Imagine if someone come to you and say " hey, design me a piece of pencil, it must be special and marketable in Japan. I am willing to pay you $10,000 for this project"
Do you think you dare to take it? why?
I rather design a pencil sharpener, the one that has remained as a block for decades.
Maybe because, its a job that challenges your imagination.
Why are you asking this anyway?
Does that $10,000 include the research? Prototyping?
If so, it won’t last long.
I guess it depends how much $10,000 is worth for your time…for a student/jr.designer this would be a great opportunity. For a mid-Sr. level professional, it may not be worth the risk.
personally, I enjoy blue sky problems. So I would take it as a growth opportunity and to cure my curiosity for what the end product would evolve into.
Also, the clients character would be an deciding factor. A vague project like this would have to allow the designer greater freedom in exploration of concepts. Some clients are not comfortable with letting go of that much control without understanding.
but…
If I had other items that needed my attention (family/vacation/larger clients, sleep), I would pass on the opportunity.
is this pencil supposed to fly? because i have designed one that can fly and land softly like a space shuttle.
How about a bluetooth pencil?
How about one, $10,000 pencil?
What do you have to lose?
hey cg,
bluetooth pencil sound good. 
I remember i used to have pencils showing the room temperature when i was a kid. Those were cool. I guess you should target the kids, trying to market this pencil thing. I dont know if grown ups would be interested in ‘Limited Edition Japanese Pencils’.
At an average ID firm’s billing rate of $130/hour that 10G works down to about 80 hours of work, or two weeks of work. Depending on the level of innovation required, and the level of deliverable, I think that’s enough time to do some cultural research on Japanese consumers, brainstorm, and produce a couple rounds of concepts. So… what’s a ‘piece of pencil’ anyway?
look guys. why i brought up this is;
$10,000 for this project is not that much, as some of you mentioned it is
just about enough. The point is… it is a pencil, something that
a)perhaps we have almost nothing more to do with it, a design that we have been using for more than 50 decades.
or b) perhaps to make a change, a revolution of a pencil, ie cg’s blue tooth pencil or ufo’s flying pencil… but are they really marketable ?
Is $10 000 enough for this entitle project?
think about it.
look guys. why i brought up this is;
$10,000 for this project is not that much, as some of you mentioned it is
just about enough. The point is… it is a pencil, something that
a)perhaps we have almost nothing more to do with it, a design that we have been using for more than 50 decades.
or b) perhaps to make a change, a revolution of a pencil, ie cg’s blue tooth pencil or ufo’s flying pencil… but are they really marketable ?
Is $10 000 enough for this entitle project?
think about it.
How about a pencil that has an integrated flash drive. I guess that can be marketable. The pencil is something you have in your workplace at all times, so with a flash drive at the other end, you could use it for more than just sketching and taking notes.
Has anyone seen this? Its some kinda ladybug USB.
http://akiba.sorobangeeks.net/news_9079.html