Stationery that frees your creativity

One of the things I look for when travelling is interesting design. Stationary is one of my favourite design areas and I often find myself buying things purely out of design fascination, lacking any practical reasons! One of those cases happened last year in Paris. In one of the shops in the small mall connected to Louvre museum, I saw a very interesting case. The shop name is Delfonics and apparently a Japanese stationary store but not limited to Japanese products. I was drawn in by colourful rows of notebooks and pens, and their tagline: “Stationery that frees your creativity”. What gave me pause though was something that sent me back in time.

 Bendin case immediately reminded me of a folding toolbox my dad used to have when I was little. Perhaps an object of early design obsession. I used to play with it for hours just moving nails, screws & screwdrivers, hatchets and all sort of little DIY tools  from one section to the other much to my dad’s annoyance.

I knew right away I probably don’t have much use for it. However, the Japanese craftsmanship and simplicity of the design is not something you can overlook. It is an ideal pen or pencil storage on a desk with a striking vivid red colour , although it does come in black and silver too.

Bendin is made from stainless still and coming from the Japanese brand Perrocaliente (meaning hot dog in Spanish but I’m not if that’s what they were after!).

They offer a wide range of items for home and kitchen too with a European sense of design infused with the precision of Japanese.

The flaps open and close with a satisfying tactile click that sends a small vibration to your fingers bringing a sense of nostalgia for the analogue era of the past.  The type of accessory that feels right when in use and also doubles as a design object. Probably a good gift idea for an architect working on large canvases.