The Pen Addict 716/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	716
Title:	Good Times
Release Date:	May 14th, 2026
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	April Wu
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 716
Audio File:	Audio Episode 716
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 716
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

00:00 from relay this is the pen addict episode number 716 this week's episode is brought to you by the
00:12 st louis pen show enigma stationery and squarespace i'm your host brad dowdy and joining me today
00:18 this week and making their return appearance to the pen addict podcast april woo how are you doing
00:25 april hey brad thanks for having me back on oh yeah hey thank you for coming back on it's like i
00:31 didn't scare you off and you know always worry about you know the second time guest is the
00:36 important one right you get somebody once and it's like man you think they'll come back do we do we
00:40 scare them off no no i i think i was like oh wow brad you want do you want me to talk about more
00:47 stuff from japan i can talk about more stuff from japan yeah i think we're gonna cover that pretty
00:52 well today the first thing i wanted to ask you and i purposefully didn't say april april woo from
01:00 wherever like i would say brad from the pen addict what is it that you say you would do april who do
01:07 work for what do you do how do you describe yourself because i i can't ever answer that question when
01:11 people ask me i want you to i wasn't going to put words in your mouth i want you to answer this
01:14 question where what do you do april it's a it's a hard answer to say these days because i would used
01:20 to say i'm april woo from penguins creative on instagram but i'm not using that anymore i would
01:26 used to say i'm april woo from the stationery cafe podcast but we're on a hiatus right now
01:31 um maybe april woo from design for america that's my official title i'm the brand communication
01:40 manager at design for america but on the side stationery wise since i'm not using instagram
01:46 anymore i am still writing about stationery on a sub stack publication called the penguin post so
01:53 that's kind of where i go nerd all nerdy with my stationery stuff and wow do you ever we're gonna
02:00 like specifically talk about like a few of the posts and what you've been up to this year but
02:04 i wanted you to say design fill america that's what i would have gone with if it was me um so i'm
02:11 glad you said that and i think a lot of our time on this podcast at least on the back half we're
02:17 going to talk about design fill and what design fill is because i have questions i think listeners
02:21 have questions just in the general sense because and not to lead too far into what we're going to
02:27 talk about later but it's it's basically like at the top of the umbrella of several companies that
02:34 a lot of us like and use in the stationery world that people know the names you know travelers
02:39 company or prodder plotter or you know md product which we're going to specifically get into but
02:46 they're all under a parent company called design fill so we're going to talk about that stuff later
02:50 um until then i want to talk about this year that you've had so far um number one we're past like you
03:00 have an entire month to yourself like we're recording this in may we've just ended april so like
03:05 number one you have an entire month to yourself but just as so far in 2026 you've done a lot right
03:12 like it feels like it like i read your i read your sub stack and i'm i'm going like goodness gracious
03:18 like i know how busy you are to begin with and then what have you done so far this year
03:23 and honestly it's busy but not like super all work based i just like to have fun with stationery so i
03:31 stuff my month with fun events and places to travel to i love traveling so i've been to california
03:38 pen show in february with for work um alongside travers company alongside plotter alongside md product
03:45 um in march i went to san francisco stationery fest their first year it was really fun actually
03:51 and then right on the tail of that i went straight to taiwan actually um to visit family slash oh no
04:00 there's an illustration taipei festival on the third day that i land totally not planned at all
04:09 and so i went to that one and then in the middle of my taiwan trip i did a little
04:15 skip and hop over to south korea to to join a little art retreat um with my mother um it was these
04:23 two art instructors in taipei that i follow and i randomly came across their facebook promotion
04:28 about this trip and i'm like hey i'm the stranger in seattle i would love to join i speak chinese don't
04:35 worry and so i we somehow like kind of tagged along this group trip um to south korea and then i've
04:43 been back since mid april um just resting now yeah because it's gonna be a busy year for the rest of
04:52 this year too yeah like i didn't even i didn't even put any notes for the rest of the year but we're
04:56 definitely going to talk about that because i had so much to talk about already so just just so i'm
05:00 straight you were taking a trip to taiwan you saw family but you of course worked in stationery
05:05 and then you just saw this retreat and in south korea reached out to them and ended up doing that
05:11 correct yes is that pretty much the story of your travel are you like an over planner travel i'm
05:18 gonna hit this this and this and at 2 30 i'm doing this and at 4 30 we're gonna be here or are you
05:23 hey i'm gonna show up and then we'll kind of figure things out as we go because all of these are
05:28 pre-planned last november so okay i'm that kind of person so yeah i'm the 2 30 to 3 30 what are we
05:36 doing kind of person what do you expect when you say you go back to see your family in taiwan
05:43 from a stationery perspective do you ever go looking for particular things that you know you may not
05:49 run into or you're just happy to go and and see things that you know we're in the age of the
05:54 internet right we can see a lot of things online do you ever get surprised when you go
05:58 oh for sure actually um although taiwan is just filled with station it's a perfect stationery
06:05 destination honestly to anyone like second to taipei in my opinion oh sorry second to japan in my
06:11 opinion lots of stationery things to do but i there's always these kind of like creative parks
06:17 there's different parts parts of town where they host a lot of exhibits animations or different shows
06:24 and so those i love to stumble upon and so i came across a really fun like tega chima tega misha
06:32 pop-up at one of the creative parks that i didn't know was happening there so there's some fun stuff
06:37 too but usually when i go back to taiwan i know i'm hitting a few of my favorite stationery stores
06:41 there are a few travelers partner shops there that i love going back to and chatting with the owners
06:47 um but most of the time it's also like hanging out with friends there and doing stationery fun things
06:53 yeah yeah that's cool that's cool um and then back over stateside between like the california pen show
07:03 which is in la and i guess this this is like their fourth year or something like that fourth or fifth
07:07 year i think i went last year uh couldn't make it this year and then that was in february and then
07:14 in april had the san francisco stationery march march end of march end of march yeah i definitely get that
07:20 confused um end of march talk a little bit about both of those shows and if you from not just april's
07:30 perspective but maybe from like a work perspective are you approaching a fountain pen show differently than
07:36 you are a stationery show because design fill products like have a good crossover actually probably
07:42 like one of the biggest crossovers between just a strict fountain pen person might think that
07:47 travelers is a oh they're just a fountain pen company and then a person at a stationery show
07:52 might think oh travelers is my favorite company i don't know what a fountain pen is so how do you
07:57 approach that yeah honestly that's why i started going to show like that i i started asking my company
08:04 to go to shows back in 2021 my first show was san francisco pen show and actually we were introducing
08:12 plotter then and we brought travelers along and then turns out it was a hit too because when
08:17 people have good writing tools like a fountain pen or just pens in general they want a good notebook to
08:23 write with and so in that sense design for brands such as travelers travelers company such as plotter became a
08:30 great uh kind of complement to the writing tools but for stationery shows i think it's actually the other way around
08:38 because if you've you've been to a few now right so far um there's a lot of stickers accessories stamps and
08:45 now the notebook became the main character and the station show became every other thing that could go
08:52 into the notebook and so it was just a good mix and in fact i was trying to make the understanding about
08:59 like oh what what exactly are the difference between pen shows and station shows now these days and i feel like
09:05 there's don't you think there's like a slow blending of them getting closer and closer to each other like
09:11 san francisco pen show historically had been mostly fountain pen brands but throughout the year there's
09:18 more and more stationery vendors joining in and then with the stationery shows and what i just saw at
09:25 little craft fest in april they had tono and limps there they had a lot of fountain pen brands starting to
09:32 join in that mix of stationery and so we're in a very interesting time um of this melting pot i would
09:41 say yeah every show trying to find their personality trying to see what makes them stand out and there's a
09:47 huge battle between what type of things are there yeah it's it's super interesting for someone i haven't
09:54 done this forever but i've done it a long time and i've just kind of come up through like the fountain pen
09:58 show ranks if you will you know go into like four five six fountain pen shows traditional what people
10:03 would call traditional fountain pen shows and even those have changed like discounting any stationery
10:08 show even the fountain pen shows would try to change in different markets like you know san francisco pen
10:14 show is such a different show from you know maybe chicago or something like that i mean i'm not
10:20 you can you know i mean i wonder about dc pen show yeah i haven't been in a while yeah um i went last
10:26 year it was packed it was it was actually pretty good i had a good time i do think there's one
10:31 distinction i think pen shows are still more brands slash retailers okay versus small makers okay i mean
10:37 there are makers sure definitely on the minority but stationery shows actually are more makers artists
10:45 more than like brands and retailers there's a little bit of that more handmade self entrepreneurship
10:51 with stationery shows maybe because the barrier to entry is not as high because you can make and
10:56 design and create stuff very easily and create that presence whereas with pens i think it's harder to
11:04 become a pen company or a pen major maybe no i i definitely see that and like i still get some of the
11:12 same vibes from them in the people that go to the shows right there's definitely a crossover in the
11:18 things that i like things that maybe i can't get at a fountain pen show that i can get at a stationery
11:24 show and vice versa so like me personally i'm gonna go to both and enjoy both times both types of events
11:30 you know pretty much equally um but i like now like let's say the last five years that we have this
11:40 opportunity to see different types of shows see different types of creatives in kind of an all
11:49 encompassing space and one of the one of the things you brought up which we're going to actually talk
11:55 about later but i kind of wanted to bring it up now um is the whole like analog versus digital debate
12:03 and to to me these types of shows are able to coexist side by side because there is such a push these
12:11 days to get offline and get into your notebook and play and have fun and play with things do you think
12:17 that plays a little role and like both of these types of shows clearly can succeed in our market right
12:24 yeah for sure i think definitely the trend of analog is pretty big in the last two years or so
12:33 us tech companies become more rigorous with like how they're trying to affect consumers capitalism
12:41 with a capital c but i do think though i think it's just the even without that portion i think people
12:49 are just learning to appreciate art more and like the stationery market is kind of like that you're
12:55 getting you're attracting more um diversity more demographic in terms of age and
13:03 like the pen show started out with just um people with fishing fishing vests to to now you have
13:10 people bring their kids bring their family bring like their their spouse bringing their friends and
13:15 introducing people are more inclined to introduce their hobbies to people around them now so i think in a
13:22 way that is how these shows are growing it's just worth of mouth um people you know aside from
13:28 trying to get away from tech there's also like oh what what brings me joy what brings my friend or
13:34 or people i love joy i want to try to see that too and there's a lot of that slowly flowing out to
13:40 like the bigger circles of people yeah and i think these pen shows definitely help and you know i know
13:46 you know a lot of times if you're not in the area but when it's hard to travel to one but like guys
13:50 obviously you know i've implored this for years like if you can make it happen somehow just once and
13:55 like i think you'll see just how many people are like you in in those rooms and how much enjoyment
14:01 you can get from this stuff like i would i like not to totally get off topic but i'd be lost without
14:06 like stationery in my life even though like it's my job but it doesn't matter like i would be lost like
14:11 if i don't have a notebook and a pen around like i feel different right so this kind of stuff is
14:16 important to me so circling back to these shows the california show and the san francisco
14:22 stationery fest specifically so you were there um under the design fill brand in general but do
14:30 y'all it look like at least at uh san francisco um y'all put on like different events and hold
14:37 like different like meetups and things like that at these shows um can you tell me just a little bit
14:41 of like what you do off the show floor at these events because i find those types of things to be
14:49 as someone who goes to a lot of shows those types of things make a difference in me wanting to travel
14:53 to somewhere when i can do something else besides just shop oh absolutely i love that pen show organizers
15:00 are giving space for vendors and brands to do something a little extra because as the popularity of shows
15:08 grow obviously the show floor becomes more hectic and chaotic and really that engagement that
15:15 may once exists is now getting more limited there's there's less time in front of the table because
15:21 there's people behind you trying to get to it um that's a whole that's an entire podcast
15:27 i think we've tried that one before yes that everyone's trying to solve right yeah so in a sense
15:33 having the extra space like either a seminar after the show or like what sf sf and san francisco
15:41 pen show was doing was on thursday they made it a whole day where people could do workshops or attend
15:47 seminars uh hosted by brands or something like that so we we took advantage of that we were like
15:53 please let us have two space and so we were able to recreate like a more fuller experience of the
15:58 brand so for plotter this year for sf sf we did a plotter lounge where people get to try writing using
16:07 and we gave out a ton of journaling prompts for people to try writing on rdp paper we have those
16:13 refill pads all set out around two tables people can try collaging which is a different form of
16:19 creative expression and the difference is part of the room there's a more kind of like demo area where
16:25 i could spend more time explaining to people the difference between letters without the pressure to
16:31 buy and people could really come and just like oh i just want to understand this and it's more personal
16:36 too because you're not you know timidly raising your hand asking in a panel you know things like
16:41 that you could ask any question you want and then we have like a we get to do something a little more
16:47 special that takes a more real estate like we had this paper cocktail situation where it's kind of
16:51 pick your own paper you can create your own blend so for plotter like to have that extra space that extra
16:58 time to share with people why we love this thing so much other than you know that hectic two minutes
17:03 you might have in front of the table it's just such a plus and i think a lot of other brands did that
17:09 too like i'm sure at chicago outlaw stationery had like a full yeah sometimes they do q a's and then
17:15 like i think sakura dragon one of the artist brands did a huge meetup and one of the nights in
17:23 sfs of it was a it was a huge success every they had like all these stamps out for people to play with and
17:29 people get to hang out with each other um and then you know i'm looking forward to more of that
17:34 honestly at the shows i'm going to like stationery fest in new york um i'm going to sf pen show this
17:41 year as a regular person no way i'm not we're not working there there's a little bit of a conflict
17:47 so i'm going to sf pen show this year finally hoping to really immerse myself in all that all those
17:53 experiences i could take classes i could like queue up at 5 a.m waiting to buy that glass pens i like
17:59 get what the experience for everyone else do some jostling in the hallways yeah right some some
18:08 sweating in the aisle oh my gosh but no i it is it's it's tough when you're you're you're you have a job
18:15 all weekend right like it's hard it's hard to break away uh from those but i know you did and i want to
18:23 find out about you breaking away for a couple of things maybe at these shows but let me talk about
18:28 our uh our first sponsor this week and a place where you can also break away and go find some
18:34 school stuff cool stuff and that is the saint louis pen show so this episode of the pen addict is brought
18:38 to you by the saint louis pen show if you love the feel of creative writing with a fountain pen
18:43 or documenting your thoughts and ideas through journaling or even just doodling the 2026 saint louis
18:48 pen show is the place for you it runs from thursday june 25th through sunday june 28th and they're
18:54 featuring special appearances by our very own brad dowdy that's me and scott jones uh not not to dismiss
19:02 scott scott great artist uh i got excited when i saw my name there i didn't read this ad ahead of time
19:09 it's like i know that guy uh and emphasizing our our central location of meeting in the middle so
19:14 st louis right smack in the middle of the country easy for a lot of people to travel there so they
19:18 have 102 vendors across 25 states and canada that include artisan pens and pencil vendors vintage pen
19:24 dealers nibmeisters pen repairmen ink journals paper stationery clothing vendors and much more
19:30 thursday is a trader day friday opens to the public with an evening event of vintage pen panel and pen
19:36 tasting followed by a free dessert party saturday and sunday open to the public again
19:39 with an evening pen show after dark on saturday night there's 26 classes over the three days
19:46 that's something that i personally love inserting myself here again uh including calligraphy book
19:51 binding stamp making and card design there are also lots of additional activities this year
19:55 including a silent auction scavenger hunt for kids and adults shout out adults for the scavenger hunt
20:01 journal meetup corner limited edition stamp and sticker sticker collection booklets and much more
20:05 including me that brad dowdy guy having a panel on saturday afternoon from 2 p.m to 3 p.m so i will
20:14 be there this year there's so much to see and do at this year's st louis pen show so how do you get there
20:19 it's at the sheraton westport lakeside chalet on the beautiful westport plaza plenty of free parking
20:25 loads of restaurants and just 10 minutes from the airport you can also get a special pen show room rate
20:30 of 155 dollars which includes breakfast so head over check out the st louis pen show website at
20:35 stlpenshow.com you can buy your tickets for a ten dollar per day admission twenty dollars for a
20:42 weekend pass or thirty dollars for a trader pass for all show access you can find vendor information
20:48 sign up to classes get your tickets now at their website stlpenshow.com our thanks to the st louis
20:55 pen show for their support of this show and all of relay all right when you're not working april maybe at
21:02 the california pen show maybe at san francisco stationery first first let me ask you this which
21:07 show was more of a problem for you personally to to stay behind the table and work oh my god where
21:14 where was your team members yelling at you where's april because you couldn't come back
21:19 surprisingly i think it was california pen show okay stationery fest i think i went in with a
21:25 mentality of holy moly i'm going to be an illustration taipei in one week and that show was actually that
21:32 show was 400 vendors a hundred thousand people whoa that that kind of scale so i my my wallet was like
21:39 already quivering yeah so sf sf was like a week before you were heading literally okay so seven days
21:45 before okay me going to that big one so i was i was much better but my favorite purchase was actually
21:51 from sf sf okay so um brad have you seen my zento signature hang on one second i gotta get mine
22:00 sorry that's your joke have you seen have you seen my zento signature i saw this beforehand and i was
22:06 like she's gonna drop a zento signature on me isn't she exactly so um i scored it because i missed out
22:14 on it at california pen show i heard that lisa van ness brought some to california pen show so
22:21 when we were setting up at sf sf i was like lisa i will not be here the first thing but i will send
22:27 someone do you have some in the back and so both kelly and i actually both got one that's great so
22:35 this is one of my favorite purchases so did it i think has it changed your life at all in any meaningful
22:40 way oh my god i've been using it since then like every day i think maybe the the scarcity of it
22:48 makes it feel extra special that i i felt like i'm doing the world of the service by not using it
22:54 enough so maybe um it's great on md paper by the way i love i love using it on md paper even though i'm
23:01 it's the 0.5 i'm hope i bought a refill which is the 0.38 hoping to switch it out once this is gone
23:08 to see if i like it because my favorite pen as i shared with you i think before was signal dx
23:14 still the best in my opinion 0.38 so i'm just trying to see if this would give it a run for its money
23:18 yeah um it it doesn't in my opinion like i have a we'll do a long uh recap of the zinto signature
23:26 even more i i it's mostly a bit me talking about it because i think it's hilarious that it's such a
23:31 hot item and it's like yeah you know it's like the the barrel is awesome the refills it's fine like
23:36 it's it's not it's not changing anyone's life but the uh the stationery world loves to like pick
23:42 out some of these like hype products and i i just tend to lean in and into it because i think it's
23:46 absolutely hilarious so uh love my zinto signature i'm not going to stop talking about it is it the
23:52 best pen in the world it is not but it's totally fine i wish i got the special color one though i know
23:57 that's the problem they have they have um this is my whole uni ball ran they feel yeah they have
24:04 it's not even a rant it's like i'm pro this they have figured out pretty quickly something with this
24:10 product line that clicked from the jump they usually don't come with the full series of low end middle
24:16 and high end on launch like launch minute had all versions of it and it's they did something right
24:24 with this one so shout out to them they they marketed this one properly so and it's it's still they just
24:29 just make more of a muni ball that's my only plea don't don't make people go to scalpers to buy them
24:36 but i do like the california fan show back to that topic more in terms of spending i think it's because
24:40 they have the better blend um sure but which makes sense because stationery fest is a stationery show
24:46 there's more focus on the artist but i was missing the fountain pen a little bit yeah actually i was
24:52 missing a little bit of i know it's weird not seeing drum goals there with their racks of inks
24:56 and you know not seeing a few of our favorite you know makers you know showcasing their cool new pen
25:03 which i think is art right in a in a sense so california actually this year i think california pen show is
25:11 my favorite show now it's yeah the room the the convention hall no the hotel space is big there's two
25:21 rooms now it's spacious and it just has a ton of stationery vendors too actually local artists that
25:28 came down from sf and some retailers in the area and love well um and then you have paper treats things
25:34 like that and so it's just it's it's a great combination i was able to get my fix with the
25:40 pens and also a ton of my fix with the stationery so i think piggybacking on that with was sf sf
25:48 i kind of was like oh i got all i needed true yeah yeah and that's one of the things like someone
25:53 like yourself or myself who's lucky enough to go to a bunch of shows like we don't have to like
25:57 splurge every show because we just did it a few weeks ago and like it's okay i did do that last
26:02 year though and the year before so i'm trying to be better yes to your point about the california show
26:08 i've only been once but i thoroughly enjoyed it i think that would be like a destination show for me
26:12 that would be one like i would you know when i'm making my schedule out for the year that one's
26:16 always going to be in the conversation because even though i've only been once the feedback continues
26:20 to be positive um i like the hotel and the location right even out right outside the hotel you have
26:26 everything you could ever want like there's literally a mall right across with like cool stuff and fun
26:31 restaurants and whatever to do speaking of which i put this in the notes because i didn't want to drop
26:37 this on you like too sneakily and i don't know if i should limit you to only like i don't to the not
26:45 us travel but one of the things you do so well and honestly like one of my favorite things about your
26:51 writing is you always talk about food right and i'm not i wouldn't consider myself a foodie but i'm
26:57 very like exploratory in food like i will eat kind of anything try anything so i like to see what other
27:01 people do so i wrote in the notes i want you to pick your favorite meal so far this year because
27:08 you put them in you right you write about it so i feel like this is fair game to put you on the spot
27:13 and it could be from you know taiwan korea it could be from the u.s you gotta you gotta give me i know
27:19 you gotta get i'm not gonna give me some restriction i know i'm not gonna make you how about this
27:24 because i know i know you're into like the drinks can you do like a favorite meal and then like a
27:29 favorite drink like would that be too challenging uh so favorite meal i i just love writing about
27:36 food oh no well i love food yeah and i love sharing like my favorite restaurant places with people and
27:43 then it just makes sense that i write about them when i journal about my travels and you know the
27:49 pandemic always has really comprehensive write-ups about the show and i was like let's not do something
27:54 the same i'm just gonna write about what i eat instead let me let me stop you right here
27:59 shout out kimberly because if i know if i don't shout out kimberly i'm gonna get texts so i love
28:04 you thank you for doing such a great job with those but yeah to your point yeah you put in a lot of
28:08 extra stuff um well i had i kind of had to squeeze to come up with the answer for the favorite meal so
28:15 the drink's gonna throw me for a loop favorite meal is definitely it's that it was actually lunar
28:21 new year's eve right before california pen show i went down a week earlier and so i got to um i got
28:28 to visit our headquarter in signal hill in long beach california and job me our friend rj who runs
28:36 pinky elephants down in pasadena another friend jackie we went on lunar's new year's eve it was
28:42 uncharacteristically pouring rain in california and it was so cold but we made it to the front
28:50 of the line at sea harbor seafood restaurant it's a dim sum place for lunar new year alongside all these
28:57 other asian people it was a there's a sweet victory i think in the sense that we got to be at the head
29:03 of the line we got to eat like piping hot like hargal and like delicious dim sum food do you do you like
29:11 chicken feet yes yes braised chicken feet yes oh so good i'm in yeah truffle filled dim sum like
29:21 it was just so good i i still remember that meal to this day that's that's how you know it's a good
29:28 one that's why i specifically wanted to ask you because i know like that's that's a passion of
29:32 yours too and i think it's it's cool to see like all the other things you get up to like when you're
29:37 traveling for work you can mix in some food mix in some you know some some of the cities that you're
29:43 in so yeah i keep keep doing that part because i i certainly get a kick out of it and i love it and
29:48 like if i'm ever back in there it's like i know where i know where i'm gonna start my list right i
29:52 know hopefully people who follow my blog they could like now you can go eat that too the next time you
29:57 go to as a pen show or like next time you're in town for another place totally this is what i've
30:02 always told myself i have to give myself at least an extra day to not do pen show stuff so i can go
30:06 like you know get out of the hotel for a minute and explore but you do a wonderful wonderful job at
30:14 all right we have a mega topic here to get into which uh is is right up your alley because it's
30:21 literally your job and i i call this topic the design fill universe which we want to get into i want to
30:27 go ahead and take our second ad break before we get into this because i have a feeling like i have
30:33 a lot of questions and you have a lot of things like for us to talk about but i have a feeling like
30:38 knowing me i'm gonna have like diversions and so i want to go ahead and talk about our good friends
30:44 over at enigma stationery so this episode of the pen act is brought to you by our friends at
30:50 enigma stationery enigma stationery offers unique items made from in-house designs along with top
30:56 brands and hard to find imports so i mentioned on a recent podcast that i went shopping at enigma
31:04 stationery and i ran across a certain character uh by the name of business frog and i fell deep
31:11 into the business frog world and um enigma heard me heard me and got not just the big business frog
31:23 washi back in but we have business frog enamel pins we have it's actually called business frog yeah
31:31 yep bit with a z b-i-z-n-e-s-s and this it's from uh robot is it robot dance battle i think is the the
31:38 maker so they're a popular like sticker and maker um they have a business day planner sticker sheet where
31:44 business frog is doing all these things they have a business frogs meeting sticker um there is oh where's
31:50 the one that i like the most they they of course have the business frog stamp washi back i think
31:55 they're just going to need to make me a dedicated business frog page um oh here's my my favorite one
32:00 is called business frog jumbo vinyl sticker and it's like it's like a rectangular sticker like for
32:06 your laptop i don't even know if it'd fit on a on on a notebook but business frog says bigger desk
32:13 bigger business and i feel that business frog i think that's an important like i think that's a life
32:19 philosophy right there bigger desk means a bigger business so um if for all your business frog needs
32:26 enigma station i heard as you covered i mean plus they have tons of other washi stickers pins
32:31 accessories i i i just load up my cart whenever go over there so i'm going to go back and fill up on the
32:38 business frog now that uh they have them in stock and have expanded uh my my favorite uh my favorite
32:45 frogs lineup so go check out everything they have on the offer so they have um you know ten dollars
32:51 off orders of fifty dollars or more at enigma stationery.com slash pen addict so if you go to
32:56 that link enigma stationery.com slash pen addict use the code tpa 26 at checkout you know what mike
33:02 gave me grief for using our code last time and i feel that that me using that code is business frog
33:08 approved i mean business frog cannot make the line go up unless he is taking advantage of all the proper
33:14 discounts i mean this is business frog philosophy at its finest use the code tpa 26 at checkout to get
33:22 ten dollars off your off your orders of fifty dollars or more so thanks to enigma stationery.com
33:28 for their support of this show and all of relay so yeah i i'm in the business frog lifestyle i don't
33:35 know you need to maximize your business that's why you need to use those codes yeah like business frog
33:40 literally has a sticker with a chart and and it's just like the line going up on the chart and he's
33:45 just pointing at the chart it's like it's called business pro business frog presentation sticker he
33:50 points at the the board it says business and the arrow goes up like that's it that's that's
33:58 he's so philosophical like i i just appreciate everything about him so i love this friend so
34:03 it's crazy so um all right speaking of brands i love um i must i'm assuming brands you love you
34:13 kind of work for them but i'm not gonna put words in your mouth no actually it is work but it's like
34:18 yeah we have a problem um let's talk about design phil and let's talk about design phil as the parent
34:25 company to travelers travelers travelers company plotter md product um many others knox who else am
34:34 i forgetting them midori midori yeah of course so um all the things so let's start with this how long
34:42 have you worked for design phil and like what's your main role i know you mentioned it earlier but
34:48 like tell me like how long you've worked for them and kind of what's your or or if things have changed
34:53 like since you've started did you start in one area and kind of morph into some uh other area of
34:58 the business yeah for sure so i've worked at design phil america since 2021 um may i'm actually about
35:07 to cross my sixth year anniversary oh nice there um and i started out as a marketing specialist i moved
35:14 up to marketing manager and last year i officially became the brand communication manager design phil america
35:21 because my former manager yuri yuri aida went back to japan to fulfill her destiny of becoming
35:28 design phil's third generation owner and president and ceo i'm happy for her though not salty at all
35:38 she's one of the rare women ceos in the japanese stationery industry which is pretty cool i think
35:44 there's only another one that's a woman ceo and i think that was hobonichi i believe yeah but that even
35:50 with hobonichi they were working with the shigesato ito is the founder but yuri is the ceo so she left
35:58 us in the dust um design phil america just kidding um so i've been working at design phil america now
36:05 managing in the past i used to just kind of work on like the marketing end of um the brands that we
36:12 manage which is travelers company and plotter um but now i also work even further up in like production
36:19 um project management basically many many hats and with a very small team gotcha and would you say
36:31 and this is kind of like an overarching conversation i want to have is your responsibility just for like
36:37 the u.s market or are you working like design phil is obviously based in japan has i guess other
36:44 markets as well is your work focused basically on like the america market you're correct so design
36:51 for america is created solely as a subsidiary that's based in the u.s and serving uh north
36:56 america region but right now mostly the united states only uh i know a lot of people always come to us
37:03 asking about hey how about plotter europe or you know other regions but i'm literally in my notes
37:08 i have no say in any of that uh i don't work there in that region so it's like i i don't have any say
37:16 in that um the design phil universe is very interesting like the whole way it works yeah
37:23 can you talk about that as as you can probably tell like it it's design phil is the umbrella company
37:29 over all these separate brands and all these brands actually have their own team um and that's like
37:36 10 to 40 people the smaller ones would be down to like even five people on team that manage their own
37:43 production planning their own strategy their own business thing so uh in a sense if i was in hq
37:51 in japan like they have a division called overseas department which really is the main
37:58 company that um sorry the main org that helps share the information of all these separate brands to
38:05 all the other regions outside of japan and so design for america was kind of created to help the
38:12 overseas team to have its own branch in the united states so the overseas team no longer have to worry
38:18 as much about the u.s region outside of their typical distributor partners yeah um in the past
38:28 because it's based in this company is based in japan they've always worked through distributors in
38:32 different regions so we do have a distributor here in the united states so that's why you can
38:36 see travelers company items at your local stationery stores gotcha um there's i think over 150 places in
38:43 the united states carries travelers company items now and design for america actually doesn't interfere
38:49 with our distributors we don't want to step on their toes we're not stealing their business yeah we work
38:55 uh through our direct channels and so here's the little interesting thing is design for america is
39:01 actually a separate entity from design field we're not on their payroll we are on our own financial
39:09 sheets and our own little team we're interesting we we used to be a team of just literally four people
39:14 we finally grew to eight this year um and so most of our work is supported through the revenues from
39:22 traverse company online shop plotter usa online shop gotcha and a little bit of plotter wholesale
39:29 distributorship because that part was never um our distributors they never got to distribute a
39:36 plotter so yeah we get to that's all that's me doing like you know the the mind mapping of like how
39:43 does this actually work so it's actually like i'm super interested in this the listeners are probably
39:47 like okay brad can we talk about it's definitely interesting but i find it super interesting because
39:53 of just just the overarching design field operation works i mean this is a company that's been around
39:57 since what like the 50s i think you said yeah 75 years okay wow wow so yeah and seeing how they've
40:06 changed over the years and i'm gonna have some links into like some of the um some of the history pages
40:11 that april shared with me and and following through that there's some really interesting
40:14 y'all should go through that there's some really hilarious products yes that they are very proud of
40:20 throughout the history of the company it's worth a click um so yeah putting it all together like
40:26 is design fill america separate is design fill america only like a couple of like you know have a couple of
40:32 the uh brands but not everything like knox is considered basically a japan only brand is that fair to say okay
40:41 right now yes yeah we in japan actually design fill is made up of several things so not just the five
40:47 brands we mentioned there's also touch and flow which is a retail store our only retail store in japan like
40:54 that holds all of design fills brands and also source a lot of interesting goods from overseas we also
41:00 have our commercial department that works with businesses and like okay that makes yeah corporate
41:08 stuff so we call it commercial design um we also are developing i think a new line of brand underneath
41:14 touch and flow called art touch so that's more for like i think branching towards art supplies a little
41:21 bit but uh that one's not super built out yet but md product recently separated from midori to
41:28 become its own brand so now we have one more sister brand now that we can call them sister
41:33 friends and work alongside us and they're gonna have their own trajectory as well okay so this may
41:39 be an unanswerable question and it may be unfair to ask you but i'm gonna ask anyway we'll try
41:44 how does design fill as a corporate parent decide when a brand is ready to fly on its own like trap
41:51 travelers for example like was travelers founded as a design fill in-house brand and then came out of it
42:00 and to be this thing that it is today or i guess maybe every story is probably a little bit different
42:07 for each little brand i think this question is the perfect opportunity for me to talk about that md
42:12 thing okay people get really confused about this is a new this is a new thing so let's talk about it in
42:18 that aspect so midori md product explain uh yeah you have the floor midori paper midori notebook midori
42:28 travelers notebook md paper what the heck it's i know and i know it's so confusing and i think it's
42:36 our own fault because we change our names and we reorg so many times um but to this day because i am so
42:43 knowledgeable about design for products now i do get a little irritated when i hear people say midori
42:48 notebooks you know so it's like it's not uh but i feel like let's break it down and i hopefully by
42:56 understanding the history of design fill it'll be easier to understand why things are called a
43:00 certain way so 75 years wind it back 1950 midori company was established and back then it was like
43:08 the japanese name was midori shokai and they officially renamed it to midori eventually um but
43:14 when it was first founded they were just doing simple stationery they actually were selling like
43:19 even like little toys that people would find at gift stores a lot of different variety of things
43:24 uh stationery goods i would say there's a slash there and then one of our key product was diary items
43:33 so that's actually if you look at the history back then that was when we developed the three-year diary
43:37 where the concept of writing on the same page over three years was developed and so we were making a
43:44 ton of diary a ton of techo what you call the techo journals for for people that was 1960s and we
43:51 weren't satisfied with the paper quality and that's when md paper was okay developed to use specifically
43:59 for these high quality diary products so there's a little bit of a lore what does md stand for it
44:05 actually stands for midori diary paper paper made for midori's diary products but we just call them
44:14 and the paper for short right now so it was called midori all the way um until 2007 but right before
44:23 that 2006 that's when traverse notebook was first created and it is still a series of products
44:31 underneath the midori brand and right now this year we're celebrating our 20th anniversary for traverse
44:37 notebook that's exciting milestone so back then that's why for people who bought a traverse notebook
44:45 in the past you might see some that was labeled that's right traverse notebook yes because that was
44:50 one of the products in the midori brand like now that you say that i'm sure i've like titled things
44:55 because i always try like to your point like i which totally makes sense because in the past it was
45:00 called yeah okay i do remember that time okay sorry go ahead yeah so so that's why a lot of people
45:07 still refer to it as oh it's i have the midori traverse notebook that's the real traverse but no
45:12 it's all the same but back then our our director from traverse worked under the midori uh department
45:21 and he was developing products and then he entered a competition and he developed traverse notebook
45:26 and then that was the star product in 20 2006 um 2007 the company officially uh changed its name to design
45:37 phil inc i think it was between the time yuri's father took over he kind of had a reorganization a new
45:44 vision uh design phil is a merging of the word design and phil harmony which is like an orchestra like
45:52 different instruments working in harmony so design phil was kind of the concept because it is starting
45:58 to it has such a wide range of product underneath and they think it's like oh they all play together
46:03 even though they're very different so even though the company changed its name to design phil midori
46:09 continues to be that brand underneath design phil that sells stationery so leather sets stamps cute
46:17 stationery pens the xs scissors i don't know if you know about that series so these are all
46:23 the whimsical fun stuff are all under midori and then in it as well there's traverse notebook as its own
46:29 series traverse notebook refills and then 2008 they were like let's develop a new series of product under
46:37 midori but let's highlight our md paper we have this great md paper that we use in some of our products
46:43 but what if we made a series that's made fully with md paper cover to cover so an md notebook you can
46:50 even draw on the cover because that's also md paper so md paper products was developed then 2008
47:00 underneath midori and i think this is when it starts getting confusing because some people would just call
47:04 it oh md for short instead of saying the whole word md paper products yeah and then they might also
47:10 associate oh maybe md stands for midori but not really md is that specific line called md paper
47:18 products with md notebook as the main item featuring md paper i know sorry to get a little confusing
47:26 not confusing at all i know and now we finally roll it forward 2014 all you have to remember that's the
47:33 year april really got into stationery yeah 2014 nice traverse notebook officially separates and
47:41 this is where it comes in so midori as a brand cut they are it's a very innovative organization
47:49 underneath design field and each year they're challenged to come up with new concepts and new
47:54 products and new things but they all kind of live under the midori name but sometimes when a brand and the
48:01 team behind it has their own vision for it and how it wants to go and doesn't want to be confined by
48:08 the name or the concept of midori that's when they feel like okay maybe we can stand on it now and
48:15 that's what happened to traveler's company our director ijima and miho-san who's the creative designer
48:22 had a great vision for what traverse notebook could be and so that's when they decided let's pull
48:29 travelers notebook series outside of midori and establish it as travelers company so that's the
48:36 one of the rare first few times where oh a brand now jumps out of midori um so we still have midori
48:42 with the empty paper in there and the empty notebooks in there the traverse company is on its own but
48:49 because empty paper it belongs to design fill it's still shared among all the brands so that's why you
48:55 see traverse notebook using refills using empty paper because it's a design fill proprietary paper it
49:02 doesn't belong to midori it doesn't belong to md it belongs to design fill interesting yeah i have
49:07 paper questions believe me so they're all the same paper and then finally this year empty paper products
49:16 is also finding its own vision finding its own trajectory um and officially it is now separating
49:24 it's separated from midori since january to become md product and the reason they did add a little name
49:32 change there is because when you were used to be called empty paper products you're kind of it's
49:38 restricted a little bit the scope is only for paper and notebooks and letter sets which which it used to do
49:44 but empty product is a new lifestyle vision okay i can go a little bit into it later but they wanted it
49:52 to be a little bit more than notebooks because now the whole vision for empty product just like travelers
49:58 is about traveling and like plotters for like a system that makes for creative work empty product is about
50:06 giving the user the space for reflection there's a whole concept around yo haku the word yo haku in
50:12 japanese means margin or blank space so it refers to those blank margins on empty notebook but it also
50:21 can refer to breathing room in your daily life some reading space and so there's this whole aesthetics and
50:29 vision for empty product and that's why they separated from midori but they still again the core
50:35 paper that's been used throughout md product is still md paper gotcha and one of my favorites so
50:43 i'll let you catch your breath here that was a lot that was actually very very helpful and as someone who
50:50 like not just uses this stuff but like covers it and has to field questions and tries to help people like
50:56 find things that you know work for them getting some of that feedback in a bit of fortuitous timing
51:04 of this show like in a what a day or two after this show the um the md product usa site launches is that
51:11 maybe yes definitely who knows or day or two before day or two before so what's this yeah
51:17 yeah it's launching on may 12th for for empty product usa so spoiler alert this is a podcast from
51:24 the past we're recording this like a week ahead so of course i get the date screwed up so yes it'll
51:29 be like a couple days before your site the the md product usa site will be live and i'll have the link
51:35 in the show notes which will be live by the time uh this show airs right what can people expect to
51:41 see what type of products i know there's been some teases and there's been some different products
51:45 uh hitting the market out there that are under the md product um um brand so what kind of things can
51:53 people expect yeah for sure we actually brought some to sfsf2 but md product now consists not just
52:00 the md notebook lineup which people love you know we have all kinds of sizes we added dark grid which
52:05 is a to the permanent lineup before it used to be a special edition um and now we are also introducing
52:12 a lot of other stationery items as well as desktop interior lifestyle tools so uh in japan and some
52:21 markets already in the u.s you'll see there's md drawing pen which is our version our answer to pigment
52:27 pens and it's actually the favorite pen that our creative director of md product uses tayo sound he
52:33 loves using pigment pens to draw and then we also launched other items that could add to your living
52:41 space or your stationery desk space so we have pen rest made from different materials there's mortar
52:48 there's glass there's wood there are three slots they're in this round circular shape and it will
52:54 blend seamlessly on your desktop and you know reduce the clutter of what i'm looking at right now four pens
53:01 stacked against each other push against the edge you know those kind of situations
53:08 we also developed this cool new item called the scent clock uh i mean i don't know some people saw it at
53:14 the show and they all loved it the incense burns in a circle which oh yeah i think i did see the pictures
53:19 of that kind of imitates the duration of an hour so in a sense when you're enjoying the incense you also
53:26 have a sense of time as you see the incense burns around the circle and it sits on these beautiful
53:32 stands that's also made of mortar um glass and wood and those are available that those will be available
53:39 in our online shop and i think the good part about us being a direct channel is that we will in the
53:44 future get a lot of exclusive items okay we also help incubate and think of new items so when people came
53:50 to the show they saw our tester item which is that giant block 200 by 200 centimeter testing block empty
53:58 paper and everyone wanted to take it home yeah that's just our testing paper but who knows it might
54:06 become an actual product um in the future as well so yeah the uh i'm gonna uh on my desk i've always
54:14 had just like the small paper blocks so that the times four yeah so i have like these are i think
54:20 we're 500 sheets or so i'm down to like 150 so it looks like just barely like a post-it size but
54:25 those things live on my desk so like i love that type of product just to have additional desk
54:30 accessories well this stuff will you start to have these types of products the md product it shows
54:35 later in the year like um are you going to be able to carry some of that or are you kind of sticking
54:40 with like say plotter and traveler setups and then how are you mixing and matching that if you're on the
54:45 road later throughout the year we really hope to bring md product to more shows in the future
54:51 because i think it's just such a great answer to both pen shows and stationery shows because they
54:57 work in both um the no the plain notebooks the md notebooks are perfect for scrapbooking and stickering
55:03 whereas you know for the fountain pen lover md paper is just the best yeah so we are thinking
55:09 about mixing it up next year is going to be quite interesting uh because we want to go to both sf
55:16 pen show and san francisco stationery fest if they do it again but will we bring all three brands to
55:22 both that might be something that we might shake it up a little bit um and see maybe for as a pension
55:29 we'll only bring plotter and md which makes sense sure and then for sf stationery we'll bring
55:34 only travelers and md product oh i like that okay yeah kind of creating that distinction and then
55:40 also because as a pension already are notorious for its crowdedness we we kind of pull back our
55:47 our nuisance of a queue sorry guys i wasn't gonna say you were the problem but you said it honestly
55:55 everyone always says it's plotter's fault but it's actually travelers it's travelers fault yeah so i
56:03 wasn't gonna say it doesn't get that long of a line honestly i'm glad you said that before me so we're
56:11 we're making a few changes just to shake it up a little bit but i know people will miss us so they
56:15 don't see travelers so we'll see we'll figure it out um eventually then okay well we have some more
56:21 things to figure out in this episode like a product you have enlightened me to that i have
56:28 never seen before that i want to talk about and i think our listeners are gonna yell at me like brad
56:33 how do you not know about this so let me talk about our our last sponsor this week and that's our friends
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59:00 first purchase and show your support for the pen addict so our thanks to squarespace for their
59:04 support of this show and all of relay okay is there anything else in the the design feel universe uh
59:12 that we need to wrap up here before we talk about a couple of specific products i gotta shout out midori
59:18 because i think because we were on the tail end of that topic about midori paper or the confusion
59:24 about midori paper um it's empty paper actually but the carton opener i was heavily recommending
59:31 this to brad yeah so midori in the history first made their first carton cutter product in 1990 when
59:39 i was born but 2019 is when they really honed in and created this round carton opener and immediately
59:49 won like the good design award um it's a very lightweight um ceramic blade carton opener that
59:58 is in a it's a retractable blade so you instead of like pushing it out so it comes on one end it's a
01:00:04 full circle that you actually kind of like pull open to expose it into like a flat kind of handle and
01:00:12 then you can easily use it to open all your boxes and it doesn't it goes through airport security just
01:00:18 fine like i brought it to so many pen shows and there's never been a problem um and it's it's
01:00:26 sharp but not enough that it will like hurt you in my opinion like it just works so great so these
01:00:31 ceramic blade cutters i actually i guess i've technically heard of that concept for a while but
01:00:36 never really used a product with them and then recently like literally just this year like blowing
01:00:41 up on instagram maybe the japanese stationery awards they had the little animal ones that you drag
01:00:45 across with the blades underneath that were super cute super hot i have that one too yeah
01:00:50 but this this is actually looks like a proper tool that is very useful and i have a confession to make
01:00:58 if you don't follow me on instagram um you should um but i have a post where i fessed up to my jetpens
01:01:06 order queue and because i was looking for a product i was like did i get this here where was this and
01:01:12 april i'm not ashamed to admit that i have ordered 1622 products from jetpens over my history maybe i
01:01:23 should be ashamed but i'm not and i have never i have never laid eyes on this product and it's
01:01:28 sitting right there it like you know you can find it many stationers i just happen to you know go into
01:01:33 jetpens and see midori carton opener there it is no it's it's no telling how long it's been sitting here
01:01:39 staring at me and the great part is it's magnetic so it just sticks to my fridge right by the door
01:01:46 yeah when i need to open boxes it's like you will never lose this because it just goes on your fridge
01:01:51 like a magnet yeah and then there's a regular one like that are uh i guess like a plastic sheathed uh
01:01:57 that come in green and white it's like an off-white like cream color yeah there's a beige black
01:02:02 mine's the black one and then there's a black one in aluminum right the aluminum one is the newly
01:02:09 refreshed one which i also like because it's brighter so these are so useful and there's like
01:02:14 a little hole you can like hook it up to a keychain bring it with you in the bag things like that so
01:02:20 yeah midori brand is just i feel like if i were to define midori brand for everyone out there's not a
01:02:26 stationery company it's a stationery incubator it's the part of our design field company that
01:02:33 innovates the most they are they are free to try and do as many things as they want and so that's
01:02:40 why traverse notebook was able to come out of it traverse company that's why md paper products
01:02:45 eventually became md product was able to come out of midori because there's the team in that in that group
01:02:52 um gets to try gets to use the full advantage of our in-house factory nagariyama and the letterpress
01:02:59 techniques they get to source all these different places for resource and material ideas and they host
01:03:07 like contests occasionally within the team ourselves and they just every time i go back to visit i love
01:03:14 kind of like sailing over to the midori side of the office and just like hey what's new over here
01:03:19 yeah and i have a friend there that's she's chinese and she will hook me up with some new news and i was
01:03:26 like oh that looks interesting so so i i love like hibino okay yeah the amazing hibino is also from
01:03:34 midori um so just kind of like all these fun little stationery not just limited to stickers stamps the goat
01:03:42 stamp is also underneath the midori brand it's taking over my life the paintable stamp um so
01:03:50 in the core design field you know used to be called midori and now midori is still the powerhouse of
01:03:55 stationery innovation but on next to it your new concept is now called house of brands is that you
01:04:02 have these quirky sisters quirky brothers the travelers company plotter you have md product that they all have
01:04:10 their own unique personality when yeah but they coexist underneath the design field and it's a it's a house
01:04:18 where everyone has the freedom to experiment have the freedom to grow and show their own colors
01:04:25 because if you look into all these brands they appeal to different people like it's like they all
01:04:29 have their own stories their own trajectory and different people relate to the story and the ethos behind
01:04:36 each brand yeah i love i love that midori will be there just like that playground that encourages all
01:04:42 that as well that's super cool that's super cool all right i don't want to take up too much of your
01:04:46 time but i do have one i think i want to finish it on the paper topic because we've kind of talked about
01:04:51 it um a few times just going around and talking about so design fill as a company has their own paper
01:05:02 factory essentially right and then so everything from the design fill brands will come out of this paper
01:05:08 factory is that fair to say or is there just is that too is that too specific or too too generic like not
01:05:15 every you can't say everything because there's always like special limited stuff but are so if i have
01:05:21 let me put it this way so i have a traveler's notebook i have an md product notebook and i have
01:05:28 plotter inserts are all these papers the same do they come from the same factory do they each have
01:05:34 is plotter have their own paper does travelers have their own paper does md product have their own paper
01:05:38 help me out with that a little bit like i think that i think people might be interested
01:05:41 a station company uses a ton of paper yeah a ton and a variety of paper so there's actually a lot
01:05:48 of different papers that go through our factory the fact the factory that makes our paper are
01:05:53 actually not in tokyo because to make good paper you need to be close to like really nice source of
01:05:58 water so our paper factory is actually in another prefecture okay in japan but they make they use our
01:06:06 for they have we have our proprietary formula there to make md paper we also source paper from different
01:06:12 paper factories so actually we don't necessarily make all of our paper like md midori makes so
01:06:19 many notebooks and diary items and some of them have you will see like pink paper blue paper like
01:06:25 i have three or four different types of plotter paper in mind right and plotter made develop their
01:06:33 own propriety paper called design fill pocketbook paper okay paper because the rings are so small so
01:06:39 they can't really use paper that were out there or existing md paper because it'll bulk up really
01:06:45 quickly so for them it was a it was they needed a solution okay to fit their product to make the
01:06:50 thinnest paper they can that is still durable so i would say off the design for innovation we've
01:06:57 made md paper and dp paper and md paper is shared among a lot of the brands now whereas dp paper is
01:07:04 specifically for the knox and plotter division gotcha yeah okay that was the ring planners that
01:07:10 was helpful that was one i missed uh when we were in that conversation i didn't want to leave that
01:07:14 hanging out there um in case people were curious okay that's awesome all right um i think that's about
01:07:21 it unless there's anything like you know any you know you've been into the lab you have the lab
01:07:25 yourself maybe you want to tell us you know any secrets coming out of the lab soon anything anything
01:07:30 else i think i would i would like to share like just like a final kind of like a conclusion about
01:07:35 like the vision that yuri has because i think it it touched me a lot as a stationery lover especially in
01:07:44 this age like back to that topic of ai and digitalization and all the ai-fication that's
01:07:50 been pushed in my faces sorry i'm like a little bit of like tired of it but from that um but yuri's
01:07:58 stance on it it was very strong and that's the direction design fill is heading in and i i love it
01:08:03 so much so design fill and in fact actually last year when she went back she attended this all-hands
01:08:10 company she made like a whole keynote speech that all those japanese colleagues did not expect because
01:08:16 usually in the past it would be that her father or someone up in the operations team doing this like
01:08:20 sales report kind of presentation and she like pulled out her powerpoint and just gave this huge
01:08:26 inspirational speech everyone was shocked all the javasians were shocked we're not shocked yeah
01:08:31 like that's that's how yuri is but yuri's vision for design fill which i found really interesting and
01:08:37 i actually shared i think a script with you last time she said that design fill is not about making
01:08:43 the best stationery it's actually about protecting creating and preserving the culture of analog so that
01:08:52 it can expand the sum of people's good times good times and in quotations and i can't help but think
01:08:59 about that one time when you mentioned on the podcast or maybe in your streams you're like
01:09:03 stationery is about having fun yeah like that's that's what it's about if you're not having fun yeah
01:09:08 there's no point in really being into stationery and so like today with like digitalization
01:09:14 like all the tools it's all about making it more fast more efficient cheaper you know easier convenience
01:09:23 but is instant gratification really the answer to people having fun or having a good time and to her
01:09:31 she thinks the the definition of a good times because at the end of the day we all die like what what
01:09:37 defines our life right is it the success or how much we got done or is it do we have a good time
01:09:43 that's right so she she she explained like these feelings such as like those feelings like oh i love
01:09:49 this or i can't wait for that or you know when you host something it's just like this feels so good
01:09:55 so these are moments and feelings of good times that she thinks is more important for humanity in a
01:10:02 sense writing on the third year of a five-year diary right when you get there when you unbox a package
01:10:09 effortlessly when you're surrounded by your goods not necessarily writing but like
01:10:13 just you have your good pen rest over there you have your bottle of ink waiting for you like
01:10:18 these are good times that she wants to she wants design field to work towards expanding so the the
01:10:26 core mission she wants everyone like if she was talking to the staff to all the employees of design
01:10:31 feel like think about the good times that you enjoy in life and how can we expand that feelings for the
01:10:39 customers so let's not try to make the best stationery out there let's try to think about
01:10:44 how we can touch the end user and allow them to enjoy that good time whether it is like traverse
01:10:52 notebook a book that encourage a person to go travel or to look at things around you and jot them down
01:10:58 or you know book like md notebook sit down and you can be reflective you can enjoy that space that's only for
01:11:06 you or midori that goat stamp when you stamp it down you feel so whimsy so whimsical and then
01:11:14 for me the carton opener that just opens all my deliveries like so effortlessly these are all the end
01:11:22 goal of of design feel like we just want to be a company that makes stuff for people to have as much
01:11:29 as much good times as possible yeah i mean that's perfect sign me up for like literally all of that
01:11:34 you know that's something i very much believe in um you know some of my you know i hope i show that
01:11:42 in the things that i do and like what's important to me so yeah that's a philosophy i can totally get
01:11:48 behind well that was amazing i appreciate you sharing that april and appreciate all the details um going
01:11:54 through like design fill and then talk about your pen shows and like everything all the time you spent
01:11:58 with me today i really really appreciate it i hope our listeners enjoy it um is there any anything else i have
01:12:04 all the links for you know all the all the products and everything that we can share uh anything else
01:12:09 you need to shout out before we go you still doing the creative refills podcast you or job or
01:12:14 you know we're wrapping up season two with actually an interview with yuri so look forward to that
01:12:20 awesome yeah okay i can't wait for that so yeah we're gonna see we're gonna look into her plotter
01:12:24 oh nice all right so i'll put a link in too so y'all can go subscribe to that uh you can listen to my
01:12:29 episode back from february um which i was on uh with april so yeah um i think that's a wrap i wanted to
01:12:37 thank all of our sponsors for this episode the st louis pen show enigma stationery and square space uh
01:12:44 thank you april for joining me and until next time say goodbye april goodbye