Editing The Pen Addict 365/transcript (section)

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'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. Tell me about the suitcase I'm going to pack when I go to head over and take over Lamy, because that's when it's going to happen, right?

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'''Myke Hurley:''' All right, so you want to tackle a few of these Ask TPAs? We've got a long one that we've got several long ones that we may have to hold until next episode, but I think we can knock out a few of these, right? Including our good friend, David Sparks, who we might see at the fifth anniversary show. We definitely should. He might be a good future penaddict guest because he's got a little bit of a problem.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' We've done terrible things to Dave. He was showing me his notebook arrangement and setup when I saw him at WWDC in San Jose. We've done terrible things to David Sparks, so I feel like we must help him whenever he has a question. So he hand-wrote this in, took a picture of it on Instagram, sent it to us, which is kind of fantastic. So for a while now, I've been using this Platinum 3776 with a broad nib, an architect grind. I genuinely like it. That's interesting. Like it. Although it can get a bit heavy with the ink. For the last few days, I've been writing of a TWSBI Eco stub nib. It's more legible, but it still feels odd to me. I'm having trouble deciding, but leaning towards the architect nib. What do you think? I think Dave needs to try something new, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, I'm sorry to have to say that to him, but...

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, number one, I'm completely shocked that this is a question from him. This is how far he's gone down the path. Number two, and we'll put this link in the show notes so you all can see it. His handwriting looks better with an architect nib, I think. It does. And I'm surprised to say that because as much as I like my architect nibs, I don't want to use them all day, right? I want to use my stub nibs all day. That's my preferred style. But, you know, I've never seen Dave Wright. I don't know what his hand positioning is like, you know, maybe that just works better for him at the angle he's writing with. So, yeah, I just, I think it's like, I don't, I don't know what to tell him. Like I, his handwriting looks better in the architect nib, but it's getting a little wet, he says. But I mean, man, a broad 3776 platinum, that's kind of the way to go. That's kind of like what I think is like the standard architect size and it, but it can get big and wet. So depending on how much writing he's doing, I could never write all day with that nib. That's just me. But if his hand, if his style is suitable to that, I think it looks good. And could he go with something a little finer maybe? Would that help? He could, he could. But the way his stub handwriting is, like it looks forced to me. His stub nib doesn't look like it's at the correct angle the way his, his lines look to me. So we'll, maybe we'll do an analysis in person with, with Dave because it doesn't look like he's getting out of a stub nib what it should offer.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Interesting. Oh, we're going deep on that one. All right, Dave, we haven't been able to help you, but we will.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So we, we will. We just ruined him more with that statement.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Email from Jacob. I went back into the 2019 Panavik Kickstarter today just to look at the Burton again. Super excited for that case. And I started thinking, what was the inspiration or thoughts behind the design? So where did the design come from for the Burton?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So this goes back to a product we make called the Lanier, which is a slimline briefcase. Within the Lanier, we wanted to make it in two distinct parts, but still one bag. So the first part was a large pouch for A4 size notebooks and accessories. And the interior contained an A5 pouch for smaller accessories, pens, A5 notebooks, pocket notebooks, things like that. That bag design came out of my desire for the want of a bank bag, what I call a bank bag. It's the kind of the bags you see, you know, retail shops carry their cash in when they're going to drop it off at the bank deposit, right? Something like that. So it has a top zip and then a lot of them round off on one corner just for easier access into the pouch. So you don't just have the zip on the top. It comes around the edge in a curved manner to give you a little bit more of an opening. So that whole product came from my desire to build a bank bag. And then the bank bag became the A5 Lanier pouch. The A5 Lanier pouch became a pouch that people wanted to carry as their standalone product. And then the Burton came as a result of upgrading that interior pouch into its own standalone pouch

'''Brad Dowdy:''' for the Kickstarter campaign. And that's the whole bag and bag thing from a long time ago, right? Yeah, bag and bag.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, exactly. So the result that you see in the Burton really started because I wanted a basic bank bag to carry accessories in. And then that's kind of the transition it took over the years to the very beginning where, well, maybe it's a standalone product. And maybe like the Lanier A5 pouch will probably have some standalone pouches for that style. But then the Burton really like turns that up to 11. And, you know, now it's its own standalone thing. So that's how that process went. Like that was a, that's years long worth of like change and modification. And all because I just wanted a bank bag.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And then Jacob goes on to say, would you ever consider a Twitch stream talking about how you and Jeff come up with your product designs in general or going through some thoughts behind a certain design and its features?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, for sure. So like I should get out some of like the sketches I keep of product designs. I do, I do worry a little bit, like it would have to be after the fact. It would be, have to be like post-release. I do worry a little bit about setting our ideas free out on the internet. No, you've got to do it later on. Like for older things. But like I have like a bunch of sketches and Jeff has a bunch of sketches. And we can talk about like the iterative process that we go through when we're designing a bag. I mean, and like it's not just, it's, I make it sound a lot of times like it's easy and we just do it on a whim. But like if we come up with like two or three designs a year, that's a lot, right? It just, it's a process of figuring out over time what's going to work right and what's going to be best. And then trying that out and trying and failing. Like we've designed all kinds of bigger bags that we just don't think are good enough. Like our designs are not good enough, like for larger bags. So like some of the things get scrapped and things like that. So it's fun to do that stuff. And it's a long process. I don't want to make it sound easier than it is. Like, you know, I talk about, you know, Jeff, when he designed the Coleman, he's like, look, I made a water bottle case. Well, you know, that, you know, that's kind of how it starts. But then to get it into a product, that takes a lot. And that would be a great like stream to have about how those products come to life. Because it's not as easy as I pretend like it sounds sometimes.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. Here's an interesting one. This comes from John. In the hit series, The Expanse on Amazon Prime. I like hit series. It's just a funny phrase to me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I've never heard of it. Does that make it a hit? Yes. I'm not a good TV person.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think by default that does. A mysterious fountain pen shows up in season two, episode 12, around 14 minutes in. Do you have any idea what this pen is?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I love this question. Number one. Number two. These people are in outer space. Like, I guess dudes on a spaceship here are like, he's definitely in the future. Right. Because I went and looked. It's like, assumedly the year 2350.