As an illustrator who does mostly technical drawings a mechanical pencil is great to use, but most of these pencils are quite thin and a pain to hold. With the Lamy pencil it's like holding a fountain pen and is extremely light, perfect for my work. It helps that the design is nice as well :) I already owned the red version of this pen, and knew of its quality, and I literally never use another type of pencil, which is why I bought two of this version as gifts for my friends. Ones a fellow illustrator and the other a graphic designer, and they both use the pencils for the majority of the time as well. The illustrator in particular loves it. The Hamilton Pen Company both sells this product at a reasonable price, and ships them quite quickly.