Grey Ray

Sustainable stationery from Thailand

作為一個東南亞的後進國家,泰國設計在近年來的表現相當亮麗,當中尤其是文具設計這一塊,更是給人連連的驚喜。早先曾介紹過Pana Objects這個泰國文具品牌,其以木材產品為主軸,並兼顧到生產的永續性。至於這次想介紹的Grey Ray,無獨有偶地也是一個執著於環保意識,並在實踐理念的同時,能透露出設計巧思的新晉品牌。

以鉛筆為例,平常我們把筆削到快見底時,因為筆桿太短不好拿的關係,最後幾公分的石墨往往會被浪費。Grey Ray觀察出這個弊端,於是設計出「2cm + Pencil」商品系列,其特地掏空最後兩公分的石墨,讓大家可以把鉛筆墨芯全部用完。再來的「DRAWING FOLIO」,乍看是普通不過的筆記本,而其實在封面處下了點手腳;在滿本塗鴉過後,其封面可充作資料夾,把你的畫稿妥當地收納。不過講到我自己最喜歡的,卻可能是這個「Eco Eraser」,由日本扇貝殼回收加工再造,品質安全無虞之餘,更比同類型橡皮擦的生產過程,減省了近50%的二氧化碳。

As a developing country in Southeast Asia, Thailand has made impressive strides in recent years, particularly in the arena of stationery by bringing forth a series of pleasant surprises. We have earlier introduced a Thai stationery brand called Pana Objects, which concentrates on wooden products while at the same time giving consideration to sustainability in production. As for Grey Ray featured here, it is a new brand which attaches considerable importance to environmental awareness and manages to showcase thoughtful design ideas while pursuing their concepts.

Take their pencils as an example. Normally after sharpening a pencil to a very short length, the final few centimeters more than often go to waste because it is difficult to hold a pencil with such a short arm. Having spotted this drawback, Grey Ray went on to design a series of products called “2cm + Pencil”, which takes care to extract the final two 2 cm of graphite so that everyone can use up all the lead. Another example is “DRAWING FOLIO”, which looks at first glance like a regular notebook but in fact special effort has gone into its cover’s design. After filling up the notebook with your sketches, its cover can double as a clear folder for storing them neatly. However, what I like most perhaps is this “Eco Eraser”, which is made with recycled Japanese scallop shells. Not only does this product boast safe quality, its production process produces almost 50% less carbon dioxide than that of similar erasers.

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