Hi Ian! Thanks for your time doing this interview with us.
As our customers may have recently discovered, OMOI now stocks a tight edit of Schon DSGN fountain and ballpoint pens. The finishes are galactic, cyberpunk, mysterious, and exciting, and they're engineered and manufactured right here in Philadelphia.
This moment was some years in the making! I remember the first time you came into the store. It was pre-pandemic, shortly after your relocating to Philly, I think. You were days away from a pen show and on this last ditch hunt for fountain pen cartridges after your own supply had some mishap, and it's then, on the verge of buying our entire stock of cartridges out, that you introduced yourself. We found out that not only did you make pens, but that a couple of the Japanese brands we carry sold Schon DSGN pens in their own shops in Japan. So, we were all ooo wow impressed, but also you were genuine, friendly, and down to talk shop.
Since that day, we would attend the Philly Pen Shows, linger at your booth and handle your wares, wondering if our customer would be as excited by them as we were. There's an emphasis on form and function that is efficient, almost modular in character. The pens are gorgeous without seeming precious. Your attention to the manufacturing process, as well as making all pens in-house, seems incredibly rare in the industry overall. And we're not even talking about the finishes or the metals, yet.
But let's get into these questions already.
1) What kind of environment did you come up in, and what kind of environment do you like to make for yourself today?
First off—thanks for having me on this podcast, I mean interview via email, it’s a pleasure, ok let’s get started. I woke up at 4am the past two days and worked some pretty mega days relocating my machinery from my current workshop to a new one. So this’ll be a little fuzzy, but I think the bits will be good so let's just go with it.
I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. I loved and still do love bikes. I was always tinkering and fixing bikes and worked at a local bike co-op in my teens called Velocipede (they moved, but still exists!), and those folks encouraged me to keep working with my hands and making things, bike and non bike related. I loved music and was involved in the DIY punk scene in my high school years. The DIY ethic was very empowering, and I was shown that if I want to do or try something new, I should just go do it, be curious, be brave and ask questions and be wrong and fix stuff and yeah, just go for it. Make your own zines, CDs, DM people on Myspace to book shows in other states and go on tour, work hard, collaborate and make art. I feel lucky to have grown up around these awesome people who encouraged me to just go do stuff and learn and be creative. MICA art college wasn’t far from the bike shops and venues I frequented in Baltimore so those art students that were around always were folks I looked up to in terms of their creative spirit and energy.
The DIY ethic was very empowering, and I was shown that if I want to do or try something new, I should just go do it, be curious, be brave and ask questions and be wrong and fix stuff
I decided to go to college and got a dual degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering. I wanted to learn how to make more things and do things with my hands. I was a little disappointed in school since there was not as many opportunities to make stuff as I thought there would be. That was really hard, so I got involved with building a student shop with the dean and we made the Tinker Lab (at Boston University). I started a design club with a friend at school for hosting designers from local companies (and getting free pizza from the school…). We got nicely connected through this into people who design and make stuff.
I graduated and worked as a product development engineer for two companies after school, Essential Design and then IDEO. This was formative in learning the hard skills and real world experience of making things for clients at scales that were bigger than anything I worked on for myself. I made scientific instruments, medical devices, consumer products, pro audio equipment, security systems, a wild variety of stuff. Very cool and really challenging environment.
Nights and weekends outside of work I was making pens and watches in my house and started Schon DSGN before leaving my full time job in 2017 to make my own stuff full time (no more watches these days, just pens).
The environment I worked in for my career was more like a fast paced startup (each client being quite intense with big goals) and while that was very effective for getting things done and building a body of work, it can be really draining (for me, I can only speak for me). I like to run my workshop now like an art studio, though it's very industrial and hard hard work, I like the energy to be calmer if possible and try my best to keep it interesting, low stress for my team (even if I am super stressed). I hope I achieve that, but it fluctuates naturally. Once we finish relocating Ill get some calm back. I think? I hope!
2) What kind of stuff were you into when you were around thirteen? Any advice for thirteen-year-olds today?
no one can give you a kickflip,
you have to learn it
I was big into skateboarding. Every day after school I was out there skating and learning new tricks. There’s something I reflect on a lot today coming from that culture, and that is that no one can give you a kickflip, you have to learn it. You are going to get hurt, discouraged, fall down, feel silly or vulnerable and maybe even made fun of when you suck at it, but if you work super hard, maybe you’ll get it and you can kickflip (or any other trick). That tenacity was a healthy skill to work on and was very connected to my skating and now other parts of my life. I think about it for my kid and for other kids. It's really healthy to try hard at stuff and work for a goal even if it’s a simple fun goal like a skateboard trick. Builds good character that can be applied to other things in life like making pens or doing da business of business stuff.
Advice? Don’t measure yourself up to others. Do you, stay calm and know that life can get pretty rad when you are at the steering wheel later after school, so hang in there! Being 13 is HARD WORK. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t. It's so complicated. Hang in there and remember to drink a lot of water (always good advice to stay hydrated).
3) What's your stance on magic?
The Gathering? Played it as a kid. Now I don’t like how commercial it is. I played with my brothers, we didn’t spend lots of money, just used the cards we had acquired somehow.
Magic? Like tricks? Yeah that’s also good. My dad did magic at our birthday parties growing up. It's good to suspend reality for a minute or is it actually magic? Gimmick or real magic? Who can say!
Magic Schoolbus? My partner just scored a DVD of the first season at the library the other day, looking forward to watching it with my kiddo.
4) What got you thinking, I should make pens?
My friend Mike had a cool metal pen and I saw it and was like, I should make a modular pen with interchangeable parts. I ended up designing a simpler pen that wasn’t modular, but it was still a cool idea and fun to nail the details. I put a little brass screw in the back. It was rad. At the same time I was working on my portfolio of stuff I made and I wanted to show people that I could design, engineer and manufacture something so I could get a job after school doing design engineering (which is a tough path to get into without experience). Showing someone that you have the skill or appetite to do something since you already did it once before (even in a basic way) is a good tactic. I had a killer portfolio of projects and this pen was one of the projects.
After some encouragement from friends, I decided to sell pens since I wanted to see what it would take to make 1000 pens instead of just a few by hand. I contracted with a local machine shop that had big machinery (like I have now!) and they helped me with quoting and a plan to make them. I did a kickstarter and sold lots of pens… this helped start the business side of things.
5) Do you have any sort of philosophy around pens and-or stationery?
There are no wrong answers for pens or stationery. If you like it, it's great! If you don’t, that doesn’t make it bad, it's just not for you. There is no best pen, just pens you like the best. If it makes you happy, or does what it needs to do for you, it's great! Don’t yuck other’s yum. Enjoy the stuff you enjoy and remember, it's just pens (and ink and paper). Be kind to the people in the pen/stationery community and you will make great friends. Also drink lots of water.
6) What's something you'll spend money on, and something you refuse to spend too much money on?
Tools are good to spend on. Don’t skimp there, but be crafty in what you pick. I have used machines, not new. That’s ok. But I didn’t skimp on cleaning them up and getting them going. I spend lots of money on my machines, they love me.
I don’t buy clothes very often. I will one day. If you see me during a workday, my t-shirts are always free ones and they are all too small (most are over a decade old) and my parts are always oily and dirty (but they are Carhartt’s so they last forever). I struggle buying work clothes since I always ruin them, but good pants are great! Refuse is a strong word, but hesitant for sure to buy clothes.
7/8) Area fashion trend you wish would come back? Area fashion trend you wish would retire?
I combined 7 and 8 together. That’s the email interview rule, I get to do that right?
It's funny but a lot of the things I wore growing up are coming back into style (I'm 34) and that’s been fun to watch. I like seeing young punk kids wearing patches and vests. The “norm” core stuff is hysterical, go off. The work clothes as fashion is also funny to me, but at times I get worked up about it since like… I don’t know, it gave me the vibe that I got when I was growing up and kids dressed like they skated and didn’t skate, or dressed like they go to shows and don’t go to shows, you know? It’s a hangup I had from being like 16, and it's still there and I should make peace with it. Ok I'm at peace, all done. You can wear work clothes if you don’t work a trade, it's fine! All good. Whew. Glad that’s off my chest.
9) What's something you wish people engaged with more?
I originally wrote some heavy stuff about ethics of manufacturing, then I decided to delete and rewrite this answer and say… the woods. Go into the woods. Go for a hike. It's nice!
10) And, any shout outs?
Shout out to the Philadelphia Pen Show! Every January. Come see us, high five, nerd on pens. Have a great time.
Thanks for the fun questions. It was a nice thing to do today!
<3 Ian
Follow Schon Dsgn on Instagram!