If There Was One Thing I Was Really Bad At When I Was At School,

it was technical drawing,

having the choice of so many pencil did not help, 2B or not 2B? should I use a HB?

would a 2H be better? in case you are wondering the most popular or common degrees of graphite pencil hardness are: 8B, 7B, 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, and 6H, 

but as this chart shows there are others, because pencils many times come unsharpened when first purchased, there’s no way of testing them, so Japanese designer Kazuya Ishikawa came up with a simple way of visualizing what type of graphite is in each pencil, Ishikawa’s proposal is for a series of pencils with a sample line pre-printed along the pencil, clearly indicating the thickness and darkness of the graphite scale. It’s a solution that elegantly combines graphite density and thickness with typography, all within the limited space of a pencil,

the proposal recently won an honourable mention at the 14th Shachihata New Product Design Competition, paving the way for it to be potentially brought to market, as it happens Japan’s love of stationery has meant that the country has more than one design competition solely devoted to the category. This competition in particular is sponsored by Shachihata, one of Japan’s leading makers of writing tools and stamps. And it’s judging panel includes some of the country’s most-well known designers including Kenya Hara, Naoto Fukasawa and Yugo Nakamura, and I still cannot make up my mind whether I should have used a 2B or 2H!