letter opener

the original of this letter opener was designed by rudolf greger and christoph pauschitz of the viennese design studio GP designpartners in 1993. the challenge for this design was to make a letter opener that cannot be used to hurt yourself or others (like eg. the usual knife letter openers). out came this funny little ‘snail’ (left in the large image).

it took me around 30 minutes to ‘revive’ it digitally. i used google sketchup to model a version that is a nice, simple approximation of the original. you could call it a tribute. also, it shows how much times have changed, as i rarely get letters any more. it's a curious thing to have on a desk, and enjoyable to play around with. also, it really does open letters quite nicely! (see last image)