Alberto Candela: a F.I.L.A. story

A story that can be traced to the historic stylised Florence fleur-de-lys, that narrates the secrets to success of a pen that revolutionised writing. And that reveals the future. From an interview by Anty Pansera, Industrial Design Historian and Critic, comes the story of Alberto Candela, F.I.L.A. president since 1964.

From the company to the design

Anty Pansera: "F.I.L.A: was founded in Florence at the end o the 20's by two noble Florentine families that customised their products with the historic Florence fleur-de-lys, stylised. A story that began with the production of coloured pencils and with an extraordinary advertising campaign run by Severino Puzzati, Seppo in art, an important name at that time: transferred from Italy to Paris, he foresightedly identified the importance of the product and brought it to the forefront of his communication folders. A story that continued: after the Second World War, F.I.L.A. started a new life, transferring a part to the capital of Lombardy and, through the Candela family, began a new season".

Alberto Candela: "In the 60's, F.I.L.A. had one factory in Florence where it produced and still produces the Giotto line dedicated to school products, and a factory in Milan, Lyra, that produces writing tools: a sort of know-how on plastic, on plastic injection and on ink formulas. It was the dawn of the ballpoint pen which, at the end of the 60's, was followed by fibre pens. The road was long but led to the production of an expanded product range: from modelling products to the Pongo line, from the French Omniacolor chalk, purchased in 2000, to introduction in the American market with the purchase of a large corporation, Dixon, known as the icon of the writing world for its pencil, yellow with an eraser at the end, still the market leader".

Anty Pansera: "Alberto Candela took the company in his hands in 1964 and launched total reorganisation, both internal and for the brand image. What led to the need for a new pen?".

Alberto Candela: "One of the reasons that led to the creation of the Tratto Pen was the new building F.I.L.A. opened in 1973, a sales office to coordinate the sales and marketing departments. In the same year, the latter was assigned to researching a new pen model that could hold a tip, from Japan, deemed absolutely innovative in performance terms. Design Group Italia, a design firm founded by Marco Del Como, specialised in creating new shapes with classic features, was called to create the project. Shapes that we immediately and joyfully adopted".

Communications

Anty Pansera: "The success of this new product led to the decision to expand the Tratto line. From an initial new model, Tratto Clip, invented a few years later, to a true ballpoint pen design revolution. Why was this needed?!.

Alberto Candela: "Changing styles, changing habits and changing marketing employees, those who study and plan product evolution. At that time, the marketing department decided it was time to expand the Tratto Pen family, like in the 70's, with the Tratto Video highlighter and Tratto Marker. A sole condition: to be branded Tratto, classic ballpoint pens needed special, slightly different elements. Thus we dug up old products from the 1950's and 1960's because the innovation was in how it worked, not the tip, the refill, that was still the traditional one. The second ballpoint pen, born within the Tratto range, was even simpler and inspired by a model that took shape in 1973 to prevent the problem of losing the cap: all ballpoint pens then on the market had removable caps which, systematically, were left on the desk and lost. With this rotation system, the cap had a dual function of extracting and retracting the tip when rotated, with its clip, permitting both use and portability".

Anty Pansera: "The years go by and technologies evolve. Will traditional writing tools always have a future?".

Alberto Candela: "In 1976, an important meeting was held in the USA among all the world's leading pencil manufacturers. A university professor gave a long speech that made all participants quake in their shoes: he predicted the coming end of the pen and pencil, replaced by the computer. Practically, as time passed and the market changed, the introduction of new writing tools permitted the selection of previous ones and improvements to permit them both to coexist. A this is what the future holds: there will always be room for the pencil, pen and other similar manual writing tools".