Steven Heller calls himself a "letterhead" -- that is, someone who collects letterhead (compare with "Deadhead"); his brief reflections on his passion for Design Observer and interesting and well-observed, but they're not a patch on the actual samples of beautiful, bygone letterhead from his collection. Read the rest

The writers of New York Magazine's Strategist tested "dozens upon dozens of gels, rollerballs, felt-tips, ballpoints, and fountain pens" and published a ranked list of the top 100 pens in existence. Read the rest

Uni's Kuru Toga Roulettes are mechanical pencils that solve a problem I've never had, which is that the tip wears differentially, eventually creating a blunt instrument (I am a clod whose draftsmanship looks like I tried writing in a zeppelin caught in a tornado, so this is not a problem for me) -- the Roulette contains a tiny gearing mechanism that rotates the lead by a quarter-turn every time you lift the tip (e.g. between words); this creates an even wear around the lead's tip, keeping it sharp and reducing the likelihood that it will snap. (via Core 77) Read the rest

Roll Sebastian Bergne's $3.33 pencil dice across the table to get a randomish value from 1-6. Useful for writing choose-your-own-adventures! (via Geekologie) Read the rest

Yasukuni Notomi ("a writer who has covered the world of stationery for many years") provides an introduction to the creative explosion in Japanese scissor-design, beginning with the "Pencut," a scissor that fits in a normal pencil-case, with retractable elastic loops for your fingers and full-length blades so you don't sacrifice power for portability. Read the rest

From Herb Lester Associates, clever hotel notepads from fictional movie and television hotels! For £12.00, you get six pads:

• Bertram’s Hotel (At Bertram’s Hotel, Agatha Christie) • The Great Northern Hotel (Twin Peaks) • The Overlook Hotel (The Shining) • Royal Imperial Windsor Arms Hotel (National Lampoon’s European Vacation) • The Green Man Inn (The Wicker Man) • The Taft Hotel (The Graduate)

Hotel notepads (Herb Lester) Read the rest

Staedtler makes a highlighter called the Textsurfer Gel that somehow congeals finicky, dry-out-prone highlighter ink into an everwet, enduring crayon that you'll be handing down to your grandchildren. Read the rest

Glasgow's Popculturepencils makes custom pencils that come in threesomes which spell out fannish messages, For example: "He's dead Jim," "Beam me up Scotty" and "Live long and prosper." Or: "Sedagive?" "What hump?" and "Put the candle back." Very nice: now, put 'em on rebooted Blackwings.

(via Geekymerch) Read the rest

If you love Sharpies (as I do), but actually manage to hold onto them until they run out, rather than losing them at the rate of several a week (as I do), then you might benefit from the refillable, stainless steel Sharpie ($5.78), which would spare you the sad sensation you get when you drop your dead Sharpie into the trash.

There's only one time in my life that I actually used up a Sharpie: when I was signing the title-pages for something like 5,000 hardcovers of this graphic novel, and I had the curious sensation of uncapping a fresh Sharpie and signing until it ran dry -- it was something like using up an entire chapstick, a weird kind of accomplishment.

Sharpie Stainless Steel Fine Point Permanent Marker

(via Core 77) Read the rest

Some Staples stores in Belgium and the Netherlands will have MCOR color 3D printers that will print out model-files uploaded to a store website for in-person pickup. MCOR printers use plain pulp paper as build material, so the resulting models will be essentially cellulose, dye and glue, and should be easy to recycle.

Staples’ Easy 3D will offer consumers, product designers, architects, healthcare professionals, educators, students and others low-cost, brilliantly coloured, photo-realistic 3D printed products from Staples stores. Customers will simply upload electronic files to the Staples Office Centre and pick up the models in their nearby Staples stores, or have them shipped to their address. Staples will produce the models with the Mcor IRIS, a 3D printer with the highest colour capability in the industry and lowest operating cost of any commercial-class 3D printer.

The press release promises that this technology will be made available in other Staples stores around the world.

Mcor Technologies and Staples division launch 3D printing service Read the rest

Peleg Design's "Video Notebook" bears an uncanny resemblance to a VHS cassette, and comes with labels for extra verisimilitude.

Video Notebook

(via Neatorama) Read the rest

PA Design sells die-cut post-its shaped like wristwatches, gummed so they can be joined at the wrist. A cute way to put notes where you're sure to glance at them. Read the rest

Jacques Pense designed this award-winning stationery for 13th Street, the German horror network. It has given me a scorching case of stationery envy. If I got a letter on this stuff, I'd frame it and save it for my entire life.

13th Street "Stationery of Horror" (Design) on the Behance Network

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)