Tratto Pen: 1 kilometre of creativity in 1,4 grams of ink

Italian design icon for over thirty years

Invented in 1975 through the partnership between FILA - Fabbrica Italiana Lapis e Affini and Design Group Italia, the innovative, modern and elegant Tratto Pen was an immediate success and has been used by millions of people over the years - illustrious politicians, writers, journalists, television show hosts, radio show hosts, architects, illustrators, designers and cartoon illustrators, winning the prestigious Compasso d'Oro prize awarded by ADI in 1979 for design and functionality.

Tratto Pen, the pen-marker par excellence is the travel companion and daily writing tool.

Over the years, it has worn many colours: blue, orange, black and then green, red and many others. Its classic, streamline and thin line has remained constant, always modern and youthful. Tratto Pen's strength is still found in its simplicity: a rapid and precise pen with an evocative name. Indestructible, made entirely of plastic and accessible to all, it can mark up to 1 km with just 1.4 grams of ink. In addition to being a pen that writes well, at that time an innovative pen was needed. In fact, it was the first pen-marker with a synthetic tip that succeeded in creating an emotional bond with consumers, which in some way distinguished it. This gave light to design research whose impacts are still felt. Marco Del Corno, designer and founder of Design Group Italia, was hired by FILA to create the graphics: These basic concepts gave life to the legendary and modern lines of the pen-marker.
Tratto Pen is the expression of the desire for something new, something to be introduced to the market with a well-defined physiognomy, not like those existent. A difficult challenge when considering that a pen is only made up of a body and cap. Thus a linear object was born, without any asperity that should have been made special by at least one element: the cap. Three ideas were presented. At the end, the current "bowler" was selected. Communication was immediately considered a key factor and necessary to this project. For this reason, in addition to Design Group Italia, that developed product design, the TBWA advertising agency, currently considered one of the most modern and innovative in the sector, was hired. A specific problem immediately arose: how to inform the consumer that this pen wrote differently from others? If a technical term, like "synthetic tip" was used, it would not attract a lot of attention. Therefore, the problem was resolved by communicating what the pen wasn't. At that time the most popular tools were ballpoint and fountain pens. Thus it was decided to confess that Tratto Pen was neither a ballpoint pen, although it wrote like a ballpoint pen, nor a fountain pen, although it wrote like one; Tratto Pen was simply Tratto Pen.
As a tribute to this special design object, in 2005, the Tratto Pen's thirtieth anniversary, it starred in various leading design projects and events, including the Mostra Sintesi Giulio Natta e le materie plastiche organised by Anty Pansera at the Milan Museum of Science, the Mostra ADI sul Compasso d'Oro organised by the Italian Embassy and Institute of Italian culture in Tel Aviv, and Tratto Pen was one of the 999 design objects selected by the prestigious British publisher Phaidon for the publication Phaidon Design Classics, dedicated to "sacred Design exhibits from the 1800's to the 1900's" divided in 3 volumes. FILA also decided to assert the importance and value that the Italian company has always attributed to writing and creative expression, actively participating in some of the liveliest Italian cultural initiatives in the writing and creative expression world like Subway Literature which is the most popular literary event with the under 35 crowd. For years, the short and never before published stories, freely distributed to the public, have accompanied travellers on the Milan, Naples, Rome, Venice, Palermo and Mantua subways and other cities in Emilia Romagna will be involved this year including Bologna, Modena, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, Lido di Ravenna, Rimini and Riccione. Or the Mantua Festivaletteratura where Tratto Pen is the "official event pen", peacefully invading the city of Mantua.
It was also the promoter o the photographic exhibit "Thirty years of Style" at the Fashion Library. A collection of precious original prints taken from the most important international fashion magazines from 1940 to 1970, thus asserting itself in the fashion world. One of the most original projects, Tratto cover pages, is a contest designed and promoted by FILA to give young illustrators visibility. Moreover, A Train of Books for Naples, a train that departed the Rome station carrying about 600 people, both emerging and famous writers and readers, to Galassia Gutenberg, the Naples book fair. And we can't overlook SignJam, a project that involved young creative talents to collect, promote and spread the newest and most interesting artistic forms and expressions which, in recent years, freely and spontaneously involved our cities. SignJam is the name of the project which, conceived by Tratto Pen, intended to spread the history of modern urban culture through creative meetings and workshops with the leading spokespeople who wrote modern history.
From April 8 to July 5, 2009, Tratto Pen will be at the Rome Ara Pacis Museum for the exhibit dedicated to the work of famous architect Alessandro Mendini, historically tied to Tratto Pen in his designs.
Another scheduled event for Tratto Pen is the exhibit on the historic objects from the ADI Compasso d'Oro collection to be held in Rome in April at the Ministry for Economic Development. To learn more on the immortal pen-market, its events and history, visit www.tratto.it.