Five years ago, I found the greatest pen in the world—until four months ago, when I found an even better one. Except, this new pen is technically worse, which is also what makes it better. Weird, right?
As the Marketing Director of a nonprofit in Minneapolis, I worked in some pretty tight quarters. The building could barely accommodate us when I started, but a year and a half into my tenure it was bursting at the seams.
As people were shuffled around and new positions were added, I ended up sharing an office with my friend, Tony.
Yep, Anthony and Tony.
Before moving in with me, my new officemate spent the majority of his career as an Architect. It was he that introduced me to the greatest pen in the world—the Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip M. Apparently, a pen commonly used in his former career.
The pen is fast, dynamic, doesn’t bleed through unless the paper is thin, and has the perfect tip-to-paper friction. It was able to create that crisp architecture writing style if you took your time with it but it could take a beating, too. If you needed to write fast, the felt tip could take the pressure without much compromise.
I used that pen for five years—and they were a great five years.
Four months ago I found myself meandering in a Houston, TX art store and decided to get a little crazy—after testing about 45 different pens, I bought seven of them, all different. I was determined to see if the Flair M could still carry its weight in my writing life.
After a month of rotating through the new options, I found it. The Pentel Sign Pen (SES15N). It took about a week of using it to completely fall in love. I ordered a box of 12 just three weeks later. It was perfect—but in some ways, at least looking at the stat chart, was arguably worse.
The small brush tip made it much more delicate than the Flair M’s felt. You couldn’t write as fast or press as hard when jotting notes. If you did press hard, you’d smash the tip onto the page creating a thick line of ink. I’ve purchased brush tip pens before, ones that were too delicate for my less-than-steady hands, but this one was different.
The perfect combination of line variance, strength, and aesthetic that really makes writing stand out. Writing with it became a mindfulness practice, slowing me down, creating each letter with more intention. Don’t get me wrong, you can write quickly with it—it just won’t be as forgiving as the trusty Flair M.
With a gentle touch, the line is tiny and delicate. As you push harder, it thickens beyond what you’d expect from a seemingly ordinary pen. It completely changes the writing experience, and I love it dearly.
With some resonance to my last post on that without purpose, perhaps there is more to writing than getting the words down. Even deeper importance than the actual words being written, but in fact, the process of how they are written. Call me crazy, but slower might just be better.
And that’s the story of how I found the best (slightly worse) pen in the world.