Horizontal Vs Vertical

The EZ Pen is horizontal by design.

When we set out to design the ultimate pen, pencil and sharpie holder, we wanted to make something awesome for those who seriously need a pen, pencil or market in their daily lives. Looking for your writing savior, when you need it the most is something we can all go without.

One of the first questions that we asked ourselves was, horizontal or vertical? And we didn’t arrive at the answer as fast as you’d think.

The market pointed us towards a vertical solution since there’s already a ton of vertical pen holders out there. But we wanted to see how good they were, so we ordered a few different ones for ourselves and test them out. Time after time the results were mixed.

When it came to the vertical set up, we didn’t have many choices of pens it could hold. The pens had to be thick, at least .375 and it also couldn’t hold a click pen (which is very bad, all pens deserve to be held). Another problem was the grip, it was made with only 2 mm of silicone, causing the grip to rip in just a matter of weeks. But perhaps the most disturbing thing was the constant pull of the string at the top of the pen. The constant pulling made it hard to write.

So, after experiencing what was already on the market, we had a clear heading.

To solve the grip not being able to hold certain pens, we knew that we would have to move the grip towards the center of the pen. That way, our grip steered clear from any clips or clicks. Though it wasn’t an easy choice as we realize that would make the pen sit Horizontally rather than Vertically. We thought that perhaps people were too used to seeing pens Vertically and wouldn’t like seeing a Horizontal one. But the more we thought about it, the less sense it made. There was no written rule stating that a pen should be vertical, always (except perhaps when writing, we realize that no one writes with a side of the pen). So, we decided to go with the most practical solution to the problem.

The rest of the problems were far easier to solve.

For the grip, we wanted something that would be tough, last a long time, fit most pens and at the same time not be intrusive when writing. We use high-grade heavy-duty silicone and increase the thickness by 300%.

We also needed our reels to stop anywhere the user wanted them to. So, we added an automatic stopper to our reels, enabling the user to stop the reel anywhere. Making the use of the EZ Pen non-intrusive when taking reports, making notes, and any writing in general.

Once all of these were done the EZ Pen was born and Horizontal ended up being the right choice.

It turned out that having the pen horizontal was a good thing.

Here are some of the reasons why:

• Fewer ink spills.
• The pen is often out the way.
• You can bend your torso without worrying about your pen.
• Easier to grab and put back.
• Looks better than expected.
• And more.

In some cases, it’ll just take some getting used to, but it was a good call having our pen holder hold pens horizontally.