Scribe Tool Design
2024
Yamaha Corporation Yamaha Motor designers in the US collaborated on designing writing and drawing tools.
Project Overview
Designers from Yamaha and Yamaha Motor have collaborated on the design of writing and drawing tools. In a modern age filled with digital tools, we chose to focus on primitive tools and physical actions.
There are expressions and sayings in Japanese for writing and drawing actions which have similarities to motorbike riding and playing music - the pen runs, flows, slides, for example.
From the unique point of view of instrument and mobility designers, we propose new perspectives of "Kaku (writing/drawing)" by incorporating the values that are common to both Yamaha brands such as feeling good about handling the tools well, feeling joy, and immersing yourself in the moment.
Pick-Scribe
A writing instrument that resembles a guitar pick made of graphite, the material of a pencil lead.
Just as guitarists choose their favorite picks based on their style of play, this Pick-Scribe has a variety of shapes, shades, and hardness, allowing you to experience a variety of writing feel, texture and rhythm. By adding depth to the primitive act of writing, it enriches the writer's expression.
Swing-Scribe
A pen that moves with a rhythm like a metronome. The design was inspired by a feather pen, which is considered to be one of the oldest pens. As you write, the wobbling feather gives the pen rhythm through a small amount of air resistance.
The Swing-Scribe is a metronome-like pen that creates such a rhythm on purpose. By attaching a weight to the tip of the metal bar, it swings as you write. The small pendulum force caused by the weight and the movement gives a rhythm to the pen and how it flows. By adjusting the position of the weight, you can adjust the swing and resistance, and you can slide the pen on paper in a rhythm to suit your mood at the time.
Pluck-Scribe
This design’s motif Sumitsubo (ink pot) is originally a carpenter's tool for drawing straight lines on long pieces of wood. It's like playing pizzicato with a string instrument, with a sense of tension when plucking the string with precision. If the fresh sound coming from the strings is visualized into the lines, they will show various expressions - not only simple straight lines, but trembling lines, bursting lines, vivid lines and so on. It is a tool that can add character to the act of drawing lines.
Mix-Scribe
A pen that can produce various shades of color by controlling the mix of two types of ink.
Two ink cartridges are mounted on the main body, and the two inks are pumped up to the tip of the pen by operating the lever like handling a motorcycle, which mixes the colors. By mixing two different colors together you can create your own color, or you can dilute one to create a different strength of color.
Impromptu mixing of colors as your pen flows at will brings pleasure from using the tools.
Conquer-Scribe
A sidewalk chalk holder that allows you to freely draw on the surface of any terrain. The part that supports the chalk at the end of the main body works like the front fork of a motorcycle, bifurcated and acting as a shock absorbing suspension. This makes it possible to draw smoothly even on uneven concrete or asphalt. Drawing dynamically on the large surface directly using your whole body is a great feeling, where you are not restricted by the size of paper.
Creative Process
