A product that many take for granted. Like a laptop sleeve or a phone case, it takes care of things we care about. And its design can influence our experience with those products. I decided to make one as a gift for a friend of mine. How could I design a pencil case that was simple, extremely functional, and elegant?
I wanted the design to be as simplistic as possible. I decided to take a hyper-personal approach to the design: what tools does this person use? How many? How often? How do they use their current one? Knowing my user allowed me to create tight requirements guide the design.
Pen and paper iterations helped me quickly run though different forms. The most difficult design question was how the case would store non-writing material (sharpener, eraser, etc.). Isolating these components from the pens and pencils while keeping the design simple was an interesting challenge, to which many possibilities were considered.
With the final design in hand, construction began. It's still a work in progress, so check in later to see what came out!
