Editing The Pen Addict 656/transcript (section)

== Growth and Custom Products for Amarillo Stationery ==

* Yeah. They do awesome work. Yeah. That's, that's really cool. I love looking at that. So, you know, over the past few years, I've definitely watched the brand grow, the Amarillo stationery grow. And you started to branch out, you were starting to make some custom products, like some custom inks. What was kind of the concept where the Pannonia inks, the first ones you decided to, to get custom made. So tell me a little bit about those, because while Pannonia is not necessarily, not a Mexican brand, your concept was to, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but to tell different stories that were important to you that related to the whole idea of Amarillo stationery. Because, so can you tell me about that? Because those are some of my favorite projects you've done. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Well, and, you know, first, before I address that, the, I'm every day, I'm trying to expand a little bit more of Amarillo stationery and what that would be. And I have decided that while it will focus on Latin American stationery, I will also branch out and offer additional things. So for now, I'm even like offering Kakimori stuff. Yeah. And that's from Japan. Absolutely. So, so yeah, slowly, because I think I will, I will get to that point where I need to branch out. But as far as the inks, I knew I wanted to have something exclusive. And at that point, I didn't, I know Monarca was busy with their own stuff. So I reached out to Pannonia because I had seen that Pannonia had done collaborations with, with people in Spain, people in the U S as well. I think the mic is one of them. Yeah. Yeah.
* Independence mic. So I was like, let me reach out and see, see what the deal is about and see, you know, is it doable for me? And it worked out. It worked out for me and I knew I could give it a name. So I started with the pink, what I call Rosa Mexicano, the pink ink. Uh, and so slowly I started with another ink. So the next one was Azul Frida. And I, that was probably, that's probably one of my favorites just because it's kind of a gender bending type of thing. It's a blue ink. I'm going to stop you right there. Can you explain to me why Azul Frida is maybe one of my favorite inks ever? I don't understand. It's so good. I mean, beside the story, but like the story is the, is the bonus. Yeah. But that color, anyone, I'm having a hard time describing it because it's just blue. Right. There's something different about that one. Yeah. I can't explain it. Yeah. There's a little bit of purple in the ink as well. That's maybe also what is adding to the depth of it. Uh, but yeah, it's just so good. And mate did amazing mixing the colors for me. Yeah. That's one of my favorites. Yeah. And then, well, in the third one, what was the third one? The, uh. Amarillo Antiguo, which is a yellow color. Because I had done two inks that were so like Mexico centric, um, I wanted, because I Latin American focused, I wanted to expand a little to beyond Mexico. And so I looked for, I knew I wanted to have a, like a magenta, a blue and a yellow ink for possibly mixing. So I knew I wanted a yellow color. So I just needed to find the inspiration. And then I, I was inspired by Guatemala. They have the, oh, the, the name is escaping me right now, but this famous structure in Guatemala in, in Antigua, Antigua Guatemala. So that's why the color is Amarillo Antigua. Uh, and yeah, they were, as I said, they kind of worked together and I kind of liked how it was like one at a time. And then when they all came together, it was like, oh, makes sense. It does. It does. And if y'all have, I'm going to have plenty of links to, to Eric's shop and, uh, Eric's artwork, but you always do the right, really cool ink sample spreads. Like, like, is that called anything? Like, so you basically kind of like smash the ink in the pages and it makes like a, uh, you know, it mimics each other on the side, on each side of the page, but it just looks so cool. Yeah. So the, the, the main inspiration for that are the Rorschach images, right? But, um, the first person I saw doing it was Angie, our friend Angie in Australia. Yes. She's in Australia. And I saw that she had done a swatch or some type of image doing that same type of thing, but I took it, I borrowed the idea and took it further by applying it to a full spread, um, and then writing over it. And that was just magic to me. And when you do that with a shimmery ink with sheen, it's just, the results are just out of this world. Yeah. So that's now that's my favorite way of swatching and it's just so fun. Plus you're using your notebooks, you're using all of it. Like most of the paper you're using your inks, but my secret is to use a, like, uh, an insulin syringe. Okay. Because that will give you the thinnest amount of like a liquid stream. Okay. Otherwise you're putting down so much ink on the notebook and it's just going to be a mess. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Okay. I like it. I like it. Uh, but no, I just, I love that photography and that aesthetic. And that's like, like I know, oh, that's Eric. That's Eric. Yeah.
* It's so good. It's a fun time. Yeah. So recently you've come up with a full new set of inks and even more, even more than inks. So I can tell like your brain is working overtime, right? As far as like Amarillo goes, no, like you like, okay, it's a lot to start this business, right? And then, you know, you know, hopefully things are, you're going well to like start thinking about, okay, what's the next thing. And it's like, oh, maybe I want to make some inks that we carry. And it's now like, I really want to put my own stamp on it is where I think we're at now is where like, like Eric's Eric's like putting your stuff out there, right? Like we're getting there now. So tell everyone about kind of the latest adventures you've been on with ink and other merch. Yeah. Well, and before I had to do my, well, before I started my inks, I needed a refresh, right? Cause I think you remember my initial branding and I just knew back to how that started. It was kind of rushed in that sense. So I grabbed a friend who helped me with a logo and colors, but I wanted something different. So thankfully I worked with an awesome design studio in Mexico who did my branding and they mocked it up because you probably agree. Yeah. It's some of the best out there, like easy.
* And that's what opened the door to like all these other possibilities, because now I have what I think is like one of the coolest brands, the stationery brands, like the little logo, the little guy, the mascot. And I'm like, well, now I think it's time for, for more. So first I started with rickshaw. Now I have like this cool guy, super fun little guy. And those rickshaw items are so, so fun. And what was next was actually, and I, I think I talked to you about this last time, but like I wanted to have notebooks, but I'm kind of happy. I held off on that because of the whole paper mess that's going on. So I was like, well, there goes that idea. Yeah. So what else can we, can we, can we do? And that's when like, I was like, well, maybe I can have my own brand of inks. And honestly, that's probably been my longest project ever because I don't know if I showed you my ink samples at the last Chicago pen show, but I had samples of my current inks then. So over a year ago. So that idea has been brewing for over a year.