For a lot of years the humble pencil virtually dissapeared! It was hard to find one in the office, it was hard to find one in the shops. The closest thing to pencils were seemingly mechanical pacer pencils. Wooden pencils were virtually non existent. That is until the past few years. There seems to be a huge comeback and as promotional items pencils are really hot now! Not just because of nostalgic value but because the visual and writing effects a pencil can create simply cannot be emulated by substitutes like pens and crayons.

For example some of the advantages a pencil has over other writing instruments include:

- The ability to write or draw with ultra fine lines when the penciled is sharpened yet at the same time have the ability to draw with a thicker line when the nib is depleted. No other pen (save perhaps a highlighter) can have this much amount of flexibility

- The only write or draw instrument where it can be erased without a trace.

- The only instrument where the same unit also houses the delete function (ie eraser)

- The only instrument where computer scanners can consistently detect markings on a multiple choice exam paper on an automated marking system.

- The cheapest of all writing instruments

It is because of this pencils are back in a big way! Driven by the fact that they are cheap and also from student demand when used in multiple choice exams and that they simply draw better than anything else. Not to mention the nostalgic value is through the roof.... much like Rubik cubes and record players!

As a bit of trivia did you know that:

1) The pencil was not invented by a man called Mr. Pencil! Its exact origins are vague as graphite (what pencils were originally made from," were used to brand and mark items as far back as 1500 in England long before we know the pencil as it is now. From my research it seemed that either a French Army officer or an Italian carpenter invented the pencil in its current wood encased form

2) The softness and colour of pencils are graded. Gnerall between H & B. The letter H stands for hardness whilst B stands for blackness. The most popular and hence all the promotional pencils we stock are HB. This means that they are right in the middle in regards to softness and colour. Softer pencils are known to be better for drawing whilst harder ones are better for writing as they afford more control. The system is as follows:

We at Cubic Promote are able to brand your logo on pencils. Currently we have full sized and half sized pencils which we can have delivered to you in either sharpened or unsharpened forms. It goes without saying of course that the best complementary product to the humble pencil is a sharpener. So if you are thinking of using pencils as a promotional item for your company or simply as a useful tool for students or team members why not consider getting them along with a custom printed sharpener with your logo!