Italian university students redesign the humble pencil sharpener
Students from the Free University of Bolzano have created a collection of alternative pencil sharpeners, with designs including rings, a planing tool and a sandpaper bra (+ slideshow).
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_38.jpg)
The project was the first workshop in a four-month-long course on "design for education and knowledge sharing" at the Italian university's art and design faculty.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_11.jpg)
The team of 20 designers was overseen by tutors Claudio Larcher, Eugenia Morpurgo and Alvise Mattozzi, who tasked the group with developing "new gestures" for the stationery.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_25.jpg)
"We were interested in having the students analyse and reinterpret the use and shapes of a basic, simple tool with the aim of showing them how even the small changes of an iconic product can generate new enriched experience," Larcher told Dezeen.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_21.jpg)
"We invited them to reflect on the gesture of sharpening a pencil – an action that we commonly do without much thinking," he added.
"We asked them how to reimagine this gesture with a new object, therefore not only redesigning the object but redesigning the behaviour."
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_29.jpg)
The students responses range from straightforward redesigns of the sharpener – including a double-ended "snake" that requires users to twist both ends at the same time – to more unconventional shapes like a a dagger-style design that can be used like a nail file.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_18.jpg)
Among the more unusual creations is a bra covered in sandpaper that can sharpen writing implements, and a proposal for an edible carrot pencil that could be nibbled into shape by a hamster.
Luca Mantenuto designed a collection of wooden wands, shaped like paintbrushes, with a different sharpening element on the end of each.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_31.jpg)
Michela Franch created pointed metal rings with built-in blades, while Barbara Rossaro opted for a more dramatic solution that requires the users to set light to the pencil to burn away excess wood.
![La Matita Rossa pencil sharpeners](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/12/La-matita-rossa_pencil-sharpeners_stationery_design_dezeen_936_40.jpg)
Students at the Holon Institute of Technology have also redesigned traditional stationery, creating a collection of alternative pencils that included versions shaped like a squeezable tube of paint and implements with serrated roller nibs.