Scriba is a new stylus designed around the natural movements of your hand. With a flexible body and dynamic squeeze motion, Scriba responds to your every touch, empowering you with greater freedom to express your creative self.
With Scriba you can naturally move from creating construction lines, to outlining, to detailing and shading with just a simple squeeze.
Dublin Design Studio was founded with a clear goal of creating innovative consumer electronics products that enhance user experience of the mobile environment. Scriba is our first product, a new stylus that integrates seamlessly with your creative process.
What sets Scriba apart is a seemingly simple idea for a new type of stylus. The stylus should be designed around the user, rather than merely adapting a historic form that evolved to contain pencil lead or ink.
Scriba has been sculpted around the hand. The unique form has been designed for intuitive use, complementing the hand’s natural movement and grip.
Scriba has no buttons. It is activated by a squeeze of its light, organically shaped-body that bends in response to gentle pressure.
Scriba’s squeeze motion has an unprecedented half inch (12mm) of movement that lets you almost feel what you are drawing.
Adjust line-weight smoothly and precisely using the body of the stylus rather than relying on applied pressure to a small rubber tip, swap seamlessly from the precision of a fine tip pen to the broad strokes of a brush.
We set out to create the best possible stylus for designers. In the process, we discovered a whole new way of interacting with mobile devices that gives you control and total flexibility in everything you write or draw.
The Squeeze
How does it work? It’s simple. All you have to do is squeeze!
A New means of Interaction
Scriba’s unique form has been crafted according to the natural grooves of the hand. We studied grips and hand movements and developed a new ergonomic shape that feels comfortable and intuitive to use.
Greater Control
Controlling line weight is critical for good design. Scriba enables you to adjust line weight constantly, fluidly, and accurately.
Convenience
Scriba’s Smart-Lock feature lets you automatically fix line-weight while you draw. With a full depress, Scriba resumes the free-flowing drawing mode.
Interact With Ease
Capture, develop and communicate ideas anytime, anywhere. With one squeeze, Scriba comes to life, pairing with your tablet allowing you to rapidly capture ideas.
Six Months Battery Life
Scriba has the longest battery power of any stylus. Featuring an unprecedented 35 days of continuous use or 6 months on stand-by, Scriba rarely requires to be recharged. When it does, Scriba uses industry standard Micro-USB cables.
Robust Yet Beautiful
Crafted from a single mould of high quality polymer, Scriba is light and durable meaning that you can throw just throw it in your bag.
Scriba is built to reduce hand fatigue and support grip. Its sculpted silicone tactile areas are more comfortable than gnarled metal and make Scriba the perfect tool for both rapid sketching and prolonged design.
Its not paper and its not a tablet – its the best of both. Compatibility
Scriba is built on an open platform. We have created a small piece of software to allow developers to integrate Scriba into a range of fantastic apps that will be available when your Scriba is delivered later this year.
The best possible canvas
The brush is only part of the painting. We have also created Scriba.Draw—a dedicated app specifically built to optimise Scriba’s utility and range of control. The minimal drawing interface that lets you focus on your creativity without distraction.
We wanted a stylus that would perform better so we set about creating our own.
From the initial sketch, David created a model using using open source software Blender. To understand what it meant to carry this kind of a tool with him all the time, he created a simple 3D print that he carried around in his pocket for the next six months!
This early Scriba became the ever-present, physical reminder to obtain user feedback for this product everywhere he went. “During this time I researched and talked to as many creative professionals and iPad users as I could.”
With Scriba, he wanted to create a stylus that would focus on the user experience. He wanted to restore that pen-paper feel while leveraging the benefits of digital innovation. To do this, he realised that he needed to start the design from scratch and to build a team of like minded individuals to realise it. Dublin Design Studio was born.
We asked hundreds of designers, illustrators, artists, architects, animators, mobile workers, hobbyists and tablet users to tell us what really mattered to them. Their feedback was phenomenal and provided really valuable input for the development of Scriba as well as some great suggestions for future functionality and products.
Building a hardware startup is exciting, but the wide range of outputs that are required (such as firmware, software, manufacturing, R&D and logistics) means it is more like setting up a group of businesses rather than just one.
Bringing the required people, assets and skill-sets together requires broad oversight and the ability to plan and manage a variety of major ongoing tasks concurrently.
Creating the form for something as tactile as a stylus requires careful consideration as its function and use entails constant handling. In designing, developing, testing and validating, we produced a multitude of concepts and prototypes—93 to be precise!
We strongly believe in testing as a means of ‘getting it right’. Scriba’s design was refined and iterated in response to customer feedback resulting in an end product that is both functional and beautiful.
We really do believe in the community of developers that have made Kickstarter such a success. We are proud to say that a number of these campaigns have resulted in tools that have helped make Scriba possible.
These include the fantastic MetaWear development board that powered our first Bluetooth prototypes [Well done Laura on smashing the target on your second Kickstarter!] and of course the simply amazing Form 1 3D printer.
By working closely together, our micro-electronics designers, software developers and firmware engineer have been able to create an incredibly efficient design that uses only a single sensor and has unbelievably low power consumption. We made the decision to use industry standard Bluetooth (Bluetooth Smart) modules as these provide us with access to substantial technical resources and support that will make Scriba as future proof as possible.
The team at the Centre for Industrial Services and Design at Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) have assisted us with the Research and Development for Scriba. They are providing specialist input in the testing and verification of the materials for all the components, with a focus on the effects of repeated stress and deflection. This will ensure that Scriba will maintain its good looks and the flexibility and won’t deteriorate over time.
Having a world class engineer like Brian Garvey, working with AIT on the prototyping and Design for Manufacture has been an enormous benefit to understanding this complex and unique design. Brian’s background is in Formula 1 and having assisted a wide variety of startup companies from all across the globe he is no stranger to Kickstarter and the process of bringing napkin sketches to life.
Scriba has been ergonomically designed to be suitable for most hand sizes and grip types and when it sits in your hand, it feels just right.
With pride in our Irish roots, and we are committed to working closely with Irish suppliers and manufacturers as we enter our next phases of production and fulfilment. Our close relationship and proximity with these manufacturing partners will provide a smooth transition from design to manufacturing, helping us to finalise the prototyping and manufacture that will enable us to deliver Scriba on time.
We’ve come a long way and learned an unbelievable amount in a short period of time. We now need you to help us in progressing the next stage and to bring Scriba to market.
Your support will enable us to:
Our Team
We are committed to keeping our backers updated with our manufacturing progress during (and following) the Kickstarter campaign.
Our team has grown significantly over the last year, however we have a clear vision of creating well designed human-centred prodcuts, and with Scriba we have taken our first step towards realising it.
Our mission has inspired a wealth of exceptionally talented and diverse individuals to join our team. We are designers, architects, product developers, micro-electronic engineers, software developers, sensor experts, material scientists, ergonomic engineers, computer scientists, sales strategists, marketing strategists and business operations consultants.
The company was formed by David in 2014. In meeting with Pearse at a Dublin start-up event David found a willing candidate to expand the market research work and product positioning as the concept evolved.
Ergonomist & User-Experience Consultant turned architect, Tim worked with Pearse to structure the user testing for refining Scriba’s ergonomics design.
A product as tactile as a stylus requires constant testing and iteration and we found an enthusiastic expert in human-centered innovation and product design in Trevor. He also introduced us to award-winning product designer, Kevin.
Serial Kickstarter Mike H. was fascinated by Scriba’s concept and its potential in the Internet of Things. With Mike P. they have designed and manufactured precise and efficient micro-electronics and firmware.
Fraser and Sally have provided key input in sales strategy and distribution channels.
Stephen S., Holly, Stephen E. and Rae are making our multi-disciplinary design studio dream a daily reality.
Stephen G. turned down a role with a blue-chip company to work with Jamie on marketing and business planning for what he immediately recognised as a promising start-up.
Alan has helped craft our voice and believes that Scriba is like the fountain pen of the future.
Emmanuelle, Pawel and Peter continue to amaze us with the mysteries of software development.
Mechatronics engineers Vitor and Renato are researching and developing the next generation of product features and ideas that we believe will establish Scriba as a benchmark for innovation.
Not to forget Al, the man behind the video who brilliantly captured the essence and beauty of Scriba’s unique design.
We have been part of the Kickstarter community since 2012 having funded a wide range of projects while our micro-electronics man Mike (Hibbett) has run two successful campaigns.
We trust the values and standards of the Kickstarter community and it so, it was a natural decision to bring our own piece of innovation and creativity to the Kickstarter platform.
With your support we can move Scriba to the next stage by completing the necessary tooling. We can begin setting up for production for the minimum quantity with our preferred Irish manufacturing partner.
We have achieved a lot in the last two years, but there is still work to be done and that’s why we need your help. Please pledge whatever you can, and together let’s enhance our shared experience of mobile technologies.