Alfredo Häberli designs new Fixpencil for Caran d’Ache
Alfredo Häberli has designed an editioned version of Caran d’Ache’s Fixpencil mechanical pencil (image: Jonas Kuhn).
The original Fixpencil mechanical pencil was designed for Caran d’Ache in 1929 by the Swiss engineer Carl Schmid.
The Fixpencil was the first mechanical pencil to feature a clutch mechanism, which could be released by pressing the cap at the pencil’s top to drop the lead through the pencil’s barrel, and the design has remained a staple of Caran d’Ache’s production ever since.
Now, the stationery brand has released a new editioned version of the design developed by Swiss-Argentinian designer Alfredo Häberli. The new version of the pencil borrows a number of elements from the Fixpencil’s past iterations and is available in two colours: plum-violet or ochre-brick aluminium.
A sketch of the designs, created by Alfredo Häberli.
“The Fixpencil is a tool that I use every day and I have always dreamed of having the chance to give it my own personal touch,” says Häberli. “My work with Caran d’Ache has been as precise and colourful as the Fixpencil itself.”
Häberli’s design retains the Fixpencil’s familiar hexagonal form, while reintroducing grooves on the pen’s barrel that were used in earlier iterations of the design. The button at the top of the pencil is striated, and produced in either black or electric blue.
The Häberli edition of the Fixpencil also comes with a set of four water-soluble colour leads: Prussian blue, periwinkle blue, emerald green and ochre.
Story source: Caran d’Ache