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Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

artsy.net

71–80 of 117 posts

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#71
post #5

Almost all the pencils in my childhood were red. The manufacturer was Berol. Of course, my schools didn't necessarily buy the highest quality pencils for the children, and they probably all came from the same supplier. The high-quality ones, which a relative who was a draughtsman used, were dark green [1] [1] https://www.ebay.ie/itm/12-x-Berol-Venus-H-Fine-Quality-Writ...

I used berol handwriting pens when I was 4 or 5 years old and they are still my pen of choice today.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#73
post #39

Growing up in India, all the pencils I used were red and black striped made by Nataraj. I remember seeing yellow pencils in western movies though. https://cwpencils.com/collections/nataraj/products/621-hb-pe...

In Italy, quality in everyday pencils used to be associated to Staedtler, and their pencils were striped black/yellow.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#74
post #39

Growing up in India, all the pencils I used were red and black striped made by Nataraj. I remember seeing yellow pencils in western movies though. https://cwpencils.com/collections/nataraj/products/621-hb-pe...

In Japan there are yellow pencils but green pencils are more common. https://www.tombow.com/products/writing/pencil/

I practically grew up eating that thing, though I also find mitubishi's maroon pencils to be popular too.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#75
post #62
post #39

Growing up in India, all the pencils I used were red and black striped made by Nataraj. I remember seeing yellow pencils in western movies though. https://cwpencils.com/collections/nataraj/products/621-hb-pe...

Probably the most common colour in New Zealand is that red and black stripe as well, but usually made by Staedtler[0]. Some other brands also copy the same style[1]. Seems like we need another article on Why Pencils Are Red And Black. [0] https://i.imgur.com/AMbEQzT.jpg [1] e.g. https://i.imgur.com/mmN943m.jpg

Yep same in Australia

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#77
post #69

So the story is, as it is for nearly every physical artifact in my life, "Because people are easily lured by bright objects and catchy marketing into associating quality with anything but the quality of the goods." I'm reminded of User Testing at Powerset. When we did unbranded search testing of Wikipedia, late-stage Powerset usually won most search comparisons by users. But if we branded the search results against G…

I was honestly expecting a story similar to why barns are red.

My totally uninformed, off the cuff guess: because red was/is the cheapest paint color you could get.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#78
post #73
post #39

Growing up in India, all the pencils I used were red and black striped made by Nataraj. I remember seeing yellow pencils in western movies though. https://cwpencils.com/collections/nataraj/products/621-hb-pe...

In Italy, quality in everyday pencils used to be associated to Staedtler, and their pencils were striped black/yellow.

What you are describing are Koh-i-noor pencils. Staedtler pencils are blue, with the black top.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#80
post #4

I associate it with these actually: https://hobbyklei.nl/1816-large_default/bic-potlood-gilbert-... Maybe a Belgian / Netherlands thing? Or perhaps just me :)

Dutch/limburg here, very rare to see those. I think mine were usually green (a brighter shade than the ones linked in a sibling thread), but not exclusively. We also had uncoloured and black for example.
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