Classmate Hook
Where Function meets Fun

Bringing Joy to Everyday Writing

There is a quiet crisis in the Indian classroom: the pen has become invisible. In a world of screens and notifications, the humble writing instrument is something students carry out of habit, not desire. Studio ABD was asked to change that — to design a product that makes a Gen Z student actually want to pick it up, use it, and carry it with them as a statement. The Classmate Hook is the result: a product design challenge that began not with a brief, but with an observation about boredom, identity, and the ritual of writing.

Designed for Gen Z — A Writing Instrument Reimagined

The Hook's signature feature — a dual clip-and-hook mechanism — lets users attach it to a backpack strap, a spiral notebook ring, or a belt loop in under a second. This single functional detail transforms the pen from a loose object into a wearable accessory, something a student customises and keeps track of the way they keep track of their earbuds. Designed as an industrial design project for ITC Ltd's Classmate range, the Hook's bold split-body form and vibrant colour options were engineered for the Indian market's most demanding audience: teenagers who notice everything and forgive nothing. The result is a product design that earns attention through originality, not advertising.

A ?10 Object That Proves Design Has No Minimum Price

What makes the Classmate Hook remarkable is what it is not: it is not expensive, not complex, and not made for an audience with disposable income. At ?10, the design had to earn every gram of its form through pure thinking — no premium material to carry the perception, no elaborate mechanism to justify the cost. It is perhaps the clearest expression of Studio ABD's product design philosophy: that human-centred design rooted in genuine cultural insight can transform the most ordinary object into something people reach for with intention. The Classmate Hook became a standout in the highly competitive Indian writing instruments market, proving that design thinking has no minimum price point.