Created by Nikolas Bentel, a young artist and designer from New York City, Chalk Drawers are architectural drawing toys made entirely out of chalk. They are designed to create original patterns that are geometrically precise. There are three different toys, each with a special drawing ability. The three drawers are designed specially to either make dots, circles or straight lines. The reason for this is to give the user tools to create the three fundamental building blocks of drawing (lines, circles and dots).
Chalk is a widely available material that has been in use for 1,000s of years. Just about every shape and use has been tried with chalk. In order to reimagine an original use, Nikolas had to reimagining its structure through modern manufacturing techniques, such as 3d printing. After going through many iterations, Nikolas finally came to these three designs. Each drawer is designed on a quinary number system, which allows them to be used as an accurate drawing instrument for any metric system. And because they draw five lines at once, the toys can also be used to draw musical staff lines.
Nikolas Bentel grew up in a family of architects. Bringing inspiration from his childhood, Chalk Drawers are toys designed with young architects and designers in mind. They are currently on display at the New Museum’s store shop in New York City and can be purchased at their shop. Or you can purchase them on the Nikolas Bentel’s website.