Editing The Pen Addict 236/transcript (section)

== Pen Design ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, it just so happened, like, a couple days after I talked to Lee, they went on sale. And so, I ordered one. And after I ordered it, I said, okay, essentially, I've ordered this. I want to see how someone uses this in real life, not in a staged Instagram photo.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know a better way to say that, but that caused problems.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' People took that the wrong way. People thought I was taking shots at people like Catherine, which I spoke with her afterwards and made it crystal clear that, like, that was not my intent at all. My intent is, I'm looking at this from a maker's perspective. I manufacture things. I understand how I want things to work. And I'm looking at this product. And the designer and maker in me says, this does not compute.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Catherine has a job to do. It is her job to do these design layouts. I can't think of a more perfect item for her to do her job than the mod. And then a bunch of this is ground products and a bunch of other products. So, her and I had some really, really great conversations. She's a wonderful woman. I consider her a very great friend. That was completely unintentional. Like, people took, like, it's hard for me to realize sometimes I, like, have a platform and an audience. Right? Like, things I say I mean one way. People take them immediately another way. And then, like, run off, like, kindergartners and go tell other people. It's hilarious. I mean, that's the world we live in these days, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. But in that regard, you're the guy, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know. So, I try to be purposefully thoughtful. So, I was like, so maybe that tweet wasn't very thoughtful. I thought it was reasonable. But, you know, people took it one way when I really didn't mean anything at all. So, anyway, Catherine does wonderful work. Me and her, she actually, you know, has talked to me a bunch. We have talked a lot over the past few days just talking about this product and talking about what goes on with it and things like that. And I'm trying to understand it and, you know, it's not even fair to include her in this conversation because, like I said, she's doing her job. And she's doing exactly what she needs to do with this product. And she's making it look beautiful. And that's how it works. What I want to do is take this product and see how it works for me.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Have you found anybody, has anybody sent you pictures that you consider to be acceptable that this is being used practically? Not one person sent me a picture. So, I'm sure you received photos, but you would still class them as just being like, you made this look good for Instagram.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I didn't. I didn't get any photos. Not one. Because people assume that, you know, it's just going to be the Instagram stage photo. And, again, there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm not carrying around a picture. I'm carrying around a case.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There is an element of wrongness with that because the thought is that this is meant to be a product that is used for you to carry in your stuff around and move your stuff around with. I don't think that it's made to just be photographed. Like, it's made to be a practical thing. Right. So, you know. I mean, if you want to do that, like, if you use it and take photos of it, that's awesome. But, like, I don't think that's what the product was made for.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And you're kind of making my point there. I was like, someone show me this in real life. Like, someone show me how you really use this. And I didn't get any of those. It's like, okay. I said, well, that's kind of telling. That's about the time this is ground jumped in. And then I ended up talking to the owner. And then the owner said, hey, can we jump on a call tomorrow? And we haven't. I mean, he has my phone number and everything. And we've shared emails and things like that. And, like, he's fine with everything I said. You're kicking the apricot, you know. I know. Like, one of the things he said that I wanted to talk to him about is, like, I could tell his defenses went up when he used the, well, maybe this product isn't for you. Mm-hmm. So, I could tell, like, he must get some push. Like, that's the Insta. That's the easy way out of saying, of not wanting to discuss the design, right? You just say, well, then it's not for you. But I don't buy that because of the design decisions that were made. So, maybe we should just talk about that and, you know, and what I see as far as the design. Because I did get it in. You know, like, I ordered it. But, you know, I ordered, what do they call this one? Bomber jacket. It's one of the limited ones from Huckberry. It's really good. Really cool color. It's so beautiful. It really is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's just so beautiful. Let me, before you dive into this, though. Yeah. Should we take a break? Yeah, yeah. Should we let everyone chill for a moment? Yeah. And then we can come back and talk about this thing. Okay. Because, like, you know, I feel what you're saying. Like, because this is a weird product. And, like, it's a strange thing to get upset about. But it's like, this is a super expensive product that looks really nice. That's intended to serve a purpose. And people say it's awesome. And we can believe that. But, like, show me that you're using it. Because I agree. Like, I've never seen, I've seen lots of pictures of this. I've never seen, like, a person in the airport, like, actually go into the airport. Right? Like, it looks like that they're going, you know. Everything. But the other thing about this, though, is maybe it's just so beautiful that everything always looks staged. Right? It doesn't matter because it is that beautiful. Right? So, that's the other side of that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so before you do that, I want to say one thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Don't think that I'm not going to make pretty pictures with this. Right? Like, I'm going to throw it out there. You know, load it up how I want to load it up. And it's going to look, you know. And it will be staged because I'm setting it up to take a picture. But what I really want to do is use it throughout the day and report back. And, you know, when I'm opening it and closing it, how are things reacting? And that kind of stuff. Right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Right. But see, this is the thing. So, like, the reason that me and you might say, oh, this looks staged is because when we look at the actual design, the way that things go in this thing, we can see some issues of it. And now you've had it. You can kind of talk about them. And that might help people who are – I expect there are people who are like, I don't understand what you're talking about. Right? Like, they're listening to this. And they're like, well, you know, it's just good looking. Yeah. But there are weird design choices that I think you can see. And I think I know where you're going to go with them as to why this might look like a problem. So, let's take a break. Yes. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at Pen Chalet. You know Pen Chalet. They are the company that do amazing discounts and do amazing prices and have great quality service and have great shipping rates on all of your favorite pens from all of your favorite brands. It's brands like Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Amiki, Sailor, Kaweko. They're an authorized dealer of all of them and they're adding new products all the time. They're always adding new styles of pens. They're always doing great discounts. And they have all the accessories that you're looking for as well. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. They sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high quality pens and offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee. As I said so many times, if you want a pen, if there's a pen you're in the market for, go to PenChalet.com first because if you find it there, you can get 10% off anything at any time. All you need to do is go to PenChalet.com, P-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website and use the password PenAddict. This will give you the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet because it changes week to week so you can keep it fresh. And also that way you get to look at the special offers that Ron puts up. This time, Brad, we have the Takia Covenant fountain pen. I've never heard of these before, but this is another good looking pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes, I've heard of this brand. I don't know if it's Takia or Tasha. I am not completely sure on the pronunciation. The one I've seen the most and the one I've considered buying multiple, multiple times is the Timeless, the Takia Timeless fountain pen. It's kind of a faceted barrel with wood inlays throughout the metal. It's really, really good looking. The Covenant I haven't seen before, but it's very interesting. The cap looks like a short cap and it's designed to screw on to the rear of the pen. It looks like a shorter, more pocketable type pen. It's kind of really cool looking. It looks like maybe a little bit bigger like Kaweco AL, you know, as far as design goes. But the Timeless is one that I have many, many occasions like considered purchasing. So maybe this is the time for me to look at a little bit closer because I like the barrel shape. I like the wood inlays. It's just kind of a really, really cool looking pen. The Timeless is also here, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like that's a featured offer for everyone at Pen Show Light. But the exclusive ones for the pen addict listeners is the Covenant. And the parchment swirl, that's a looker. I'll tell you right there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so like the blue. And I'm trying to tell the blue. I wonder if they just have it uncapped because it doesn't look like it has a clip. But this swirl one is really, really cool. So yeah, these Covenants are kind of cool. I've never tried one of these pens. They always have good designs when I see them at pen shows. And I've just never picked one up. But this looks like a great opportunity to give one a try.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because you can get 30% off and then 10% more, right? You get a huge discount on this one. So they're 30% off. But then you can still add the 10% code as well to get even greater discounts. Thank you so much to Pen Shillade for their continued support of Relay FM and the pen addict.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So this is essentially going to be an unboxing, an unboxing of my thoughts as I went through it the day that I got it. So like I made note of, okay, from the moment I unboxed it and kind of went through filling it up. So the first thing and the thing you think I'm going to talk about the most, we will, is on the left uppermost side are pen loops. Okay. So number one, they're very tight. You can't get many large pens in there. I got a Pelican M405 in there, which is their smaller model. And it was a super, super tight fit. And then I squeezed in a pen type B in there as well. And that was even harder to get in through, but that's not necessarily a tiny barrel pen.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Opposite of that is your tablet pocket. So on the left upper side, you have two pens and you have a third little pocket that uses your headphones. It's a little snap pouch, which I kind of like. So then opposite of that on the right hand side is your tablet pocket. All of these are pictured online with an exposed tablet. The problem is when you shut the case, your pen clips, your pens, even if they're clipless, even if they're plastic, they're hitting and constantly rubbing against the tablet. Either the front or the back, however you're putting it in there. Even with a cover on it, I was able to get in an iPad Pro 9.7 inch with the smart keyboard cover.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And that could fit in there. And as long as the cover is on the top side, well, the tablet's protected, but everything is going to be jammed up against the cover, including pen clips, different metals, the lightning connector, the earbuds from my headphones, the snap that's holding this in, all goes up against the tablet.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So that's maybe the biggest concern. Do they actually touch? They would touch. You can see that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, yes, they will touch. But they will have less of an opportunity to touch if this bag is carried not in another bag. If it's just carried solo, you'll have less pressure on it. Okay. Okay. But they can't help but touch when you fill it, when you fill it up and zip it closed. All right. So there's that. Um, on the bottom left is a phone. Well, I used it for the phone, um, to slide in, which most people, I think most of the pictures I saw used it. Um, the phone slid in there and most of the phones were uncovered. I used the Apple silicone case to slide into that spot. Very, very difficult to get it in, even with that thin of a case. Um, but it's also kind of a rubber going against leather into a pocket thing. You know, those are going to break in. Like it'll eventually, you know, widen out, you know, the leather will stretch a little bit and get used to it. But it was hard to get the phone in and out of that spot. But that's something that I think will eventually break in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The, on top of that pocket is another snap. Like, I guess it's for headphones or something like that. I never found a use for that snap. In pictures, it was my, one of my biggest flaws I saw in the design. Because people were putting like key chains there. Like people were hooking a key ring to the loop on top of the phone and then shutting their case with keys, theoretically, on top of the phone.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, but there's lever in between it though.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Okay.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Would that not protect it? You're going to do that?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Sure. But do you want that like every day, opening and closing on the front of your case? Yes, it will protect it from scratches. But I don't want that to be bumped or hit, you know, unknowingly.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Would it be safe to say that maybe you have a problem with three-dimensional organization? Yeah, probably. Is that maybe the thing here, right? Like that you don't like that there are things that are getting layered on top of each other?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, for sure. For sure. Because the next thing is the zipper pouch. So there's a zipper pouch, which is great. I like to have a zipper pouch to, you know, put smaller things in, smaller items that'll, you know, get loose or roll away or, you know, your dongle town can go in there and things like that. And then, well, that's great, but they've added a strap over the top of the zipper case. So now I have things in the zipper pouch and then I have a strap on top of it that I'm supposed to do what with? Like I put a notebook there just because that's what I saw in pictures. But I don't know. But my notebook is all bulged out because the zipper pocket's all bulged out from the things I've put in it. It's like, just give me the zipper pouch there. I could probably like do without the strap. But like the strap is extraneous at this point. I have other places to put paper and notebooks and things like that. So one of the coolest parts about it is the actual, the pin loop in the middle. That's definitely cool. I like that. It's a little bit wider, longer, and it also snaps out. You can swap in and out, you know, inserts there. So that's like their insert point. There's like, it's got those magnet snaps. It looks like a button snap, but it's really a magnet. Do you know what I'm talking about? So it's like a little, it's a snap, not like a click snap, but like a magnet snap.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So there's like a piece in between maybe the leather and it's like, it's just clicking against it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So there's like a magnet post and a magnet base.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So which one is that again? Which, which snap is that? That's the magnet one. I'm trying to see it on the photos.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's in the middle. It's where the Apple pencil is or it's where the middle. Sorry. It's where the, it's where my Apple pencil is. It's the middle, the very middle pouch. So that's magnet. Like in the zipper. Yeah. So like that pulls off that pouch. And because it's designed, they have inserts to where you can pull that out.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh yeah. I get you. I get you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So that comes out and you can put other things there. Like it looks like it's just like a larger, but I can see how it comes off.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Like, cause the stitching along the one side makes it, but it's not just the way it's stitched. I get it now. Yeah. That's, that's where you put in the additional parts, right? I assume they're mods. I think they call them mods. I don't know. Yeah. But that's where you can put in like a zipper thing or like you can thing with more snaps. If you want to keep snapping, snap, snap forever. And they have all sorts like notebooks. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen that. And there's like this, this one, one of them. Oh, what is it called?

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's like a, I think it's called the tech one, which is basically just like another tiny mod free inside of them.