Described by cnet as “The pen that can write in any color on earth”
The Scribble Pen made an appearance on Kickstarter possibly one of the more well known crowd funding platforms mid August, attracting a hefty number of backers they very swiftly reached their goal.
This method of getting funding begun to gain traction in 1997 of a form of crowd funding has been around for several hundred years with co-operatives lending to individuals without collateral or on low incomes. It wasn’t until 1997 that the practice gained traction in when Fans of rock band Marillion sponsored a complete US tour.
What is it?
Put simply the Scribble could be described as as colour switching pen. It’s been called a magical pen that can re-create any colour that you point at, saving a palette of up to 100,000 colours & capable of reproducing 16 million shades, that’s some magic wand!
The creators Mark Barker & Robert Hoffman say they have spent over 2 years working alongside a team of electronic engineers & scientists on this project. Apparently inspired by Photoshop & Microsoft Paint spokesman Kevin Harrison said “We thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could have a physical colour-picker that could not only sample, but match and reproduce any colour in real life?”
The Scribble is being hailed useful for pretty much anyone from interior designers to students but the funding project hit a snag after getting close to 2,000 backers within days which resulted in the campaign being pulled. The product creators say that Kickstarter gave them just 24 hours to produce a better video, giving them little time to respond, defend the campaign or indeed the product itself. Whatever reasons lay behind it, concerns that this pen may be a scam hit the internet.
Re-launch
Any fears seem to have been allayed as this colour sampling pen has re-appeared. Baker & Hoffman decided to give Kickstarter the elbow & launch their own crowd funding project on getscribblepen.com. The benefits of doing this are two fold, they get to keep all the money enabling them to continue development & probably more importantly have control of the campaign. At the time of writing they have 1,045 backers & once again have surpassed the initial goal.
Whether or not you choose to believe the naysayers or come down on the side of the backers it seems the Scribble is one to watch.
