Sensa Pens
Print Campaign (minimum 3 ads)
15-40 years old
You can write anywhere with the Sensa Pen
The Sensa Pen has a precision alloy barrel and plasmium grip to allow you to write underwater, upside down, over any material (wood, metal etc) and over photographs
Background/Research
What is a Sensa Pen?
Deemed as the most comfortable pen of the World, the winner of Industrial design society of America’s Design Excellence award, and the honour of show, at the Museum of Modern Art, at New York, are the credentials of the Sensa pen. Sensa pen is its owner’s comfort and pride. Marketed to the world in 1995 by Boyd Willat, through Sanford, Sensa pens have since swept the world of writing.
source:
http://website-video.com.au/Despite the limited information on the internet about the Sensa Pen and the fact that this brand of pen is no longer available to the public; we were still able to come up with a variety of sources including interviews, Pictures, reviews and how the pens were first manufactured. Our Research goes into great depth about this type of pen and the magic surrounding its versatile functions.
Boyd Willat discusses with us how the Sensa pen came to be. He was an art director working on Films and noticed a lot of people having issues with organizing things especially as this was in the time period before computers were widely used. Everything had to be organized by drawing lines. Boyd tells us that this was the pivotal moment that the idea of the Sensa pen came to be. On asking his fellow Art directors how they manage their organization from their film projects, Boyd discovered that they bind everything up into a book. Although everything gets made up into a book still the company would purchase hundreds of pens and Boyd put the idea forward that maybe having the “one book with all of the film project’s information” inside it… they should have “one special pen” to replace the hundreds. Boyd tells how he had this dream that this one pen would conform to your fingers perfectly and would almost flow as you were working which would be the dream of an Art director who is always scribbling to test if pens would work.
Boyd then goes in to detail about some of the features of his creation:
There are a number of elements that people wouldn’t see on the surface, The grip itself is a new material – a form of silicone, inside the grip also is a new kind of material called “flexi” Making it possible to press the grip with a shape of your fingers staying indented for a few moments. This feature makes it so there is no outward push. Typically with rubber or sponge you push down on something and it pushes back, but this pen design feature has evaded this nuisance helping each person write effortlessly for long periods of time. The pen is well suited for children too as they usually struggle to hold pencils and pens at first but this new grip eases them into writing. This pen would also target people with disabilities, particularly deformities or problems in the hand such as arthritis. The bottom line about this pen is – comfort. Boyd explains in the interview how he wanted people to be able to use the pen in one hand alone, economically being able to twist the top of the sensa pen open and then off again. Every bit of the industrial side of the pen was carefully thought out even to the point of the golden mean, which as Boyd tells us is a term used in the arts involving ratio. The golden mean of the Sensa pen is a part marked by a gold ring and it fits the anatomy of the human hand. The sensa pen has a slightly forward weight when balanced hinting to the idea of being drawn to the paper and written with effortlessly. The ink refills designed for the sensa pen make it usable under water, upside down or any unconventional object. Refilling the inks is “almost like putting a cartridge in the barrel of a gun” says Boyd “it fits so perfectly” all the parts of the pen are made out of metal, not plastic. A smooth clip was designed to finish off the pen with the intention of not being able to damage your shirt and to be removed from pockets with ease.
In this next interview Boyd Willat talks about the “full family” of the sensa pen range. After his original pen design he has gone on to make different colours and shapes to suit every style and personality. Each kind of sensa pen has the same features. You can buy sets of pens with matching cases, and you can get smaller pens for smaller hands which still serve the same purpose of the original sensa pen. The female designed pens don’t have the outer pocket clip as ladies usually place their pens in their bag or purse. The presentation of the boxes the pens come in were just as important to design says Boyd, so he helped design matching sleek gift wrapped boxes. The dyes used in creating the boxes right down to the raised lettering were thought of from the same makers as the pen, they are perfectionists and want the public to get their moneys worth. The box becomes useful in that it can sit on your desk and be the fancy pen holder. After the huge success of the metal based sensa pens Boyd Willat tells us that they have come up with a plastic version to help make the pen available to more people who otherwise might not have been able to afford such fine quality in every day stationary. He boasts that the clips on these pens are some of the most expensive and well thought out clips ever designed. Each clip has a “lens” of “bubble” at the end that takes on the colour of the shirt you are wearing, making it look as if the pen were designed just for you.
Sensa®, Winner of Design Excellence by Industrial Designers Society of America
Quotes about the Sensa Pen
"The Sensa pen exemplifies function and comfort in a sleek, understated design."
The Washington
"The Sensa morphic pen has a soft touch."
"The Sensa morphic pen has a soft touch."
"Stylish Stylus"... "Here's a pen that can definitely hold its own in the computer age."
Name: Sensa Pens
Inventor: Boyd Willat – Former Art Director for Film
Company: Sanford (who also manufacture other popular pen brands such as Papermate, Parker, and Sharpie)
Price range: $50 to $70 us (depending on whether you get a case with it or not.)
Refills: $7.00 us
Design: This Pen was built using assorted metals to create the desired weight, different kinds of silicone are used within the Pen grip and it has a weight system to make the pen lean forward. The clips for these kind of pens are extra sensitive with a smooth surface to stop damaging shirt pockets and help to slide the pen out when ready to use. Parts of the tip of the pen were imported from Germany and Japan to the USA
Features: These pens are known for their ergonomic design and adaptive grip. Can be used under water, upside down, in different temperatures and on different unconventional objects.
Slogan: “Fusion of Form and Function”
Other Pen Advertising Campaigns
Sharpie:
Bic:
Initial Ideas
- Sensa pen drawing on food
- Drawing on people
- Leaving a note on the wall near the door
- Grafitti on a textbook
- Connect the dots with Sensa pens
- Getting a tattoo with a Sensa pen instead of a needle
- Labelling everything in a fridge
- Carving initials in a tree with a Sensa pen
- Broken pencils surrounding a Sensa pen
- Writing on toothbrushes
- Cheating in an exam by writing on a ruler (wood)
- Old people writing on their dentures
- Drawing an eye patch on Tez
- Drawing clothes on naked people
Roughs
Final Idea
We originally chose three concepts for the three age groups, each aimed at a different target audience. We decided on a communal living share fridge filled with labelled packages and food to be aimed at a 15-25 year age group, a child leaving a note for his/her parents written directly on the wall/door to be aimed at the 25-35 year age group, and dentures sitting in water glasses in a bathroom with names written on them to be aimed at a older audience.
After shooting photos for these ideas and using Photoshop to draw in what was written in the Sensa pen, we realised that it wasn't as visually effective as we'd hoped. The Sensa pen writing was not as obvious or as eye catching as we wanted it to be when it was written on the photographs.
We changed the concept of our final campaign, deciding to go against what you would expect in an advertising campaign for a pen that draws on anything (which was basically our original idea) and Tez came up with the illustrated posters that we ended up using as our final mock ups.
We focused more on the pens as superhero, invincible pens, giving them personality and using humour to not only make our advertisements different and unique compared to how pens had been advertised in the past, but also something that would be different to what was usually seen in magazines.
Final Print Campaign Mock Ups
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