Graf von Faber-Castell – Bringing Back The Handwritten Word

Here at Notion we get tens, no hundreds, of emails every day. We get phone calls, text, BBMs, tweets, Facebook messages – heck, we even get sent things in the actual mail! Rare is the day, however, that we see the curved arch of a pencil line, the smudge of fresh ink or the tell tale signs of a rubbed out spelling mistake. These days, the hand written word is banished to scrawled notes on post-its or scribbled dates in diaries, reserved for seating assignments on Fashion Week tickets or invitees on wedding invitations. Only this weekend, Guardian Online columnist, Phillip Henser, commented on the decline of the hand written word and why, in an age where we couldn’t pick out the script of our lifelong friends from a Christmas card line up, handwriting is still both an important trait and a signifier of our personal identity.

So, when we heard about Graf von Faber-Castell’s range of perfect writing implements, we couldn’t help but feel our ears perk and our hands twitch. Firstly, the ingeniously put together pencils include a rubber and sharpener combined into one sleek, platinum plated body while the roller-ball and ball-point pens combine quick drying ink and chromium-plated caps for complete ease of use.

Then there’s the desk accessories box, available from Harrods and Selfridges, which puts our overflowing Perspex pen pots to shame. Pen holder, pen tray, notepad holder, letter opener, desk pad and six Guilloche pencils, all stored in an elegant white sliding case, we’d like one on each of our desks ASAP please!

- Brad Palmer