1.1: Good Design

Hi all! I'm a huge fan of aesthetic woodwork, and Dudek Modern Goods is at the forefront of beautiful, elegant, and yet simple wood design. The following is one in a series of their pen and notebook stands, named "The Display." It is simultaneously a high-quality, non-dispensable pen holder and also a beautiful display case for the writing utensil enthusiast's collection. 

The Display, featured on the Dudek Modern Goods website.

The simplest design for a pen holder might be any sort of cylindrical container that can keep pens upright, such as a plastic cup. However, that design can become cluttered and ugly. This design keeps pens cleanly organized, and its orthogonal shape makes it a great desk piece since it could be used as a bookend or placed to fit nicely against a wall. There's also a slot to keep notebooks handy. In my opinion, the cutout is what makes this work so fantastic - it is as much a pen display case as a holder. 

1.2: Find the Gap

My list of gaps:

1) Desk bed shelf for iPad/laptop
2) Easy hinge implementation to adjust doors so they won't close, squeak, etc.
3) ⋆ Single/two-piece chalk holder
4) Space efficient but easy to use bike racks
5) Inexpensive mod for automatic garage doors
6) Space efficient dish/sponge rack
7) More efficient dry erase marker - liquid plus roller to last longer
8) Toaster oven that minimizes burns
9) Coffee machine guard that prevents grinds from getting inside the machine
10) Width-adjustable paper clips

1.3: The Basics

1.4: Design for you

Here is a visual representation of my design.

Here are some Solidworks renders of my design.

1.2: Selected Gap

I've selected a chalk holder as my gap. There are few products currently in existence for the transportation of a few pieces of chalk. This is a particularly cumbersome problem at my college, where TAs often want to carry chalk for teaching. An entire box of sticks of chalk bump into each other in backpacks and create a lot of chalk dust. I want to design a aesthetically pleasing transporter for separate pieces of chalk without creating chalk dust.