dad as a kid. The fine timber and minimal but reliable machined metal parts just appeal to me, and probably anyone that had to use them. And god, I love drawing a good arc.
A few pics below nabbed from Designboom, there are some more here, and a promotional video over here
Minimal, functional machining of parts, fantastic.
Details, details, details.
The unfolded package. Felty.
Don't you just want to sharpen that all day?
Some words from the designers:
"We wanted to create a product with materials that would be matched by its thoroughness in design – something useful enough, simple enough, and precise enough that it would travel with the user throughout his/her career.
to achieve this we devised a system based around a straight-edge and a dovetail track, which easily holds interchangeable attachments.
the 'doveline' set includes four tool attachments: center-point, scribe tip, lead holder, and blade."
The design is by Zach Jenkins, Jonah Willcox-Healey and Wesley Chau who each in their own right are worth checking out.
Any thoughts on similar stuff you can actually buy? Would love to know...