DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
JO : I do a lot of sketching daily, for both my creative processes and working. One day as I was working I ran out of ergonomics and couldn't continue to use my pencil, which had like 8cm left still. That got me thinking that we use 2/3 approximately of pencils in full comfort regarding ergonomics. So I thought, why dont we give pencils one last stand, to use at least 90-95% of them and not 60%. Of course I added aesthetics, and more but the main focus was to to a secondary product revolving the main one which already exists but is not valued as much; the pencil.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
JO : My main focus was to benefit both designers with more pencil usage and pencils with a symbolic honor/value retribution from us; like a "hey I appreciate you for helping me work, design, etc. I aint gonna let you die this fast, I got you"
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
JO : I'm currently working on prototyping some to check markets before I go into the final production to sell in design houses
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
JO : Two days the most
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
JO : I pursuit an inspiration. Made it a part of my daily practice/concepts. and then evolved into a loyalty meaning between human-pencil, a story worth of telling.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
JO : I intend to sell this design, either making it myself and selling the final products or selling the lease and gaining a % per production yearly/monthly
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
JO : I was doing my hourly creative practice, came up with the idea, liked it and then one of my peers told me "hey this looks like one of those design magazines/profiles/press posts, why don't you go for it with this one, then I was like: "yeah why not, I'll check my to do's design competition list, choose one and win it". Next thing I know is I won
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
JO : Mostly designer/arquitects/artists with a preppy sense for products. It's not a so expensive product but do to the technology required to make it's not the cheapest either so...
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
JO : This design elevates the value of pencils, not itself alone. People all have families, friends, someone to look for when going htrough hard moments. We can all relate to this meaning behind this product's interaction
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
JO : The product represents humans' loyalty translated into a secodary product to help the first product's lifespam. Last stand it self is nothing without the pencil, it's a secondary player meant to be so. It's help translated into partnership
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
JO : I used Solidworks to 3d model, Solidworks visualize to render, and a fdm 3d printer to check human proportions and factibility (I won't give credit to the 3d printers brand unless they wanna sponsor me)
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
JO : There are 3 actually. 1) As I said above, this product is intended since conception to be a secondary product with no value by itself 2) It's kind of tricky to put a metal centerpiece in a closed resin 3d printed/plastic inyected loop 3)The metal and plastic mix creates an explicit statement, the core of this product is not the product itself but the interaction on loyalty
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
JO : It's huge, to put a floating metal piece inside a closed plastic main body needs a lot of knowledge in materials behaviour and manufacture processes
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
JO : I did research on pencils lifespam to see if it was justifiable to make this project or leave it as a digital concept
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
JO : Other than technical none.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
JO : I was confident of winning based on the preliminary score. I knew I had a huge chance to win
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
JO : I assured the importance of well done conceptualizing more than designing something purely aesthetically appearing without meaning