We used to store pencils in ceramic cup, which was a tad bit ugly and struggled to find pen/marker holder that fit the look we were going for. Because of this I decided to design this with my wife. The pencil holder is shaped like a cup, so it is slightly tapered for ease of use, so that the pencils don't get squished together. Also we designed it so that it hides most of the pens so pretty much just a small portion of pen/marker is visible, as they generally aren't optically very pleasing.