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Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

artsy.net

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Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#101

Post by rdtsc »

cannam wrote: post #15
airstrike wrote: post #9

In my mind, Faber-Castell will forever be the ultimate pencil. I think yellow pencils are a staple of American culture but in my mind pencils are green... http://www.fabercastell.com/products/pencils/GraphitepencilC...

I suppose it's quite easy to monopolise the visual imagination of one child. I picture pencils as black, because someone once gave me a nice mixed tin of Caran d'Ache pencils which were all matte black, and I used them endlessly to do drawings of 16x16 sprites and 8x8 fonts on graph paper.

> mixed tin of Caran d'Ache pencils

Totally off-topic but I just realized as I read that that it sounded like the Russian word for pencil: карандаш (karandash)

So I thought, aha, it's like with Xerox -- the Russians took the name of the company that makes the item and named all the items of that type after the company's name.

But it actually is even more interesting. The name of the company was taken from a French satirist who created his pseudonym after the Russian name for pencil.

And then, later, a Swiss company that made pencils used the name of the French satirist's pseudonym as their name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caran_d%27Ache_(company)

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#102

Post by sdrothrock »

copperx wrote: post #98
jimkri wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a post on HN where someone put a picture of a Duck on a wireless charger, giving it a brand identity and the charger was selling like crazy. Users identified with that brand over a charger that was brandless.

How can an animal give brand identity? Do you have a link to that post? I'm curious.

> How can an animal give brand identity?

O'Reilly books are a fantastic example of this that goes beyond something as simple as the name of the company/product being an animal (Penguin, Puma, Jaguar) -- any time you see a book with that cover with that style of animal, you know who published it.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#104

Post by richev »

hevi_jos wrote: post #87

I was raised in Europe, my pencils were always blue like those: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Pencils_... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2r0Y8HUTeMI/UQVsbzQceKI/AAAAAAAAB5... I was surprised the first time I saw a yellow pencil, like the IKEA ones.

Yellow IKEA pencils - in what country? I've only seen unpainted ones (in the UK, and also the US from what I remember, circa 2004-5), with IKEA printed in black on the side.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#105

Post by danillonunes »

copperx wrote: post #98
jimkri wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a post on HN where someone put a picture of a Duck on a wireless charger, giving it a brand identity and the charger was selling like crazy. Users identified with that brand over a charger that was brandless.

How can an animal give brand identity? Do you have a link to that post? I'm curious.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16062460

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#106

Post by Double_a_92 »

TLLtchvL8KZ wrote: post #70
j0e1 wrote: 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...

I live in the UK and always since I can remember (27yrs) pencils have always been red or the red/yellow and black striped ones. In fact the only yellow ones I remeber seeing have always been the packs of very cheap poor quality ones.

Same in Switzerland. The good default pencil was the red one by Caran d'Ache. The yellow ones (with an eraser on top) where super cheap and would always break or get dull very fast.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#107

Post by cyphar »

blue1 wrote: post #78
toyg wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Australia and New Zealand they're red and black[1].

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/AMbEQzT.jpg

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#108

Post by cyphar »

keerthiko wrote: post #14
airstrike wrote: post #9

In my mind, Faber-Castell will forever be the ultimate pencil. I think yellow pencils are a staple of American culture but in my mind pencils are green... http://www.fabercastell.com/products/pencils/GraphitepencilC...

Staedller, the most stable graphite lead pencil brand across Asia (not colored pencils) were black and yellow striped hexagonal, and of wonderful quality (iirc, better than Faber Castell for art pencils).

In Australia and New Zealand, Staedtler are hexagonal but red and black.

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/AMbEQzT.jpg

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#109

Post by mmjaa »

Nition wrote: post #62
j0e1 wrote: 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

This article already addressed it: red and black paints are used to cover up imperfections in the less-than-high-quality wood being used .. red and black both being inexpensive paints.

Re: Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)

#110

Post by blue1 »

toyg wrote: post #92
blue1 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Search for "staedtler matita" (italian for pencil) and look at images: https://www.google.com/search?q=staedtler+matita The overwhelming majority is black/yellow. Maybe they geo-segment.

Apparently, several types exist. The high-end ones are the blue/black I was describing (Staedtler Mars Lumograph), while the black/yellow ones (Staedtler Noris) are the most common ones.
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