Editing The Pen Addict 308/transcript (section)

== Ask TPA ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So, yeah. That pen's great. So, I'll be anxious to hear some feedback on this. And I fully expect it to be great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. What else do we got? Is that it for new products? We're going to go to Ask TPA?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I think let's knock out some Ask TPA. There's some really good questions I want to get to. But first, a word from our friends at Squarespace.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Make your next move with Squarespace. They will let you easily create a website for your next idea. And with the ability to so simply grab a unique domain name, take advantage of and customize award-winning, beautiful templates, and so much more. They are the all-in-one platform that can help you put whatever you want on the internet. If you want to have an online store to sell your amazing wares, Squarespace can do that. If you want to have a blog to share your incredible thoughts, Squarespace can do that. No matter what type of website you want to build, Squarespace has all of the tools that you're going to need. Everything's drag and drop, but super customizable. It's all there. If you need help doing something, there's something you want to do and you're not sure about, you get stuck. They have an amazing, award-winning, 24-7 customer support team right there for you. There's nothing to install with Squarespace. You don't have to patch or upgrade anything. They've got you covered. They've got your back. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month. You can sign up for a trial today with no credit card required. Just go to squarespace.com slash penaddict. Then, when you decide to sign up, use the offer code penaddict to get yourself a wonderful 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain and to show your support for this show. Once again, that's squarespace.com slash penaddict and the code penaddict to get 10% off your first purchase. Our thanks to Squarespace for their continued support of this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a good code, that penaddict code. I like to support those guys. I just built a website and used the code penaddict at checkout and got my discount. What websites are you building? Oh, did I say that out loud? Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Having some fun. Doing some things. Feeling the flow.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Interesting. All right. So, first, as TPA starts with an apology. I apologize, Nico, because I told you I was going to answer this, I don't know, two or three weeks ago. And I keep forgetting. So, I finally remembered to put this in the show notes.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So, the next question today comes...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And we're on to a dorkable. So, yeah. Sorry about that, Nico. I said I want to answer this on the podcast because we get this question a lot and I think it's an awesome question. So, Nico met me at the Atlanta Pen Show. He purchased a knock lookout in the coffee amethyst colorway. He said it was a pleasure meeting you and hope to again. The knock case is amazing. Thank you, Nico. And this is what inspired my question.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This was the bribe. This was the bribe that was required. Yeah. Yeah. Say it's amazing and you'll get it on the show.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. If you want to get your emails read, just follow this template. I love the colors of my coffee amethyst case and I was wondering how you come up with colors for your products. They are all interesting color combinations. Do you choose these colors yourself? How do you decide on them? Do you have any inspiration stories on how you picked any of the color combinations? So, I have kind of, I guess, two things to say about this. One is why we do it, which then leads into the how we do it. But the why we do it goes back to when we started the company. There was no one making a good quality case that I thought looked cool that I wanted to use for my pens, right? I could get leather cases, brown and black, sometimes burgundy if they were fancy. Or I could get the nylon cases from Japan, which didn't have the structure I wanted. So, the idea behind just the company in general, when we were going to, you know, plant our flag on colors was to do something like a backpack company would. And you can look at backpack companies, you know, like Topo or Rickshaw or Timbuktu, you know, where you can like build your colors and put all these things together. We weren't going to do custom stuff, but we wanted to put together cool colors, like make baby backpacks for your pens, right? That's essentially what we were doing. So, having colorful and unique pen cases was the start, you know, was one of the reasons why we started this company. So, knowing that, then we get down to actually picking the colors. And that's all Jeff and I, my partner in Nock, Jeff Brookwicky, who we sit down when it's time for colorways, we will sit down, we'll take a morning in the shop, we'll get out a huge stack of fabric samples, we'll get out zipper tape samples, we'll get out zipper pull samples, we'll get out thread samples, and we'll start with a general idea. Let's say we want to make a purple case. So, is it going to be dark purple, light purple, somewhere in between? Is it going to be, like, radiant? Is it going to be deep? You know? And then we figure out what, you know, exterior or interior fabric we want to play off of. What's going to be the main color that's going to lead the conversation here? And then we start digging through other color samples to figure, find out something that matches. And not only matches, it's probably not something you would think of that would match. Like, purple and yellow goes together great. Like, that seems kind of obvious to us, so we might do something different. And we do basic colors, too. Like, we've done navy and gray. I mean, those are just good classic colors. So, we don't do only wild colors, but we kind of mix and match the basic colors, which, you know, your black exteriors, your gray exteriors, your more subdued, like, overall look and feel of colors with some wild stuff, like our unicorn barfs and unicorn snots. You know, those are the things that are fun. So, we kind of have a range of picking those out. And it's really just a matter of Jeff and I taking a morning, like about two months ago, we had to pick out our colors for the fall, for holiday season and Christmas season to get them ordered. So, we took one morning at the shop and came up with three brand new colorways. And it takes a while to, like, figure out all the details, but it's actually a shockingly little amount of time. We don't care about, like, trends or what's happening. We just care about what we think looks cool when we put it together. And hopefully, other people like it, too. So, that's kind of it. There's no science to it other than how Jeff and I feel. And I think we've been, you know, pretty good at putting together good combos so far. So, that's pretty much it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You certainly have.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, that's a long way of saying we have three new colors coming this fall. But y'all don't have to ask me when, because it's going to be a long time. So, it's end of the year type stuff.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Next question comes from Adorkable. I've been listening for a while now and funsing with fountain pens for longer. Those days... Sorry, these days, I mostly have my carry set all taken care of. Fine dib decimos for Bujo tasks, medium nib excellent A's for journaling, and stub nibbed 580s for titles. I really like this setup, but my eyes and ears are always tuned into looking for something new whilst listening to the show. I can guess you are both much and much the same. So, my question is, if we like what we have and it works really well, why do we keep looking? What exactly is there to gain beyond a wallet? Thanks for your time. It's not about what there's to gain. That's not what this is. The thing is, no one is ever 100% happy with anything that they own. It's always like, oh, I love this thing, but I'd love it if it did this, or I'd love it if it looked like this. I think it's very rare in our lives that we can get a thing that we are perfectly happy with, and that chase for perfection, or that chase for something that could, or the promise of could be better, is the other part of it. Maybe you think what you have is exactly right for you right now. There is the could be better. Oh, look at this new Twisby. That might be even better than the one I already love, right? Which is another part of it, right? Like, oh, I love this one already. This is new. It must be better. That's what it is. It's not about trying to necessarily, like, oh, we're good. Why do we need to find anything more? It's because human beings, their desires seem to be tailored towards always wanting more, or always wanting better.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Does that say that right? Yeah, I think so. For me, it's a lot about transitioning as I learn more about things, and learn more about what I like to use, and what works the best for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, yes, but why do you need this color sailor, right? Like, it's, you know.