Designers weigh in drawing instruments...  

🙂
This is the thing I wanted to put in discussion also 🙂 as I saw it mentioned in the blog.
On one hand I find the new version quite practical in way of drawing, as it offers various alternatives for mark it leaves on a paper...
And I really appreciate the fact you can color big surface at once 🙂 I remember as I always unpacked those traditional ones out from that paper cover 🙂
the only thing I would be afraid of is the fact that it might break more easily into small parts, one would have problem to draw with 🙂 but well.. this is maybe just an argument not to sound too positive 🙂

For
the artist who knows what to do with it, the charcoal stick would probably seem anything but "dreary."
Guessing what are the properties and attributes of various tools, and gauging them by their appearance, has to be a losing (not to say pointless) game. But -- whatever amuses you.

well..
this looks like...
well..
this looks like interesting thing to point at,
how much is it appropriate to ease the children their own
creative process of exploring with crayons 🙂
I mean.. it's kind of natural discovery to find out how to unpack the crayon 🙂 break it, melt it... and whatever kids do with crayons.. even putting them back into box might serve as an exercise...

Let me rephrase the question...
This new guitar pick-shaped chalk won a design award.
What break through, or incremental improvement, in drawing does it enable that makes it deserve a design award?
I'm not being critical, or joking (except about the relative plain-ness of the charcoal stick) here. I am just not a designer by trade and do not draw, except to sketch with a pencil, and I honestly cannot readily recoginize the advantage these guitar pick-shaped chalks offer.

All drawing
All drawing materials morph through the habits of the user over time. Some edges wear down, some Charcoal, crayon, pencil, erasers, etc. I'm guessing the 'new' drawing utensil will more readily mold with use. I don't really consider it new, since people have been making triangular erasers for years.
And as far as I can tell the new utensils will suffer from the same flaws as all traditional drawing materials - sharp edges will blunt, broad edges will wear away, leaving newer and less usable forms to grasp.

.
I draw a lot, on bills, envelopes, a4, anything at hand. The best instruments are good quality pencils and fine nib drafting pens which you now where they are. I don't think the variabilty in strokes you can make is as important as the mechanical reliability of the pen/pencil, does it break often when you sharpen it? How quickly does it dry out if you leave the lid off? Big carpenters pencils aren't bad and a good mechanical pencil is great for woodwork.
Most often a quick drawing for a design will not need to be of presentation quality, it just needs to act as a later reminder of whats possible, I think I'd find the pluck shaped thing almost useless for what I do, drawing I make are often annotated and changing instruments halfway through a quick sketch breaks the flow.

Would
you use colored chalks to write your shopping list, pay bills, or even sketch ? Aren't these for children, or artists who want to draw on the sidewalk, etc ?
Even a non-artist ought to be able to know roughly what category a drawing tool belongs to, and judge it accordingly.'
I can imagine that these chalks would be less likely to snap in two, and would be pleasant to hold. The thin edge would remain so, even with wear, and produce a line, while the whole face could rapidly fill an area with color -- at the expense of rapid depletion of the whole.

Are they chalk? Is this a new...
Are they chalk? Is this a new design anyway? Sure I've got the same thing in my sewing kit, different colours would help for pale fabric but if the designers are claiming its innovative they're wrong.

Just Good Old Fashioned Tailor's Chalk..
...

Is this really being marketed as a design tool?
The best design tools are the ones that give consistent results. That might be a prismacolor pencil, a sharpie, or a computer mouse. It doesn't really matter what the tool is, so long as one masters the ability to communicate with it.
This guitar pick crayon may well have some interesting properties. Maybe it's more comfortable to hold than a pencil. Maybe the combination of wide and narrow edges makes it more versatile than other writing instruments. However, as it would be constantly changing shape as it wears, it would give the user inconsistent results. It also seems like it would quickly wear away into an unusable shape. For both reasons, it seems unsuitable for design work.
You also mention that it won a design award. There are many kinds of "design" awards. They range from recognizing the truly innovative and useful, to rewarding pure novelty. IMHO, this is the latter.