Try as it may, the digital revolution hasn’t completely killed pen and paper. It’s just changed our relationship with the time-honored practice. No longer needed for everyday communication purposes, writing by hand has become something much better: a craft.
Meditative and mindful, there are cognitive benefits to writing the old-fashioned way that are not shared by typing on a computer, according to psychologists. Studies have demonstrated that writing longhand actually bolsters the ability to recall information, think conceptually, and retain knowledge longer. Pen and paper can also stimulate creativity. “Paper allows much greater graphic freedom: you can write on either side, keep to set margins or not, superimpose lines or distort them. There is nothing to make you follow a set pattern,” says Claire Bustarret, a specialist on codex manuscripts, in The Guardian.
Enter Moleskine and Kaweco, whose new collaboration is sure to please any calligrapher, studious note taker, dedicated diarist, or scribbler. Known for its artist partnerships such as illustrator Carlo Stanga’s I Am City series and psychedelic-pop artist Steven Harrington’s Limited Edition Collection, the cult favorite notebook brand teamed up with German heritage pen maker Kaweco to create custom writing sets, including fountain and rollerball pens with matching leather cases in green, black, purple, and red. Assembled at its factory in Nuremberg to the exacting standards that have guided the manufacturer since 1883, each set comes packaged in a vintage-style metal tin.
“At Moleskine, our driving credo is that every one of us is a creative person and one of the most primal and instinctual ways of releasing creativity, the human genius, is through the simple gesture of putting pen to paper. Our Kaweco pens fit in seamlessly into the Moleskine ecosystem of tools that foster and empower creativity and we are very pleased they are being so well received” says CEO Daniela Riccardi.
An elegant and timeless yet sleek silhouette affords the pens a contemporary look, with perfectly shaped grooves in the grip so the nibs glide freely across paper. Beautiful enough to carry around and proudly show off, Moleskine for Kaweco is a statement pen and a reminder to jot down a note or two from time to time. “Recent neuroscientific research has uncovered a distinct neural pathway that is only activated when we physically draw out our letters,” neuroscientist Claudia Aguirre writes. “And this pathway, etched deep with practice, is linked to our overall success in learning and memory.”
Plus, you never know when inspiration will strike.
