Beauty by Design: AJOTO
AJOTO’s expertly designed and perfectly balanced pens are putting the art back into the written word
Words by Will Halbert
Photography by Source Studio
A good pen is a fine thing, isn’t it? A well-made pen is more than a tool; it’s as much an outlet for your half-baked musings as it is a conduit for your magnum opus. It charts your meanderings, your master plans, and your money spinners with equal enthusiasm. It shapes your thank yous, I owe yous, I love yous, and to hell with yous with equal eloquence. A good pen is tailor-made for the hasty complaint and the bitter, don’t-put-your-rubbish-in-my-bin flat feud. It gives final form to the inspirations, exclamations, and oh-so-satisfying imprecations that float around your head all day. A good pen is at your side for the big deals, the small touches, and every single stroke, jot, scribble, sketch and sonder in between.
Which begs the question: where on earth did all the good pens go? It seems to me that the humble pen is a tool so ubiquitous and eternal that throwaway culture and mass production – the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of modern living – have done their damndest to dull its once sharp and sophisticated edge.
Thank heavens, then, for AJOTO. Taking its name from the Japanese word for ‘first-class’, the Manchester-based studio employs a high-art approach to the everyday. Which is to say that they make very, very good pens.
Their Brass Pen is a fine case in point. From the teardrop elegance of its silhouette to the purposeful simplicity of its design, The Brass Pen is a masterclass in timeless craftsmanship. Precision-machined from a solid bar of lead-free brass before being polished by hand, the pen is then left totally untreated. As a result, the pen will age and patina over time, gaining a little more character with each and every letter penned and eureka moment scribbled. A story-telling tool with a tale all of its own to tell? Sign us up.
You can check out our AJOTO interview here, and browse the full AJOTO collection here.
