Last year I talked about what ink brands had done that year and what I hoped for this year. In this article I’m doing the same thing again. How many of my hopes were realised? What did the brand do? What do I want from them in 2019 and has that changed from what I wanted for this year? Last year this write up was over 3,500 words and this time it is over 6,100 words… Sorry!

I’d like to stress that this post is highly subjective and for the most part completely devoid of objectivity. These are just my opinions. This is what I want and what I observed with the brand and I make no attempt to avoid any potential prejudices. You might have a different views which is great and in fact I’d love to hear them (in the comments below or feel free to contact me even!).

I’m going to borrow from Dr. Jonathon Deans’s Brand Taxonomy post, but because I’m not an economist I am going to create my own terms inspired by the four Deans chose (disruptive, innovative, competitive, and uncompetitive). These are the brand behaviours I am using:

✑ Stagnant

These brands seem to be in a rut. They are resting on their reputation, don’t care much about ink, or are simply existing without any desire to change.

✑ Comfortable

These brands aren’t in a rut but are happy with what they have and don’t feel the need to do anything new.

✑ Trendsetter

These are doing something new. Not just for themselves but for inks in general. Different sheen combinations, different packaging, different colours. These brands are setting trends or at least reading the buying market intimately.

✑ Follower

These brands aren’t pushing the boundaries or setting the trends but they are reading the trends and quickly adopting them.

✑ Steady grower

These brands are similar to followers in that they releasing new inks but they don’t seem to have much care about the rest of the market or the market’s trends. They are doing their own thing. Good for them.

✑ Slow grower

These brands are similar to Steady growers but they are just doing it at a much slower pace. Too slow?

Australian Inks

Robert Oster

Most of what I said last year is still my opinion this year. I still can’t think of a break out like Fire & Ice but there are been a steady stream of solid inks especially with the decade themed releases of (so far) the 70s and 80s. I particularly love the 80s release; Deep Purple is the first saturated true purple ink of Rob’s and Dragon’s Night is a purple-leaning deep blue; another new colour category for Rob (as all his blues have been green leaning). Crocodile Green is lovely and so is Burned Orange. Really solid set.

The shimmering series, which isn’t distributed to all retailers, seems to have done well and frequently sells out. While they are doing well, they don’t seem to be blowing anything out of the but this seems to be par for the course for most shimmering ink these days. I believe the popularity of shimmering inks has dropped and plateaued. They are no longer a hype ink but they still hold a valid place as part of a lineup. I’ve been avoiding buying them, for the most part because most of them aren’t particularly unique any more.

What I wanted last year is partly come to to pass but my main point didn't. Of course I don’t expect to hold any sway into how Robert Oster conducts his business! These are just my opinions, after all. Rob has released some Limited Edition inks (such as Taiwan Blue) and some exclusive inks. These exclusives are often temporary and come to all stores later. My main point was that consolidation of the line with the retirement of some inks (that have suitable alternatives) would benefit the line and the brand for manufacturing and consumer fatigue. And while this is still something I’d like to see, I think Rob’s releasing of new inks in sets has alleviated this quite well. Bite sized chunks make it easy to keep up with the new releases a lot easier than the constant drip feeding of one new ink semi-frequently. Definitely an improvement. The sets being themed is also fun.

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (Releasing new inks and doing his own thing seems to sum up Robert Oster perfectly to me!)

Blackstone

Blackstone haven’t done too much new apart from the release of a new line of “Lights” inks which are lighter and less saturated set of colours. I haven’t heard much about these, certainly not as much as the scented inks or the Australian inks before that. I’m sure Kevin leads a busy life with JustWrite.com.au and ink making but I’d love to see more of what he’s been doing with the Scents of Australia and Colours of Australia. Double down on the Australian themes. I’d be interested in some rich darker colours with some sheen too!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Slow grower (New inks but fairly infrequently)

Van Dieman’s Inks

These have been around a little while but lived on a slightly obscure eBay account. They are from Tasmania in Australia (hence the name). They have expanded their range and have also added shimming inks to it. The ink is associated with Jinhao Pens Australia (which is presumably associated with Jinhao?). The colours are decent and the bottles are nice. It’s good to see them expand and grow from when I bought my four bottles (which didn’t have a box back then). I found the inks a little on the dry side.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: [Too new to the market] (Huge update this year with the launch of their website and moving upwards from an eBay store but it’s too early to tell how this brand will behave)

European Inks

Montblanc

Last year I felt Montblanc’s releases were a little hit and miss but I think they’ve done a much better job this year (though that doesn’t mean every release is for me). Of the special releases, I think all have them have, at the very least, interesting colours. Spider Grey, though nicely neutral in colour, and Homer Greek Blue are somewhat generic but Le Petit Prince Fox Red, and Swan Illusion Plum are great editions. James Purdey & Sons Single malt is a great colour and shading (and Montblanc do scented inks pretty well). James Dean Rebel Red is a decent orange-leaning red (but not amazing for me) but it is yet another red Montblanc ink. Even though I dislike the colour, bringing back Emerald, which is almost identical to the old 1960s-1990s Montblanc Emerald, was also a nice touch. These are all, to various degrees, hits in my mind.

The miss, for me, was Elixir. These inks seem uninspiring and extremely expensive with seemingly no benefit to go with the price apart from a new bottle design. The Azure looks like a fairly generic Turquoise and Violet de Cobalt and Pourpre don’t seem particularly unique.

The high price of the James Purdey simply because it’s scented seems a little much as well. The Elixir are now released as scented inks “Elixir Parfumeur”. The scents seem along a similar earthy old-school theme as the James Purdey. I haven’t seen these inks yet but hopefully they do a more interesting job than the previous first iterations.

I’m pretty happy with Montblanc this year. The releases are mostly strong (or at least strong enough). The Elixir aren’t very interesting yet, especially at that price. Maybe that will change? I am again looking Forward to Montblanc next year. Hopefully they can keep it up with the limited edition releases.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (consistently releasing new LE inks with a very distinct feel to them. They definitely feel and look like Montblanc inks)

Lamy

This year Lamy has done a lot of work with inks. They released Vibrant Pink along with an Al-Star which, peculiarly, had shimmer in it even though you can’t see the shimmer when it’s written (and only barely with a swatch). Disappointingly there wasn’t a Limited Edition to go with the Lamy Safari release this year though it’s probably easy to see why given the pen was a “All-black”; it wouldn’t have been that exciting had they made it!

The big change the the release of a sizeable new standard “Crystal Ink” line of inks. Another ‘gemstone’ series of inks (I think we’ve got enough of these now!). There are some seemingly nice inks here. I have Azurite which is a lovely Blurple with green sheen, and Berryl which is a vibrant magenta). Some like Ruby seem a little generic from photos I’ve seen online (and I’ve heard a few people comment that the series seem a little generic) but overall I think this series is a solid addition. I’m not sure it was necessary but it’s not unappreciated.

It would have been great if the Pastel Lamy Safaris coming out next year came with ink but it’s my understanding that they do not. If that’s the case we might be looking at another year of only one limited edition ink release (with the AL-Star). If that’s the case that would be disappointing. Having two years with only one single LE release per year has been disappointing to me.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (a real burst of new inks this year which is a changeup from the slower releases in the past. Will be good to see how this continues or whether it goes back to a Slow grower)

Pelikan

This year Pelikan released Olivine as the Ink of the Year Limited Edition but they also added Garnet to the regular line up. Olivine is a lovely dusty green with a hint of blue. I can’t find a picture of the RGB colour that the winner chose but from memory it was a more yellow-green compared to the ink colour we got. It’s still a nice unique colour, however.

The adding of Garnet, a Limited Edition ink, to the regular lineup is something I’m not a fan of. I’m a firm believer of Limited inks remaining Limited. That’s the fun of collecting. At some point, sure; if an LE ink from 1999 was released next year then that’s potentially OK. If an ink from 2014 is released in 2034 sure! I don’t know at what point it becomes OK but I don’t think 7 years is even enough. And honestly, I’d rather it be re-released as another Limited batch than be put in a standard lineup. It makes the limited editions untrustworthy and drastically devalues (in monetary and collectability terms) the releases. I understand that for those that missed out it’s unfortunate but that’s the way it is. I’m not upset I had to spend extra to get the discontinued Montblanc da Vinci Red Chalk. I missed out on that. I wouldn’t want Montblanc Einstein Grey, Diamond Blue, Ink of Love, Saffron Yellow, Sakura, Vanilla, or Je T'aime to become standard line up and I’m still chasing those. It’s what makes collecting fun. The chase.

Next year I hope they don’t add even more LE inks to the regular line up. I’m generally happy with the Pelikan Ink of the Year releases. As I was writing this Pelikan announced the 2019 ink. It’s another Ruby; Star Ruby. It seems to be a magenta colour along the lines of Iroshizuku Yama-budo but maybe less vibrant or saturated. Eager to see in person!

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (notwithstanding the one new LE per year and the addition of old LE inks to the standard lineup Pelikan seem fairly comfortable with their lineup)

PW Akkerman

In a move that has done absolutely nothing to dilute my suspicion that Akkerman inks are made by Diamine, SBRE Brown which is definitely made by Diamine is now being bottled by Akkerman. This is a great move because the original bottle that SBRE Brown came in, the calligraphy ink Diamine bottle, was small and unexciting. The Akkerman bottles are great.

Akkerman also released the Delft Blue LE ink. The ink seems a little washed out and is indeed erasable. The theme of the ink, Delftware, is excellent even if the colour is a little uninspiring without that context.

I like the subtle move with some LEs this year and I’d like to continue this pace with one or two LEs a year.

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (notwithstanding one single LE and the adoption of SBRE Brown, Akkerman haven’t done much this year after last year releasing the Dutch Masters)

Aurora

Nothing has changed for Aurora this year. I don’t expect anything to next year. I would love them to, however.

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (I’m not marking Aurora as stagnant because releasing a new ink every year is clearly not something they want to do. That’s fine but Comfortable can easily turn into Stagnant…)

J. Herbin/Jacque Herbin

J. Herbin has done some big changes this year. Firstly they’ve split more precisely into J. Herbin and Jacque Herbin, they’ve changed bottles (slightly; larger opening which allows more pens in which is a great move), and finally they did what I hoped they’d do! Jacques Herbin released 10 inks exclusively to the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché. I wanted them to expand these inks and they did! They are now in the bigger 1670/1798 bottles and available around the world. These inks basically seem like more saturated darker reformulations of some of J.Herbin’s standard line inks. I’m glad they did this.

I’m not quite sure what I want from J. Herbin. I think a cool methodical approach after a launch of 10 new inks (even just reformulated inks) is a good idea. I wouldn’t mind a new ink but if they didn’t release one I don’t think I’d be disappointed. That said, even though I think I’ve made it clear by now I’m not a huge fan of shimmering inks, I am still interested to see what the new shimmering ink for 2019 will be. 1798 or 1690? Gold or silver?

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (rather large increase this year compared to the normal slower one release per year. Will it continue though?)

Graf von Faber-Castell

I haven’t tried any of this year’s inks (India Red, Gulf Blue, and Viper Green). These look like decent colours. The higher price of GvFC inks has meant I often choose other inks ahead of them but I think I do need to check out a bottle some time. For some reason the inks aren’t captivating me. Some of the inks do feel a little generic to me but not all. I guess then I’d like for some more unique colours!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (This is a slight step up from a slow grower with a few inks added every year or so now)

Diamine

Diamine released another set of Shimmertastic inks. They seemed to garner some interest but only enough to reenforce my believe that the hype has dimmed and plateaued. Unfortunately they aren’t high-sheen and shimmering (which is a combination which I do quite enjoy), at least it seems. Diamine does have a new /r/fountainpens ink on the way for next year which is going to be a teal. Seems nice but far from my preferred colour family (which is fine!).

What I wanted from diamine was more store exclusives around the world to stimulate interest without over saturating the brand. And they did exactly that! Two sheeny inks (blue and teal), a light green and a set of 5 Guitar themed inks; all exclusive to Germany. There was also a Malaysian super sheener, and Cult Pens got two more super sheeners (I really love the gold-green sheen of Robert over the magenta-burgundy ink.

I’m a fan of what Diamine has done this year and I’d love them to continue just what they are doing next year!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Follower (following sheen trends and in a good way by not following the simple route of blue with red sheen. Also fairly comfortable with what they have as well)

KWZ

I was able to get Liquid Words 2018 and while it’s a lovely rich dark purple it didn’t quite live up to Liquid Words 2017 (for me!). 2017 is such an amazingly unique dark red. I’m looking forward to 2019’s Liquid Words but 2017 set a high standard! The Polish-location themed inks didn’t increase and are still the same three blues from last year. The labels were great so it’s a little disappointing that they haven’t released more of those. There seem to have been fewer new LE releases with the Canadian exclusive being re-released LEs of the show’s previous releases (which is a much better way to release a LE again; by releasing a new but still limited run of it rather than releasing it as a standard line!). There has been an addition to the the standard lineup with the Hawaii Blue exclusive to Hippo Noto.

None of the new inks have been Iron Gall which I’d love more of still. My hopes for last year weren’t really realised (though that doesn’t mean I think it was a bad year) but I’d still like the same. More Polish themed inks, more Iron Gall! I’d be interested in an Exclusive to the Melbourne or Sydney pen show!

Hope Realisation: ★★☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (new exclusive ink, new LE, and rereleased LEs. It’s slowed a little this year but it’s still steady and growing)

De Atramentis

Nothing really changed with De Atramentis and the shimmering inks are still inconsistently stocked at best. I still love the way reviews look of some of the shimmering inks (surprisingly for me). Their re-bottling of inks under different names (still labeled with the correct colour) is still confusing; it makes them look like they have hundreds of inks when the reality is much more conservative. Likewise with what I wanted with Robert Oster I’d like some consolidation. I’m playing my hopes a little conservatively here.

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (a large supply of inks but they aren’t doing much, it seems, to change what they have)

North American Inks

Organics Studio

A new shimmering line (yet another) was released. They seem moderately successful. Again they don’t seem to have been a hype product. They released one more super sheener but it was again in a comparable blue hue to the other three super sheener released. They didn’t really take advantage of the fact that they were pretty well known for being super sheeners. Distribution still seems to be an issue for the brand which I’m still hoping they manage to fix.

Hope Realisation: ★☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Follower (was a trendsetter with the supersheeners but seems to have rested on those releases a little bit and adopted shimmer after that trend had peaked)

Private Reserve

Nothing new here at all. Nothing new for a while. I have no expectations for anything new. Unfortunately. Still some excellent colours in the brand. Hopefully something happens. Hopefully it survives even.

EDIT: As noted in the comments Private Reserve have a new and active website. Maybe there is some hope!?

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Stagnant (almost dead? Nothing has happened here for a long time)

Noodler’s

The new releases this year I feel performed better than the releases from last year. Luck of the Draw performs well, Dromgoole’s Houston Chisholm Trail, Cardinal Kestral, and Purple Mountain Majesties all perform well but for me they aren’t particularly exciting colours. Decent for sure but amazing, no. Peculiarly they also re-released the Russian Series inks but in name only! Chekhov went from a yellow to a red! Very strange. I feel like it would have been better to release them under new names rather than under the same old name that was a different colour. Blue Straits of Malacca had some inconsistent performance (though it was never poor).

There are several Noodler’s inks that I missed out on (deliberately or otherwise) this year so I can’t really speak for all the new stuff but for what I got it was better performance but not exciting colours.

They also released some interesting dip-nib inks but I’ve no experience with these.

My hopes were pretty much realised with more LE inks that were not bullet-proof/eternal. My hope for next year is for them to bring back the Australian Exclusive releases! Catalpa has a great story but all three would be great!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★☆

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (still releasing pen show limited editions every year, sometimes a new standard line ink. There’s always movement here even if I don’t love all the releases and even if the performance sometimes leaves a little to be desired there’s often something new but not too much that you can’t keep up!)

Monteverde

Monteverde kept releasing new sets and there are some great colours in each set. They also had at least one (that I was aware of) LE for the DC Supershow (which is a solid albeit not very unique blue). Because the inks are grouped in collections I think the huge increase in inks is more manageable. I’m pretty happy with what they are doing and I just want them to keep it up. I wouldn’t even mind if they slowed down a bit. They don’t really have many sheening inks. I think some of their inks would be interesting with some sheen. I don’t mean supersheeners but just a nice subtle but consistent amount.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (Consistently releasing new sets of inks periodically. I can’t imagine it will continue at this rate, however)

Papier Plume

The re-release of LE inks into the standard line turned me away from the brand a little. You had to get in quick to secure a “Limited” bottle but then it was later just released for everyone. I stopped buying them even though some of their colours look great and the wax over the cap is always a great look. I’d love for them to keep their LE inks as LE.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Slow grower (they are releasing a couple to a few new inks a year)

Franklin-Christoph

F-C don’t do much new each year apart from, starting last year, a “Ink [year]” ink which is a limited ink for a pen show. Last year’s Ink ’17 was great. This year’s 'Ink ‘18 was not as exciting partly because it was fairly similar to their standard line ink Tenebris Purpuratum. I’m happy with one new LE a year (I also end up picking up a pen at the same time…). I’d like something definitely different from their standard line inks though.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (notwithstanding the one new LE per year there isn’t much growth happening. Which is fine for a small company that’s already got a lot of stuff that they make!)

Asian Inks

Sailor (including store exclusive brands)

It’s difficult to cover Sailor in any detail if you include all the store exclusive brands. It’s also unwieldy to split them up for this article (and for the most part uninteresting). Brands such as Kobe are still releasing new inks (up to 69 total now, Pelle Penne have a new ink every now and then and Maruzen have an LE every year. Then you just keep finding new brands such as Izumi that have been around a while but you just never knew about!

Sailor have expanded their distribution which is excellent news. Bungubox is now in Australia and Nagasawa Kobe inks have expanded within Australia as well (Desk Bandit was also able to get their pens!). The Ink Studio series of inks is also now in Australia and New Zealand and I presume other countries will be grabbing these eventually as well. This is excellent news; Japanese exclusive are completely fine and I fully support these but having some of them available International as well as standard Sailor lines such as Ink Studio is an excellent change this year.

Firstly, before I get into the rant section, I’d like to state the Ink Studio being 20ml makes sense for the 100-strong ink line that it is. I’m still disappointed with the drop to 20ml with regular inks, however. Some store exclusives are also going 20ml now such as Kingdom Note but this is for a special line within the Kingdom Note brand. While I understand that the hidden inflation is bothersome but for me I don’t care too much about that. What annoys me is that 20ml is simple too small and too close to a sample size! 30ml is much better (think Montblanc pre-2017 30ml LE bottles, Caran d’Ache Colors of the Earth, and even the super cheap Diamine 30ml bottles). Recently we have Bungubox also changing their bottles. Also dropping from 50ml but this time to the much more reasonable 30ml (unfortunately the price has stayed the same). I’m not a fan of the “Ink tells more” slogan and it’s now embossed on the bottle, I also feel like the bottle shape looks like someone put a Montblanc shoe bottle in a compressor. But my main problem is that the pretty Bungubox labels are relegated to the the small space on the cap of the bottle rather than wrapping around the glass with a big pretty label. Silent Night is getting a pretty crown but I’m still disappointed! It should be pretty obvious by now that I’m a fan of labels on bottles!

Pent bottles, also changed, but this time they changed from the old round 50ml Sailor bottles to the new square 50ml bottles. This gives me hope that tall bottles might not be going anywhere which is a huge relief if I’m correct. It seems all up in the air still and in a transitional period. Hopefully next year there is some pattern as to how inks are bottled!

Apart from bottling issues, I have nothing critical about Sailor. Everything they do is what I enjoy. I enjoy the chase of finding and acquiring the store exclusive bottles and I love the high turnaround. These are collector bottles though. It’s completely overwhelming to try and comprehend the Sailor brand and store exclusive brands without jumping headfirst into the rabbit hole.

My prediction that Sailor won’t be cheap this year its definitely something that came through. Bungubox is US$1.44 p/ml up from US$0.86 p/ml. Ink Studio are US$0.94 p/ml. I don’t finish ink bottles so this per mi breakdown doesn’t really affect (it’s the small 20ml that affects me). That said, I can certainly understand that for people who do finish bottles the 67% effective increase in price for them is a bitter pill to swallow.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Trendsetter (Sailor more read intimate trends, especially within Japan, quickly and adapt to them rather than actually setting the trends. They don’t wait until the trend is in full swing though. They jump in early)

Pilot

Nothing new here during 2018. This isn’t unexpected but it is a still disappointing. A new standard line ink would be great though.

But…

Finally! Something is happening with Pilot! 2019 will be their 100th anniversary and with that they are releasing 7 new limited edition inks themed after 7 Japanese gods of good fortune. They will be buyable as a set of 15ml or individually in the larger Iroshizuku bottles. The colours we will be getting are:

• Ebisu (Light Blue)

• Daikoku-ten (Yellow)

• Bishamon-ten (Red)

• Benzai-ten (Coral Pink)

• Fuku-roku-ju (Green)

• Juro-jin (Purple)

• Hotei-son(Black-Green)

Eager to try these so I might grab the 15ml set if I can. 2018 might have been empty but they might have just been waiting for 2019 which is exciting.

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Stagnant ⇨ Slow grower? (Nothing happened this year but hopefully next year is an indication of some positive movement and growth for the brand. I’m possibly being too optimistic, however)

Platinum

Nothing new here. This isn’t unexpected but it is a little disappointing. More Iron Gall!

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Stagnant (with the competition within Japan and the lack of IG inks in from Japan I feel Platinum is Stagnant rather than Comfortable. If only last year was indicative of things that were to come)

Stationery TAG

Last year I was pretty happy with how these inks are released. Steady supply of new inks but at a rate that is pretty easy to keep up with. Some Limited Edition inks from Japan as well; some of which came to retailers outside of Japan but some of which stayed in Japan. I like this approach. You can still put the effort into grabbing the Japan exclusives but it’s still acceptable to ignore them for the international releases. I just want them to keep doing what they are doing!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (a good simple but consistent and manageable flow of new inks of various availabilities)

Taccia

Taccia, which has it’s nibs mostly made by Sailor, has released a set of inks (I have two on the way as of this writing). Some of these look really good and the whole set look interesting at least. Some with sheen and generally some great looking colours. I don’t really have a hope for this apart for getting to know the inks and being more familiar with them myself!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: [Too new to the market]

Anata Brand

The good news is that these are now available outside of Japan. Excellent bottles, interesting black inks. But they are still black inks and I don’t think many westerners have the nostalgia element of the ink being fountain pen friendly Sumi ink in performance and smell. I can’t say how accurately it copies Sumi but the smell is strong. Purple, Yellow, Green base black inks. I’d love a red-base black (similar to KWZ Liquid Words 2017)!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand type: Comfortable (They are a brand that is making a few inks. That’s perfectly fine and I don’t expect an new ink every year but they don’t want to become stagnant and never release new inks)

Hakase

I’m not sure how long this ink as been around but I’ve known about it for over a year at least. I recently pulled the trigger and acquired the ink (review coming soon). It’s a fascinating ink because it’s real sepia; it’s made from squid ink like original sepia inks. It’s not an amazing colour and you can definitely smell the squid origin but it’s great to have such almost literally Classical amazing to just have. I don’t think this is vegan or even vegetarian!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (this is a company that’s making a very specific ink. There’s no reason for them to make something new. Ever really, due to how specific what they are doing is. If they never release something new I still wouldn’t consider them Stagnant)

Colorverse

Colorverse, from South Korea, was something that was practically only a footnote last year. I was hoping to try them and interested to see more. Well… they, somewhat, exploded! Definitely the new ink for the year in my opinion. Since release they have become available internationally, have come out with 6 sets of releases (called seasons) as well as some Limited Edition releases. Most of the seasons have been space or science themed. Some seasons were bigger than others and one was cross-promotional with OPUS 88. A big splash without a doubt. Unique packaging, lots of goodies such as stickers and, curiously, a napkin. They came with two inks as well. One 65ml one 15ml. The first two seasons of inks came with two of the same colour but after that the smaller ink came with a different colour. Not infrequently the smaller colour had shimmer (and not always just silver or gold, sometimes green or blue). I think this a very nice way to release shimmering inks.

After a few months of using the inks, the packaging, which has a lot of empty space in it, did become less exciting and even slightly annoying to open up. I wouldn't mind if they simplified the packaging and dropped the extras but I understand for new buyers this is a big attraction of the brand (it was for me!). I’d love them to just keep doing what they are doing, even if a little slower.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Trendsetter (Innovative packaging, innovative grouping of inks, innovative themes (and sub-themes! New colours, blue sheen(!). Made a big name for themselves in a very short time)

3•Oyster

Another South Korean release, this one hasn’t made as much of a splash as Colorverse. The bottles have the back right corner missing which is a fun little change to the normal square bottle - the label also has a similar corner missing). Some of these look great and there’s a pretty large range. I only have one but look forward to trying some more.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand type: [Too new to the market]

Krishna

Another big mover this year was Krishna. Last year they had issues bringing their inks to outside of India without huge shipping costs. My hope was that they found a way around this and they, for the most part, have made it work (at least enough). Krishna inks are now available around the world and still at reasonable prices. They’ve been releasing plenty of new inks and I think have taken the mantle from Organics Studio as The Sheen brand in my mind. Heaps of super sheeners but not just with blue inks. Orange and green, pink and gold, brown and green etc. (as well as blue and red of course). Some pretty unique colours as well. Interestingly some of the inks just drop out of production even though there doesn’t seem to be any indication that they are limited. I don’t mind this, to be honest. An ink can just run its course!

I love what they are doing now and just want them to keep doing what they are doing!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Trendsetter (Jumped into supersheeners but also with different colours. Inks that emulate IG’s changing colour (without being IG and using pharmaceutical chemicals). The are doing different things )

Miscellaneous Inks

Carpink is now in Australia. And PenBBS is in the US and some stores are making Chinese inks in general a little more available (which is very good news!). Rhohrer & Klingner released are new Limited Edition ink, Aubergine, which is a lovely purple but unfortunately, unlike the Kaffee Kantate and Blauschwarz LEs of the past, these are not numbered limited editions which is disappointing. Numbered limited edition ink are rather rare. Nicks Stewart has started releasing Diamine-made inks and it’s interesting to see where this goes. Caran d’Ache hasn’t done much in a while; it would be nice if they did! Parker and Waterman. Talk about stagnation! Pineider have also released an (expensive) ink mixing kit. A bit rich for me but very interesting indeed.

There are of course plenty of inks I have never mentioned. Waterman, Visconti, Montregrappa, Parker, Bookbinders, Caran d’Ache, L’Artisan Pastellier, Toucan, Sheaffer, Cross, Kaweco… But these are unmentioned because they aren’t actually doing anything! All of these are presently Comfortable at best or even Stagnant.

2019

What a year! There are just so many inks on the market these days. I don’t think there’s over-saturation (at least for me) but I wonder whether new people to fountain pens might feel overwhelmed? Hopefully not because the amount of inks we have at our fingertips now is unheard of. Continual growth is not going to happen and the fountain pen renaissance we are still living in won’t last forever. I don’t expect the same growth we’ve been fortunate to have had for the last few years. All I hope for overall is some slow but steady ink releases. Nothing huge, right‽

I think for next years State of the Union I will have to condense this post a lot. If a brand doesn’t do anything for the whole year it gets relegated to the sin bin. If it only does something very minor especially if what it does do is very predictable (such as Pelikan’s once-per-year limited edition release) it goes to ‘Miscellaneous Inks’.

What are your thoughts? How would you rate some of your favourite brands (or some brands that disappointed you)? Eager to hear differing opinions!

Keep in mine that this whole article is completely my own opinion and I make no effort to be objective!

See you in 2019!

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