We’re very proud of our newly-unveiled measuring tool, the Metrolog Ruler. It may be a departure from what many envision when they think “ruler”, but we think that’s a good thing. Co-founder Hunter Craighill and Design Manager Kevin Chee pull back the curtain on its conception, design, and uniquely considered features in their own words:

“The Metrolog Ruler was born from a place of personal need. I measure small-ish things every single day, and my office is littered with tape measures, cutting mats, T-squares, calipers, and, yes, other rulers. But I didn’t have a ruler that was my ruler — one that was a delight to use and handsome to boot. So that’s what we set out to make.” - Hunter Craighill, Founder

“We didn’t start with the intention of designing a ruler with a caliper function. Our design process started with a fixed ruler concept and as this developed, it seemed like we needed to push things further.” - Kevin Chee, Design Manager

“After a couple weeks of design iteration, Kevin proposed incorporating caliper functionality and it unlocked the project entirely. The added complexity and engineering challenges meant a delay was inevitable, but we all agreed it would be worth the wait.” - Hunter

“Calibrating the sliding feature was trickier than we thought. It came down to the right balance of hardware tightness and lubrication.” - Kevin

“We dialed in the perfect amount of friction and handfeel by deconstructing and reverse engineering a number of existing calipers around the office. In terms of the physical design, there is a clean beveled edge running around the perimeter of the product, but we also applied circular 'pips' (divots) on the rail of the slider to provide grip, like we did on the Best Wine Key. I love simple geometric ornamentation like this because it feels like the machinist’s equivalent of polka dots.

We’re always striving for the design 'sweet spot' where an object has the right balance of function and character. Can it feel new, but also familiar? Can it be playful as well as practical? For us, the Metrolog Ruler checks all those boxes and then some.” - Hunter