National Pencil Day

National Pencil Day March 30th

The humble mark of a human. We’ve moved a long way from chipping runes in stones, scratching Roman wax tablets, one significant find was that of a special form of carbon. Borrowdale is well known for its beautiful scenery and scrummy tea bread especially served with cheese. However, in around 1565 a ‘lead like’ substance was discovered that could be used to make a clean defined mark. This was ultimately the birth of the pencil, and an industry in Keswick. If you visit there really is a museum for all things pencil.

Random Pencils
Surprising how many pencils are in my desk tidy

Pencil day seeks to reconnect us with the humble pencil. The tool used by artists, designers and writers for hundreds of years. Why not take a picture of the chewed, blunt, or exquisite drawing tools and post them (#PencilDay).

Whilst we would definitely advocate Cradle as a preferred design tool, allowing cross references and traceability, not something you get on paper**. The humble sketch is still a goto design tool. And we should remember that.

Take a 5 minute coffee break; Sketch what your product does or your company makes, with a pencil and paper and then post it! (#PencilDay).

Pencil sketch of what Cradle does
Cradle Operations

We found some handy suggestions of other ways to celebrate here at pens.com.  Go on, celebrate pencil day and sketch away!

**Updating manual cross references between your sketches and text is possible with pencil and eraser, but easier if the database looks after it!