When Your Childhood Pen Becomes Your Living Room Centerpiece - Yanko Design

"You know that clear plastic pen you've chewed the cap off a hundred times? The one that's probably rolling around in your junk drawer right now? Well, someone just turned it into a lamp and it's kind of genius. Seeing design variations of products that are different from each other is a refreshing take especially if it's done right. Italian design brand Seletti teamed up with designer Mario Paroli to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the BIC Cristal pen in the most extra way possible."

"They blew it up to 12 times its original size and transformed it into a floor lamp, pendant light, and wall-mounted fixture. Because apparently, nothing says "happy birthday" quite like making something absurdly large and hanging it from your ceiling. Designer: Mario Paroli for Seletti The BIC Lamp debuted at Maison & Objet 2026, and it's exactly what you'd imagine if you scaled up that iconic ballpoint pen you've been using since elementary school."

"What makes this collaboration so charming is how it taps into universal nostalgia. The BIC Cristal isn't just any pen. Since 1950, when French-Italian entrepreneur Marcel Bich acquired the patent for the ballpoint mechanism from Hungarian-Argentine inventor László Bíró, this little writing tool has lived in every pencil case, backpack, and desk drawer imaginable. It's been clutched by artists and writers, and it's earned spots in the permanent collections at New York's Museum of Modern Art and Paris's Centre Georges Pompidou."

Seletti and designer Mario Paroli scaled the iconic BIC Cristal pen up twelve times and turned it into a floor lamp, pendant light, and wall-mounted fixture. The oversized pieces feature the transparent barrel, hexagonal body, and caps in black, blue, and red. The BIC Lamp debuted at Maison & Objet 2026 and preserves the familiar silhouette while omitting the tongue-in-cheek teeth marks often found on real pen caps. The project draws on universal nostalgia for the BIC Cristal, tracing its history back to Marcel Bich acquiring the ballpoint patent in 1950, and notes the pen's presence in major museum collections.

Read at Yanko Design - Modern Industrial Design News