Setting up a desk usually means the laptop and lamp go on top while the power strip disappears underneath, tangled with dust and forgotten cables. Electricity gets treated as something to manage and conceal, even though it quietly runs everything you do all day. Most power strips look industrial or aggressively technical, which is why they end up banished behind furniture, making plugging things in feel like reaching into a dark cave.
Composition Studio’s Pencil Multi-Tap follows a different line of thought. The studio designs objects that make you want to record simply by looking at them, asking what happens if the object itself initiates the act instead of waiting for discipline or habit. The Pencil Multi-Tap turns a power strip into something that feels closer to a pencil on a desk than a piece of hardware you are supposed to hide, treating electricity as part of the creative process.
Designer: Hyunsu Kim (Composition Studio)
Sitting down at a clean desk in the morning, you drop your notebook, tablet, and laptop on the surface and plug them into a small block that reads as a fat, sharpened pencil. The black cable trails away like a drawn line toward the wall outlet. It feels less like plugging into infrastructure and more like drawing the first line on a blank page, a quiet signal that work is about to begin.
The practical side is straightforward. Three outlets give you enough capacity for a laptop, a charger, and a lamp without turning the surface into a cable farm. The compact, blocky body means it can sit anywhere on the desk or move with you to another room. Because it looks intentional, you do not mind leaving it visible, which makes plugging and unplugging devices easier and less of a contortion exercise under the table.
The pencil shape and color blocking make it feel familiar and non-technical, especially in a studio full of screens and metal. Instead of another black brick with a glowing switch, it reads as part of your creative kit, like a favorite pen or ruler. The single cable becomes a deliberate gesture instead of visual noise, which helps the workspace feel calmer even when multiple devices are connected and drawing power.
Three sockets mean this is not the strip you use to power an entire entertainment center or a full office rack. Big power bricks might still crowd each other if you stack too many adapters, and safety standards, surge protection, and regional plug types would all need careful engineering in a real product. But as a desk-level companion for a focused setup, the simplicity is part of the appeal.
The Pencil Multi-Tap treats electricity as part of the workspace experience instead of a background chore. Just as a pencil on the table invites you to write or draw, this little multi-tap invites you to plug in and begin. It is a reminder that even the most mundane tools can be designed to nudge you toward making something, rather than just managing the machines that do the making for you.
