I’ve worked with brands for 25 years. That’s 52,000 hours of figuring out how to make brands engaging, persuasive, convincing – and ultimately, worth a place in someone’s life. The new Esterbrook has caused consternation among pen people. To me, it is an emerging story of the power of a brand, even after its original owners have gone, because of the meaning it holds for the people who love it.
It almost didn’t, actually, because it had been mailed to my old office address. Luckily my secretary is persistent, and she intercepted it at the EMS office on the day it came in. The nib is a Nathan Tardiff (he of Noodler’s fame) special, retipped with what seems to be a fistful of iridium. The …