The Pen Hub
Lays every pen out flat in its own socket instead of burying them in a cup.
The problem
A pen cup stores pens the way a bin stores things: all of them in one hole, all of them touching, none of them visible. Finding the one you want means looking down into a well and dragging four others out of the way, and the pen you use most ends up at the bottom because you keep dropping it back in on top of nothing.
The insight
Spread them instead of stacking them. If each pen gets an angled socket on its own radius, every pen is separately visible and separately reachable, and taking one disturbs none of the others. The cup's single hole becomes eight sockets, and the dead space in the middle becomes somewhere to put the thing you actually keep on the desk.
How it works
- A ring of angled sockets is arranged around a central well.
- Each socket cradles one pen on its own radius, tilted so the body lies almost flat on the desk.
- Because the sockets diverge, no two pens share a line — each one can be lifted straight out.
- The centre well is left open to hold a desk device rather than more pens.
Materials and process
FDM printed in black, one piece.
What exists now
Printed and in use, holding eight pens and a desk puck. Not sold, not listed.
Next: Nothing planned.