Wednesday, 11 December 2002

The Fountain Pen Saga: The Paper. Most paper you buy now is either too absorbent, or too slick and waxy. That means you need to use really good fountain pen nibs, and good ink that does not feather and bleed. Otherwise your letters spread, or you can only write on one side of the paper. Wasteful.       Or you resort to ballpoints and produce unreadable scribble. 5:20:28 PM    Add a comment.

How I Use Fountain Pens. I write my first drafts in Jet Black, with a Sheaffer calligraphy fountain pen and fine nib, and then make my revisions in Peacock Blue using a fine or medium nib. Then I write the next draft on the computer, in BBEdit and then InDesign so I can see what the words will look like in print.       I write in black plastic-covered perfect-bound notebooks that I found in a little newsagent in Morley. I bought up all six that they had. There are none left, and I have not found any more of them anywhere. They are not stocking any more of them. The paper in them is good but not great. It is better quality than all other notebooks that I have found.       Because they have soft covers, the notebooks do not damage expensive equipment or other books when placed in my backpack. The other notebooks available all have wire spiral binding, that ruins other objects when it rubs up against them. 5:15:45 PM    Add a comment.

New Ink From Slovenia. Sheaffer’s new ink is made in a factory in Slovenia. I have a number of cartridges of it, and it does work better on the same papers as the old ones. But enough of paying through the nose for cartridges. Too wasteful, too expensive. I just need a bottle at home, and one at the office. With cartridges on hand in case I run out on location. 5:07:28 PM    Add a comment.

The Fountain Pen Saga: The Ink. Plastic ink cartridges for fountain pens are becoming harder to find now. Those for my Rotring pens are almost impossible to locate anywhere. Sheaffer cartridges are a little easier to find, but there is limited choice in colours. You can have any colour so long as it is Blue. Or Jet Black.       I use Peacock Blue, for editing corrections because it stands out well, and Jet Black. Those shops that stock cartridges in their boxes of 6 have taken to selling cartridges separately, instead of by the box, at a premium price. Under $2.00 per cartridge. That makes a box under $12.00 now, almost double what they were before.       I have convertors for both Rotring and Sheaffer pens, that allow you to load them with ink from a bottle. The problem is in obtaining bottled inks, now. Local branches of the national chains where I used to buy all my writing supplies no longer stock Sheaffer ink, my preferred brand as its current formulation works better with current writing papers. Less strike-through, or bleed, less feathering, improved ability to handle the very absorbent or waxy slick-surfaced papers prevalent now.       Parker Quink Ink is available most places, even in Black, but Sheaffer’s ink works much better. And Sheaffer is the only brand that has a Peacock Blue. I finally found a store that has agreed to ask the distributor to supply them with bottles of the new line of Sheaffer bottled ink. They had plenty of the old stuff in stock. Here is hoping for success. 5:02:46 PM    Add a comment.

The British Experience. Britain is certainly not as design and art conscious as the French, the Germans and the Italians. And the best British designers generally do far more work for non-British clients than local ones.       But what really woke up the British business community to the need for quality design was an announcement by Thatcher in the 80s that there would be a design-led business recovery. And so there was.       Little Johnnie is hardly going to make the same kind of announcement any time soon. I suspect he is barely conscious of art and design in any way. His own personal interests appear to stretch no further than watching cricket. 4:45:03 PM    Add a comment.

Taking This Thing We Do To The Next Level. Had a great meeting this morning with the principal of a design firm who wants to take things to the next level with his clients. He was wondering how to do that, and I hope I had some useful suggstions.       I have made a number of observations of how creatives are regarded, and how they work with their clients, in other cultures, and many of the lessons can be applied here.       The big point of difference though is that designers in Europe are to a large degree culture heroes, covered in the newspapers, even the tabloids, as well as the colour supplements, specialist magazines, and glossy consumer and fashion magazines. Many people in the street can name some famous designers from having read about them there or from having seen them on TV, or shows in public spaces. Or from heavily publicised awards and public honours.       The average person here would be hard-pressed to do so. A design fan would certainly be able to name Marc Newson, the London-based Australian product designer who had a retrospective at Sydney’s PowerHouse Museum last year, but that would be the extent of it.       Clearly that is not going to change any time soon, so we need to find another way of gaining more control over the process, more input even before the client issues the work order.       I experienced first hand how British designers are called in before specific projects even exist, in a process of ongoing research, observation and consultancy, so that they often initiate projects themselves based on their perceptions of how their clients would best benefit. This can work here. 4:40:15 PM    Add a comment.