Precision. Portability. Swiss-grade craftsmanship. These have been Horizon’s calling cards since we first dubbed their Helvetica® ruler the “Swiss Army Knife of sketching tools.” Their 2025 Kickstarter stays true to that ethos while pushing in a new direction: adding vibrant new finishes to their compact multi-tools and introducing a numbered, hand-machined mechanical pencil for the design purists in their community.
The lineup sounds straightforward enough. Byzantine Purple, Irish Green, and Classic Blue colorways for both the Horizon Helvetica® and Helvetica® Max rulers, plus the collector-worthy Horizon Titanium S mechanical pencil, and the Horizon Hypatia A5 Notebook to go with it. But there’s an interesting tension here between what made Horizon successful and where they’re trying to go. The rulers that fit in your wallet are getting prettier. The new pencil costs significantly more and demands pocket space. One’s an iteration, the other’s a bet.
Designer: Ufuk Koc of Horizon Ruler
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We covered the Helvetica® Max back in 2024, and the fundamentals haven’t changed because they don’t need to. Credit card-sized, measures up to 6 inches and 15 cm, packs a protractor with 180-degree markings, includes both imperial and metric compasses, offers quick circle guides from 3mm to 10mm, features isometric grids for 3D sketching, Swiss-made Bystronic laser cutter for precision, bold Helvetica® Neue typeface for readability, and TSA-approved with no sharp edges.. The original Helvetica® follows the same philosophy at a slightly smaller scale, topping out at 3 inches and 7 cm. Both are machined from 304 stainless steel, and honestly, they’ve earned their spot in designer EDC kits because they solve an actual problem: needing drafting precision without lugging around a drafting kit. Team Horizon also has improved the silk screen coating and UV-protected layering on all models 2025 onwards.
Byzantine Purple is having a moment, apparently. Irish Green and Classic Blue round out the new color options, joining the six finishes that already exist. Which, fine, this makes sense beyond pure aesthetics. When you’re pulling a ruler out of your wallet seventeen times a day across different projects, instant recognition matters. Purple for branding work, green for environmental projects, blue for UI mockups. Color coding is practical, not decorative. Horizon seems to understand this, or at least they’re banking on the more than 10,000 backers from their seven successful Kickstarter campaigns to recognize it.
While the titanium pencil jumps categories and the color rulers iterate on existing wins, the Horizon Hypatia A5⁺ Notebook slots directly into the workflow Horizon has been building toward: precision tools need somewhere to actually make marks. It’s sized at 150 × 220 mm, which makes it slightly larger than standard A5, giving you genuinely useful space without tipping into the unwieldy territory of A4. The paper is 140gsm ivory stock across 92 pages, thick enough to handle fountain pens and markers without bleed-through, which matters when you’re sketching with the same tools you’re using for technical notes. Machine-sewn spine with manual casing-in and hand-applied endbands, all finished by hand. The whole thing opens completely flat thanks to exposed spine stitching and hand-applied water-based PVA. Limited to 1,125 pieces, each with a hand-applied cotton label reading “A blank page holds infinite potential; don’t let your thoughts go unwritten,” which toes the line between inspirational and overwrought but probably lands correctly for the audience buying hand-bound notebooks. This is the product that actually complements the Helvetica rulers instead of competing with them for identity. You pull the ruler from your wallet, open the Hypatia flat on your desk, and the entire system makes sense.
Now about that titanium pencil. Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V, which is aerospace-grade material with a 6:4 aluminum-to-vanadium ratio. German-made LAMY 0.5mm lead mechanism. Hand-machined by Maurizio in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, limited to 300 numbered pieces with gift-ready packaging. Every single detail screams premium, and that’s exactly where things get weird. Horizon built their entire reputation on $26 to $39 tools that fit in wallet-sized spaces. A full-length mechanical pencil cannot and will not fit in your wallet. It lives in a different part of your bag, serves a different function, competes against Rotring 800s and Tactile Turn Side Clicks and every other machined metal pencil that attracts design nerds with disposable income.
Grade 5 titanium is overkill for a pencil, which is precisely why it works as a statement piece. LAMY mechanisms are reliable, 0.5mm is the technical drawing sweet spot, and the hand-machining story provides artisanal credibility for whatever price point they land on. But does their audience actually want this? Because the people who loved Horizon loved them for making precision portable. Titanium S brings Horizon’s precision into a full-sized tool, where craftsmanship and balance redefine the sketching experience. It’s a different value proposition entirely, aimed at a designer who wants their tools to announce taste rather than disappear into workflow.
Honestly, the color expansion feels overdue. Designers have been stuck choosing between silver, black, and maybe gold finishes for pro-level technical tools since forever, as if precision work requires visual boredom. Byzantine Purple breaks that assumption hard. It’s a specific, confident color choice that suggests someone at Horizon actually looked at contemporary design trends instead of just defaulting to “professional” metallics. Irish Green and Classic Blue follow suit, giving creatives permission to match their tools to their aesthetic without sacrificing functionality. Your sketching kit doesn’t have to look like an engineer’s toolkit from 1987. It can look like it belongs to someone who cares about visual culture, who understands that the tools you carry say something about how you see the world.
The titanium pencil plays into the same idea but from a different angle. It’s a statement piece, numbered and limited, hand-machined instead of mass-produced. Grade 5 titanium is genuinely excessive for pushing 0.5mm lead across paper, but that excess is the entire point. It sits on your desk and announces that craftsmanship matters, that the weight and balance of a pencil affects how you think. Whether that resonates depends entirely on whether you see tools as utilities or extensions of creative identity.
The Kickstarter campaign just dropped, featuring early-bird rewards with significant discounts across the lineup. Exact pricing and availability are live on the campaign page, but based on Horizon’s past launches, the Horizon Helvetica® starts around $32, with the Helvetica® Max beginning at $39. Bundled tiers like the Duo, Core Trio, and creative sets offer even stronger value for backers looking to expand their toolkit. The Titanium S, limited to 300 pieces, commands a premium that reflects its hand-machined titanium construction and collectible nature, while the newly introduced Horizon Hypatia A5⁺ notebook completes the ecosystem, offering more space for ideas, notes, and sketches.
Helvetica® is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.
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The post The Swiss Army Knife of Sketching Tools Returns With Bold New Colors (And A Titanium Pencil) first appeared on Yanko Design.
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