The biro
A series of experiments, celebrating the overlooked BIC ballpoint pen. From hyperrealistic drawings to data collection and ink usage.
Realistic drawings
One of the ways that I thought would make people pay more attention to the ballpoint pen, would be to display the possibilities of what it could make. So, I drew these portraits with the BIC pen, and tried to be as realistic as possible. The top two images below are the same drawing, where I drew an inverted image and then digitally inverted the images colours to reveal the face.
Sketching some ideas
I summed up all my thoughts about biros into a love letter to BIC- the company who make the pens. My idea was to celebrate the biro in as many ways as possible: from bending and making letter forms to turning them into chandeliers and jewellery. Here are some of the ideas I had, drawn in biro.
Data collection
I did some research into how much ink people used by collecting 24 biros that has been discarded, from the environment around me. I then lined these pens up and ordered them from least ink used to the most ink used. As you can see, all of the biros have more than 2/3 ink left. This made me wonder how many words/ideas are wasted in these pens, to show how much potential they have which would make people pay attention to the pen.
