In 2017 I wrote my first “State of the Union” where I discussed ink brands, what they had done, and what I wanted them to do in 2018. In 2018 I did the same for 2019. This year’s has been delayed, unfortunately! I really want to get these out before the new year, but sometimes other things conspire against good timing! 2017 was 3,500 words, 2018 was 6,100 words and this year is 8,600 words! I made a PDF in case people find that easier to read!

Last time I expanded how this was done by borrowing from Dr. Jonathon Deans’s Brand Taxonomy post; I created my own terms inspired by the four Deans used (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 are 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?

Again, 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 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!).

Australian Inks

Robert Oster

Fire & Ice is still topping the charts from where I can see for Rob’s inks! Where his inks are in any ‘best-selling’ list, it’s always Fire & Ice! Says a lot about the ink and it really has become a staple in the ink fountain pen community. Rob finally cracked the code for purple inks and has been making them a lot this year. They all look great and they all seem to be selling well. But when you look at the visible ‘best-selling’ lists it’s a mixed bag depending on the store what comes after Fire & Ice! Vanness Pens have Astorquiza Rot, Tranquility and River of Fire; Goulet have Thunderstorm, River of Fire, and Black Violet; Desk Bandit has Clearwater Rain, Summer Storm, and Viola; Milligram have Peppermint, Grün-Schwarz and Blue Water Ice. The fact that there isn’t a clear winner outside Fire & Ice isn’t a bad thing though. Far from it! It shows that while there is a clear favourite and now stalwart in the community, Rob is able to make a large variety or inks and colours that speak to different people. The variety of his line and the uniqueness of so many colours is keeping him up the top of the lists regardless of the ink!

The shimmering series still seems to be doing well and I agree they look pretty but I don’t see shimmering inks that often these days. Maybe I’m just blind! I’m sure people buy and use them but maybe they aren’t sharing it as often? Or maybe the Instagram algorithms know that I don’t enjoy shimmer as much as sheen? Surely not!

My desire for the Robert Oster brand, since 2017, has been consolidation of inks that look very similar (I’m looking primarily at all the teal inks). At this point I doubt that that is going to happen but that isn’t going to stop it from being wish! My reasoning stems only from my belief that when there are so many similar coloured inks, especially from the same brand, that there is choice overload. And it would be easier for people to buy more if the line was consolidated.

Last year I also said that I liked how Rob had been introducing new inks in sets rather than releasing a new single ink frequently (thought there still have been single ink releases additionally). It makes it a lot easier to keep up with the new inks. I wish the decade-based set themes continued, especially with the decade coming to a close! What’s interesting is that some of the sets have been exclusive to his own store (bypassing retailers). It’s an interesting approach and it’ll be interesting to see how that strategy progresses.

Rob’s also released some store exclusives (such as for Galen Leather and Hippo Noto) but most of the exclusives have been for pen shows with various degrees or limitedness from what I can see! Some Pen Show inks later become easily available from regular stores afterwards (for example Sydney Pen Show’s exclusive ink) but many pen show exclusives didn’t (Osaka, Tokyo, Dutch etc.).

For 2020 I’d love for more sets; perhaps smaller 3-ink sets so they are affordable. And if not that more themed releases. Themed releases can be pretty fun and can really help encourage people to buy into it!

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady Grower (Releasing new inks and doing his own thing with great success (without necessarily being an innovator) seems to sum up Robert Oster perfectly to me!)

Blackstone

Blackstone again haven’t released too much new this year. Kevin re-released SuSeMai Red Cashmere (which was originally a powdered ink you hydrated yourself) as well as a very pretty looking Lemur Lime ink exclusive to Lemur Ink. So, a fairly similar year to last year; some new inks but infrequently.

Last year I wanted some darker colours with sheen and more Australian themed released. I got half of that! SuSeMai Red Cashmere is a darker sheeny ink! Next year I’d like to see more than two new inks; perhaps some more exclusive inks!

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

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

Van Dieman’s Inks

After moving from eBay to a website related to Jinhao, Van Dieman’s inks are now their own entity and brand.

The released many inks since the few they had on eBay with some huge batches of themes releases. After the original Colours of Tasmania series there’s Hollywood, Midnight, The Wilderness, and Tassie Seasons bringing the total inks (excluding pigment) to 54! The latest series as four sets of fours inks inspired by the seasons of Tasmania (the island state bellow Australia that was once called Van Dieman’s Land)

Some huge growth here and it’s so good to see! I’m a big fan of the 4x4 seasons-themed release the original inks where decent albeit a little dry for me and with some (not all!) generic colours. Since then, however, there have been some excellent releases with interesting and unique colours. I’d love for them to continue what they are doing with another release or two of sets of inks but ideally what I really want for 2020 is international retailers getting a hold of these unique Australian inks!

I neglected to make much or a prediction last year because I felt it was too early to see where things were going but I reckon they have definitely beaten what predictions I would have had!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady Grower (consistently releasing new inks but need to get some retail love!)

European Inks

Montblanc

I didn’t mind last year’s Montblanc ink releases. I liked Spider Grey, and Le Petit Prince Fox Red; I loved Swan Illusion Plume and James Purdey & Sons Single Malt. They also had some more uninspiring colours like James Dean Rebel Red and re-releasing Emerald. This year, however, has had some pretty huge changes!

I believe (I’m not 100% confident that I didn’t miss something; nor am I 100% sure about the release dates of some Elixir inks) that in 2019 Montblanc released 25 new inks and finally ‘discontinued’ a former LE ink. 25! They are:

• Elixir Permanent Inks

  • Yellow Gold

  • Black

• Elixir Perfume Inks

  • Wood & Tobacco Grey

  • Vetiver Green

  • Marine Blue

  • Leather Orange Brown

• Legends of Zodiacs The Rat Yellow

• Blue Palette

  • Egyptian Blue*

  • Lapis Blue

  • Maya Blue *

  • Turquoise

  • Ultramarine *

  • * Included in a set of 3

• New ‘Standard’ Inks

  • Cool Grey

  • Modena Red

  • Manganese Orange

  • Pop Pink

• Montblanc Ink Bottle Great Characters Walt Disney Technicolor Yellow

• James Purdey & Sons Cigar Scented

• Ladies Edition Pink Ink

• Le Petit Prince Aviator Sand of the Desert

• Patron of Art Hadrian Rosso Antico

• Petrol Blue

• Rudyard Kipling Writers Edition Jungle Green

• Cosmos Silver Grey (Cartridges Only)

Montblanc Poppy Red has been around a long time now and it is a well-regarded ink, but it was also a ‘Limited Edition’ ink. And this brings up an interesting thing about Montblanc’s more recent ‘Limited Edition’ inks: they aren’t very limited. 2018’s Legends of Zodiacs The Pig Yellow, Great Characters James Dean Rebel Red', Heritage Spider Grey, Homer Writers Edition Greek Blue, Patron of Art Ludwig II Swan Illusion Plume, and Le Petit Prince Fox Red Fox; 2017’s Great Characters The Beatles Psychedelic Purple, Saint-Exupéry Writers Edition Encre du Desert, and The Legend of Zodiacs The Dog Red are all still easily available. In the past, Montblanc’s LE inks were definitely limited! They ran out rather quickly and certainly were not available after a year or two (with the exception of Poppy Red). I don’t really like this approach. ‘Limited’ really does imply some sort of meaningful scarcity and inks lasting this long in store are not scarce. They might not be around forever but calling them ‘limited’ just feels like marketing gone too far for me. Leave them with the years in the name but drop the ‘limited’ description. The alternative is that Montblanc are simply not selling their inks, but I find that hard to believe.

As for the inks Montblanc did this year, only a few really stood out to me. The Blue Palette inks are all fairly vanilla (I picked up Turquoise because it felt the most 'unique of the bunch for me). Zodiac The Rat and Disney are more yellows that aren’t very practical or unique looking. Hadrian looks nice but is another red! The price is the only thing that has held me back buying the new Purdey & Sons Cigar Scented ink. The new standard bottles also look somewhat vanilla to my eyes; I wasn’t impressed with them. I haven’t touched any of the Elixir inks; too expensive and too lacking in saturation.

Ladies Edition Pink, issues aside with the naming, I love. I really like the super soft pink colour and one of my favourite inks of the year. Rudyard Kipling Jungle Green is also an interesting unique colour but far from my favourite for the year.

Cosmos Silver Grey is a curious new ink in that it is exclusively in Cartridges and not in a bottle! Clearly meant to match this year’s Starwalker but still interesting none-the-less. I can’t say I’m a fan of this as I never use cartridges!

Last year I was apprehensive about the Elixir inks and that hasn’t really changed with the additions Vetiver Green looks nice but not nice enough for that price! I thought the James Purdey were too expensive as well and while I did get the Single Malt ink (and loved it) it has made me hold off on Cigar. I feel a lot of people are holding off on these lovely inks because of the high price. I do miss Montblanc’s 30ml bottles and cheaper prices I really have to say.

This year felt overwhelming and mostly just not that interesting to me. Too many inks that were a little too generic for me and just too many inks overall (yes yes, I know; this will become hypocritical when I get to Sailor, so perhaps for Montblanc fans and collectors this isn’t the case!).

I’m hoping now that Montblanc have released a whole heap of standard edition inks that they can go back to a more reasonable set of releases next year and hopefully with fewer releases they can put more effort into making those releases more unique of interesting!

Hope Realisation: ★☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady Grower/Comfortable (they’re definitely steadily releasing new inks! However, the quality, for my mind, has dropped and with that in mind I feel they are relying on their name and getting a little too comfortable)

Lamy

Last year had some big changes including the release of a whole set of standard inks. That set has been completely stagnant since (which isn’t unexpected at all just a year after release). Last year also had only one limited edition ink (Vibrant Pink) with the All-Black Safari having no accompanying ink like it has in the past. This year the same thing happened with the Safari release (although, granted, there were three of them!) not having an ink to go with them. We instead got Lamy Bronze which was a somewhat washed-out orange. I didn’t see too many people lauding this ink.

Honestly, one new ink is a little disappointing. And an ink that wasn’t particularly exciting either. They had the very expensive Lamy 2000 Bauhaus Blue LE Pen and could have easily released an accompanying ink but didn’t.

Last year all I wanted was to go back to two LE ink releases (one for Al-Star and one for Safari) and that’s what I want for 2020 as well. Ideally there’d be an addition or two to the Crystal ink line, but I don’t want to get greedy!

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Slow Grower/Comfortable (I was wondering whether Lamy would stay as a Steady Grower or drop to Slow Grower but in reality, I feel like Lamy have almost dropped all the way back to Comfortable this year with only one uninspired ink)

Pelikan

I’ve got to give Pelikan some credit for their Pelikan Hubs (of which I am the local Hubmaster). They release a new ink every year and then give thousands of bottles away for free with all that shipping costs via courier to attendees. That’s a great and I hope the Hubs are sustainable and symbiotic!

Pelikan have an established schedule and release every year. It’s the same and it doesn’t change. There’s comfort in that. This year Star Ruby was the Ink of the Year Limited Edition and while it’s a decent enough ink it wasn’t particularly unique. Last year’s Olivine was more unique and interesting to me. Last year they also added a not-that-old LE as a standard-edition ink which I was not a fan of (LE should stay LE inks for a decent amount of time! Or simply don’t call it limited in the first place) which I’m glad they haven’t done this year (unless I missed the memo…). The 2020 release is already announced and it’s going to be Moonstone, a grey ink. While not an ‘exciting’ ink I’m quite looking forward to this! I hope it leans a little blue (even though I prefer neutral greys).

My hope was for no more Les being added to the regular line up and as far as I know that didn’t happen. There’s nothing much else to hope for as Pelikan are the same year after year pretty much. I was not extremely impressed Star Ruby so that’s where my hope realisation loses one star.

I just hope for another this year with 2020 and for an interesting Moonstone ink!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★☆

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (Comfortable but not in a bad way; in a comforting way!)

PW Akkerman

The only change for Akkerman has been the addition of new ink, Gourmet Pens Pink. It seems to be a nice soft-fish pink and I definitely prefer what it looks like compared to Delft Blue from last year. I’m still convinced Akkerman inks are made by Diamine, mind you.

Akkerman feels like a very comfortable ink maker like Pelikan is. They aren’t resting on their laurels, but they don’t see a need to do that much new either. Last year all I wanted was they continue the pace of one or two LEs (or whatever Gourmet Pens Pink and SBRE Brown is; are they LEs?) and they’ve definitely done that. It’s a comfortable pace! Keep it up!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Comfortable (Comfortable but not in a bad way; in a comforting way!)

Aurora

I have no expectations for Aurora but due to their 100th anniversary, they have done something new. Nine things new, in fact! Aurora 100th Anniversary Ink Black, Blue Black, Blue, Gray, Green, Orange, Purple, Red, Sepia, and Turquoise. The digital colours they’ve chosen to represent the inks do not endear me to the inks; it makes them look very generic. The only swatches I’ve seen of the ink are from Stilo & Stile and they actually do seem interesting! Not amazing, but interesting. The Blue, Black and Blue Black do look like their normal inks, however. From those photos they look a little pastel which is a recent trend that is rather popular, and it stands out compared to the usual colours you’d get from this range!

Brand behaviour: Comfortable/Slow Grower (They’ve very surprisingly released a few new things, but these are LE inks which is worth keeping in mind!)

J. Herbin/Jacque Herbin

"Kyanite du Népal" (Kyantie of Nepal) was the expected new release this year, another 1798 ink. It’s been a while since we had a 1670 with gold shimmer! Last year they released 10 new inks for the Parisian department store Le Bon Marché and these inks have now been released worldwide (thought with somewhat staggered releases with few retailers being allowed to sell them). They also released four perfumed inks as well as a very exciting new ‘collection; of inks (featuring only the first release so far) where Jacque Herbin collaborate with artists to create a colour. The first such release is Créations d'Artistes - Nude by Coulon in collaboration with Marc-Antoine Coulon and it’s a very pale ‘skin’ coloured ink (a certain type of skin anyway…). It’s a very faint looking (from the photos) pink-taupe colour and it seems very nice and unique. I think this collaborative ink has a lot potential to bring some unique colours that you wouldn’t usually see so I’m very excited for next year with this.

I’m hoping for a return to the classic 1670 inks for next year’s shimmer ink and I’m really looking forward to what they do with the Créations d'Artistes series! Two new inks is more than enough after giving us 17 new inks in the past two years!

Last year I just hoped for one or two inks and we definitely go that!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (another larger increase this year compared to the normal slower one release per year)

Graf von Faber-Castell

No new inks this year after two consecutive years of new batches. I can’t say I was that excited about some of the releases, but I expected some new. I wanted more unique colours but didn’t get that at all! I can’t say I think GvFC needs to release new inks though, their 18-ink collection seems fairly fleshed out now.

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady Grower ⇨Comfortable (A step down this year but I consider them comfortable in the comforting way not yet close to Stagnant)

Diamine

Another big year with a heap of LE releases some of which I’m sure I’ve forgotten (remind me what I’m missing)! What I’ve remembered is:

• Hong Kong exclusive Lion Rock

• South Korea exclusive Calm and Passion

• Reddit’s Aurora Borealis

• Philippines exclusive Velvet Rose

• Pen Venture exclusive Desert Rose

• German exclusives Ortloff Red, Communication Breakdown, Smoke on the Water, & Purple Rain

• Papier and Stift exclusive A Night In Jodhpur

• Seitz-Kreuznach exclusive Bloody Absinth

• UK Fountain Pen Facebook Group’s Monboddo's Hat & Scribble Purple

• Pen Gallery exclusive Manggis

• Cult Pens exclusives Iridescink Philip, & Christine

• La Couronne du Comte exclusives Comte d'Or, Pain d'Épices, & Vert Sapin

• Scriptus Show Toronto Rushbrooke Blue

That’s 19 new inks; quite the expansion! Almost all of these are high sheening inks as well with La Couronne du Comte’s Comte d'Or being the only non-sheener of the bunch. Aurora Borealis isn’t a high sheener and Communication Breakdown isn’t high, but the rest are all (or at least seem to be) high sheeners. Diamine have definitely been taking advantage of the sheen craze (which has died down a little bit but will never go away). My disappointment with these releases (including those from 2018) is that so many of them look almost the same. Vert Sapin, November Rain (2018), Bloody Absinth, & Smoke on the Water are all fairly comparable teals; Manggis, Desert Rose, Velvet Rose, & Robert (2018) are all fairly comparable dark magentas; A Night in Jodhpur, Jalur Gemilang (2018), & Skull & Roses (2018) are fairly comparable blues! The purples are also, again, variations on a theme but I feel there’s more variation there and with the more orange leaning reds. I do wish there was more variety here. Instead of giving everyone a slight variation of the same basic ink I’d prefer different colours and characteristics. Hong Kong’s Lion Rock, a red-brown with green sheen is quite different! Difficult to acquire though.

No new Shimmertastic inks, I believe, which reaffirms my belief that this trend (shimmering inks) has plateaued. Much like I believe the extreme sheening inks have also plateaued now (or are at least beginning to). The market is rather saturated (ha) with both trends right now with few of the newer inks really feeling that new or unique anymore.

The hugely popular new thing for 2019 from Diamine was the InkVent Calendar set of 25 tiny ink bottles. This was an excellent decision. Every day for a whole month, almost, people are posting about Diamine on every social network. Simply brilliant! They definitely need to continue this every year!

I wanted more exclusives and more released like 2018 for 2019 and I think I got that. I think it’s also time for Diamine to move on from super sheeners as a focus in 2020 maybe look at shading inks? I know that would satisfy a lot of people!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Follower (they are doing more stuff and releasing more stuff, but they are somewhat bandwagoning on trends that other ink makers are setting (Organics Studio really got the ball rolling on the super-sheening trend)

KWZ

I feel like the releases slowed a little in 2019. There was the new Liquid Words 2019 for the Pen Show Poland. I lovey dark green with silver sheen that is definitely the same theme, but nothing has beaten the loveliness of 2017! Usually there is a Canadian exclusive for Scriptus but this year they went with a Diamine exclusive ink instead. They have released a Sheen Machine, a regular release with a lovely label, but for me it suffers from the same thing a lot of these super sheeners suffer from; looking the same. I, personally, passed on this and I love sheen.

Last year I wanted more Iron Gall releases since KWZ make such great IG inks as well as more Poland-themed inks but neither of those wishes happened and there were fewer releases overall so a little disappointing in terms of releases (though the inks they do have are still high quality). That’s still my wish for next year! More Iron Gall and more Poland themes! I think themed inks really help inspire more unique colours than when you are aiming for a characteristic of the ink.

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (very slow and steady, however)

Pennonia

A new ink for me this year. The inks are very nice performers and great to write with in my experience, even the colours that are often dry in other brands. That should raise some flags as if the inks are similar to other brands that are often dry then it might not be the most unique! And, yes, some of the standard line inks feel a little generic in their colour. That said they also have two excellent inks that are unique (one very much so!) Vízláng is a nice sheening blue where the sheen is water resistant and Pokoltűz has a similar water resistant sheen but is a lovely copper sheen over a fascinating dark green-grey. I’m a huge fan of this ink. Matt is also making and thinking about new inks and the new inks coming January 2020 seem to be a more interesting than the current set of standard inks which is exciting!

I’d love for more water resistant sheen inks! Green? Any new standard inks I’d love for something a little different!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Slow grower? (New inks are coming! We don’t necessarily know the frequency to expect new inks though!)

De Atramentis

Like Aurora, I had few to no expectations for De Atramentis but they have released new inks late 2019 a new series or “Artist Ink” which is “is waterproof and lightfast. All inks of this group are mixable with each other. The inks can be painted and written with fountain pen, brush and quill pen.” I haven’t seen anything about these inks or even what they might look like but usually these sorts of inks are built for a purpose that isn’t related unique and interesting ink writing colours so I’m not getting my hopes up. Still, it’s good to see movement!

Brand behaviour: Comfortable/Slow Grower (they are still doing new stuff which is great; what they are doing, however, isn’t very ground-breaking)

North American Inks

Organics Studio

Organics Studio have been releasing new inks, but I simply don’t hear much about them which is a bit unfortunate! From what I can gather there have been eight new inks in 2019 including a series of three interesting emoji inspired inks for the Baltimore Washington Pen Show. Some shimmer inks in the lot but they didn’t go overboard. Frog Green, unfortunately for me a shimmer ink, had a stunning beautiful green colour! The better news seems to be that distribution seems a little better. This is definitely something they needed to improve! So many places were out of stock in the past which is seems to be less of an issue these days. Keep up with those same improvements. I’m not sure what I want ink-wise for 2020 because they seem to be doing a good job, but things just aren’t getting as much traction from what I’ve seen. Am I wrong? I hope that improves because it’s a great little brand.

Hope Realisation: ★★★★☆ They did improve distribution a little at least.

Brand behaviour: Follower⇨Steady Grower (they don’t seem be bandwagoning shimmer as much; it’s just part of their inks now. Steadily releasing new inks)

Private Reserve

The new owner of Private Reserve has added themed packs of inks which is a nice touch, including a LE release of two new inks in a Napa Valley LE set; Smokey Amethyst and Apple Green which are included along standard inks Sonic Blue and Orange Crush. Nice colours and good to see! I’m a fan of themed releases (even if that is somewhat of a retrospective theme. The inks have also been available on their own outside of the pack. I’m OK with Private Reserve having one or two inks a year. They need to not be stagnant!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★ (Such low expectations meant that it was easily met!)

Brand behaviour: Stagnant⇨Comfortable (not dead! Let’s hope it continues)

Ferris Wheel Press

Ferris wheel Press have some lovely and fancy packaging. It isn’t as annoying as Colorverse’s packaging, fortunately! It has a tubular box inside which is a fabric pouch that carries the lovely perfume-style bottle. I’ve only tried one ink and was pleasantly surprised. The Lady Pink (…) is a lovely soft dirty pink. Big fan of it and I’d ink to try more colours. I feel like Lady Pink is possibly the most distinctive ink, but I’d be very happy to be wrong. The issue I have with Ferris wheel Press is their horribly misleading bottle photos! Look at these photos! It makes the ink look incredibly pale and watered down (probably because it is). The bottles look like the put a drop or two of the ink dyes in pure water and photographed that. It does not look like that. They look like normal saturated inks do; dark! Even light yellows look darker than what they are presenting. Now, granted, the photos of the ink on paper are more realistic but I still find this disingenuous and misleading even if it doesn’t reflect real world use of the ink.

The bottles and packaging are great. The inks are decent. I can definitely see them slowly expanding the line next year.

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: too new to the market.

Noodler’s Ink

Several new releases again this year but all bar three of them have been pen show LE releases. Fortunately, because Pen Show only releases are extremely difficult to acquire when you aren’t there, leftovers are often sold to retailers to sell and that’s been the case here as well. I have been moving away from Noodler’s in my own collection because I have a lot of them and too many of them have dissapointing performance. I’ve always loved their labels, however, and the 2019 releases are no exception. The Cherry Blossom ink has a particularly pretty label! On the topic of performance, the three new standard inks released are Anti-feather Brown, Green and Red. Green and Red look fairly boring to me but the Brown, which seems to be a rusty orange colour, looks very nice!

The one thing you can be reasonably confident about with Noodler’s is that the colours are usually unique and interesting. They are often colours that most brands might balk at. Sometimes that results in a very strange ink but sometimes a lovely colour you can’t find elsewhere. I just wish performance was better across the board!

The new inks do not seem to be the poor performers we’ve seen in the past which is part of what I wanted for 2019. I also wanted some Australian exclusives to come back but that didn’t happen! I’d still want that!

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

I have to say I’ve struggled to keep up with Monteverde in 2019. There have been some Pen Show exclusives (Coral for the LA Pen Show, and DC Supershow Teal for the DC Supershow), there’s also been a recent standard line ink (Malachite) as well as a single new set 10 inks based around sweets and deserts. I’ve struggled to seep up but I’m quite pleased that the pace of Monteverde’s releases have become more manageable while still releasing new inks. Something I wanted for 2019 was some sheen in their inks (subtle sheen, not a super sheen!) but I don’t think that really happened. That’s OK though! Monteverde is doing everything I like; a couple of LE releases, a set and small expansion of the standard line. Love it!

Hope Realisation: ★★★☆☆

Brand behaviour: Steady grower (Consistently releasing new sets of inks periodically)

Papier Plume

Some nice additions this year. I’m unsure about whether these inks are actually LE or not. In the past some have been made standard editions, but some are still out of stock - doesn’t make me confident especially when they encourage you to buy multiple inks (by limiting how many you can buy)! San Francisco Pen Show Marina Green is a lovely green but also fairly generic; Ohio Pen Show All Saints' Daybreak is also a fairly generic desaturated blue-black; Chicago Pen Show Bad Bad Leroy Brown and Lake Michigan Winter are a pretty nice deep pure brown and a lovely desaturated pale blue - fairly unique! A mixed bag of releases this year. I hope next year these inks are out of stock!

Hope Realisation: N/A

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

Franklin-Christoph

Every year seems pretty much the same for Franklin-Christoph: early on they release a small limited-edition ink for the Philadelphia Pen Show called “Ink [year]”. Then, for the rest of the year, nothing much happens! Every now and then they have retired some inks and added new ones to the standard line but 2019 wasn’t that year. The new Ink ‘19 was a fairly disappointing one to me. I don’t use red inks much, especially ones that are just straight red.

For 2019 I wanted the Ink ‘19 to be more unique compared to their standard ink line. Well I guess I got that, but I perhaps should have been more specific! Franklin-Christoph’s colours are often darker and desaturated and always feel very “Franklin-Christoph” and 2019 felt like it was from a different brand. I’d want Ink ’20 to go back to looking like a Franklin-Christoph ink but a new hue!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

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)

Everything is always changing with Sailor, but little has changes with how Sailor goes about each year. Most store exclusive brands have released new inks, Sailor have released some of their own exclusives.

The big sailor release of 2018 was of course the Sailor Ink Studio collection of 100 inks, but it wasn’t until 2019 that the inks really become available internationally (though it did come to Australia and New Zealand in 2018). I believe this set really started or at least cemented the trend of pastel pale inks. Some of the inks also introduced us to a wide variety of dual-colour inks such as the super popular Ink Studio No.123. I believe the Ink Studio collection was instrumental in two trends of 2019 that I see continuing into 2020. Quite the accomplishment!

An interesting development is the release of more Sailor-branded releases. One is a set of 10 50ml inks for the Japanese market, Onago Iro, and the other is a set of 10 inks for the international market, Manyo. This Manyo release also comes with an increased international presence by Sailor with the Cocktail Series Pro Gear Angel’s Delight being available in limited numbers internationally as well as the European exclusive addition to the Cocktail Series White Russian Pro Gear Slim. It’s good to see these international expansions; hopefully we can get an Australian edition one day!

Some more good news is that, with the exception of some Limited Editions such as Bungubox’s Astrology series (within which a Pro Gear Slim Mini comes with a 20ml matching ink), most inks, including store exclusives, international releases, and domestic releases, are still 50ml. With Sailor’s ink Studio going 20ml and the Shikiori (and old Seasons inks) going 20ml and with Bungubox going 30ml I was worries that many inks would go 20ml or 30ml. Definitely received that that hasn’t happened! Unfortunately, related to bottles, many many stores that previously offered tall or vase bottles now only offer square bottles. This change has happened at an alarming rate. I fear that the beautiful tall bottles don’t have much time left! If you want one get one soon!

As with every year though there’s still a mind-boggling amount of store exclusive inks that are so numerous that it’s really difficult to keep up (especially when you can’t speak or read Japanese so most of the names are, unfortunately for me, forgettable to me!). If you want to try to keep up with Pro Gear, Pro Gear Realo, Pro Gear Slim, Pro Gear Mini, Pro Gear Slim Mini, Profit and Profit Slim releases it’s even more of a head spin! That’s why I only pay attention to Pro Gears, Pro Gear Realos and ink releases! And I still struggle!

I thought the massive price increase (due to the bottles getting a lot smaller) would be a hard pill to swallow but Ink Studios were immensely popular and still are. People are happy to pay more for Sailor. Sailor must be pretty happy with that!

I’m liking the international presence and I think that’s a great indication for Sailor in 2020 where I expect that to continue. Japan will obviously still be the focus, but I expect them to continue the international releases! My hope, which won’t happen, would be for an Australian Sailor Pro Gear. Pie in the sky!

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. The exception being with dual-colours which I believe they definitely set themselves)

Pilot

For Pilot, 2019 was a huge year for inks. There hasn’t been any new inks, especially outside Japan, for quite a while and in 2019 we got seven new inks. I was, however, rather disappointed with most of the inks. Most of the inks feel fairly generic to me. Ebisu looks close to every other turquoise - it’s paleness maybe sets it slightly apart and introduces some shading. Daikoku-ten looks like any golden yellow. Bishamon-ten is a nice vibrant pink but hardly unique. Fuku-roku-ju could be any teal-green. Juro-jin is just so one-dimensional to me. Hotei-son I find to be an interesting dark very desaturated teal, but it isn’t an exciting ink even if it is interesting. Finally, Benzai-ten is a nice soft pink - I like it but not enough. I’ve never been a huge fan of Pilot’s inks. But I find most of these 100th anniversary inks to be far more one dimensional than the regular line up of Iroshizuku which, to me, is a shame.

To me this set completely missed the mark. I’m sure they all have the good performance we’re used to with Pilot Iroshizuku but I don’t enjoy most of these colours. I didn’t really predict anything for 2019 as we pretty much already knew that these inks were coming - we just didn’t know the details. It’s obvious I was hoping for something better than what we got so in that regard I believe my hope realisation was pretty poor.

I expect back to usual next year for Pilot Iroshizuku. What I’d like is for a Japan exclusive LE again. They were more interesting!

Hope Realisation: ★☆☆☆☆

Brand behaviour: Stagnant ⇨ Slow grower? ⇨ Comfortable? (I shouldn’t really call them stagnant. Notwithstanding the LE releases in 2019 I feel Pilot are just comfortable. I want more than comfortable!)

Stationery TAG

Stationery TAG have some very confusing numbering. My bottle of Kyo-no-oto No.06 Adzukiiro is called Kyo-no-oto No.00 Azukiiro (note the lack of 6 and lack of letter ‘d’). But even more confusingly, last year Stationery TAG released the lovely and pale Kyo-no-oto No.08 Urahairo and the also lovely and pale Kyo-no-oto No.09 Keshimurasaki (note the numbering). This year they have released two additions to the line: Kyo-no-oto No.08 Moegiiro and Kyo-no-oto No.09 Sakuranesumi. So, there are now two No.08 and two No.09 numbered inks in the line. I’d certainly be interested in hearing if someone knows why this is! Moving on…

No.08 Moegiiro is a bit different from the rest of the series as it is a vibrant green. It’s taking it’s time working its way to retailers, so I haven’t seen much about these new inks, but this vibrant green seems pretty average looking to me. It feels like a normal apple green colour. No.09 Sakuranesumi is a more interesting deep and desaturated purple which is more in line with the rest of the series.

We have the Kyo-no-oto and Kyo-iro series, but Stationery TAG also have the Fumisome branding. Unlike Kyo-no-oto which is meant to replicate traditional inks with modern technology Fumisome uses traditional dying techniques and is ‘plant-based’ with its dye. The inks are fairly dry and very pale, but I rather like them. This pale pastel colour really became a theme of 2019 starting with Sailor’s Ink Studio.

For me a love what Stationery TAG are doing. The inks are unfortunately a little dry still, but they are doing different things with their inks and they are nearly all unique and interesting. Just keep it up!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★☆

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

Taccia

Some interesting colours in their original set of inks they aren’t generic inks, but they aren’t ground-breaking either. Since the first set they’ve released three sets of themed inks (and by now you should know I love themed sets!). First is the fascinating and beautifully designed set of four inks based on four artworks by Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The second is based on the caricatures of Kabuki actors of Japanese traditional performing arts by Sharaku. I haven’t seen much about these inks but from the little I have seen they look excellent. I definitely need to pick some of these up! The last themed is a six-ink set of “Lip Color” inks based on lipstick. Interestingly Van Dieman’s Ink had the same idea for a theme earlier on but they are both different approaches. Taccia have some various seemingly dusty-hued pink colours. They seem pretty but like all of these it’s difficult to tell without seeing reviews online! The swatches provided from all three sets do not inspire confidence! Hopefully they are accurate, though, because they look great.

I didn’t predict or hope for anything with Taccia because they were too new to the market and I hadn’t actually tried them! Now that I have, I’m happy with performance and style. Definitely eager to try more from the sets but I’ll probably wait until it comes local to me. 14 new inks is a fair amount! I don’t think they need to keep it that high, but I appreciate the themes and hope they continue with at least two of them for 2020!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Steady Grower

Anata Brand

Anata have actually released more of the Kuretake inks which are inspired by Sumi Ink. The initial release had only Black, Purple, Yellow, and Green. All of these were extremely dark and essentially all black inks but where ‘black’ was approached from different hues. Since then they released a super vibrant but super dark blue. You can still see the blue in the colour, but it is very dark. They’ve also very recently ventured into less dark inks with a very saturated pink, violet and blue. Still in the same pretty perfume-like bottles.

I wanted a dark deep red for 2019 but didn’t get it. I still want that! I like the expansion into other colours, and I like how they don’t look completely generic, but I’d like more uniqueness all the same for 2020!

Hope Realisation: ☆☆☆☆☆

Brand type: Comfortable ⇨ Steady grower (Four new inks isn’t slow, but it isn’t fast. Pretty steady)

Colorverse

I’m glad that Colorverse is moving away from the double ink collection, at least slightly. It’s a large investment and it sometimes means you buying a second ink you don’t want to get the ink you do want (even worse when the ink you want is 15ml and the one you don’t want is 55ml). Season 6 is a bunch of simply packaged 30ml ink bottles. Finally! The huge boxes with extras were fun for a time and certainly novel but I think they should be reserved for special editions or limited editions because they are somewhat annoying to deal with. I don’t think they should do away with (moving forward) the novel packaging and double ink bottles but I think they should be reserved in when they use it.

Colorverse have also released some LE inks including a 17(!)-bottle release and a five-bottle release. They sold out with the 17-bottle set but that’s quite the investment! It’s clearly working for them so I can’t complain about it. Good on them for trying different things. They are also still playing with shimmer somewhat conservatively and I think that’s a good thing.

Last year I wanted them to simplify the packaging (which they have indeed started to) and to possibly slow down with releases. Apart from the 17-bottle set (which is a LE) I think they have done that a little too.

Hope Realisation: ★★★★☆

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

I haven’t had the opportunity to try more of these inks which is what I wanted to do for 2019 but they have released some new inks since I last talked about them. Some nice looking richly coloured sheening inks and another set or two. I really want to get to know this brand more and it’s disappointing that I haven’t so far!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand type: Steady grower (Four new inks isn’t slow, but it isn’t fast. Pretty steady)

Krishna

Krishna seem to have slowed down a little in terms of releasing new inks and seem to be focusing on the same inks that sell well. I think this is a good idea! They have still released some new inks like Poyka, Moonview 2, a LE for the India Pen Show (Sufi and Winnolam) as well as Krishna x Hippo Noto Magentum in collaboration with Hippo Noto. They have slowed down, but they are still releasing inks and those inks are often eye catching and unique. Unlike most ‘super sheen’ ink makers they aren’t just doing the same Purple, Teals and Blues. They have browns, pinks, violets and others. I love that they are thinking outside the norm and advancing the trends rather than just following them.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the iron gall emulating inks anymore and they seem to have been discontinued. That’s a shame because they were unique and very very different.

Like last year, I love what they are doing now and just want them to keep doing what they are doing! It’d be nice to see some soft pastel colours!

Hope Realisation: ★★★★★

Brand behaviour: Trendsetter (Jumped into supersheeners but also with different colours. They are doing different things)

Troublemaker

I want to try Troublemaker but I’ve never been able to! I missed out when they were commonly available and I while I’ve tried to subscribe to their email list, I’ve never received an email so I’m not sure if I’ve been able to. A little frustrating because their inks look amazing and unique. They’ve definitely jumped on the dual colour ink characteristic we first saw popularised by Sailor’s Ink Studio. As well, they’ve got some lovely saturated and sheeny colours. Eager to try but haven’t been able to! I understand the team is small, so I hope they find a way of opening up orders more!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Follower (Following trends but doing it well!)

Vinta

Like Troublemaker Vinta jumped onto the dual colour ink from Sailor’s Ink Studio as well. They have also jumped on the pastel-pale ink trend. This isn’t a strong trend, but I’ve definitely noticed it in later 2019. Vinta has quite a few very pale inks and some dual colour inks but also some sheeners and some interesting shimmering inks. As is painfully obvious by now I’m not a huge fan of shimmer but I like what Vinta are doing.

They are a new brand, so I don’t think they need to release that many new inks next year, but I’d be interested to see more approaches to pale inks and dual colour inks!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: Follower (Following trends but doing it well!)

TWSBI

I’ve always found it strange that TWSBI offers pens that require bottles and they offer ink wells, but they don’t offer inks! Well that finally changed and they now offer inks! They’ve released a pack of six Limited Edition 18ml inks as well as four basic inks (Sapphire Blue, Blue Black, Black and Red). Unfortunately, many of these inks are somewhat generic. They could be Visconti or Waterman and you wouldn’t know. Visconti and Waterman’s Red inks look pink, like TWSBI’s, the Green (from the LE set) also leans teal, like Visconti and Waterman (etc.!). The Black does seem nice and dark, but I’d need to see in person to determine that and I’m not super confident that it will be. The Sky Blue seems different, slightly, from the normal turquoise ink, and the green again feels like a normal apple green colour that many brands have. The Pink (soft) and the Orange (rich and a touch dirty) seem nice and the most unique of the bunch.

The basic four inks they have is a good start in theory, but I wouldn’t, personally, buy these inks. They don’t offer anything that Parker or Waterman don’t offer. The LE inks are in a better spot but if they release more in 2020, I hope they are more unique than these!

Hope Realisation: N/A

Brand behaviour: too new to the market.

Miscellaneous Inks

Berlin Blue No. 1 from Berlin Notebooks is a super-rich blue ink with some nice. It is super saturated. Review coming soon. That they have numbered their first and only ink makes me think more are coming. Will be interesting to keep an eye out on these.

Platinum haven’t done anything new, unfortunately!

Hakase are comfortable with their two inks. Good for them

Tono & Lims have some interesting colours. I definitely want to check these out in 2020!

Color Traveler is from Tayama Bungu in Hiroshima (they also have store exclusive Sailor inks). Another one I want to try out.

PenBBS have new bottles that look like Sailor’s square bottles and have released some new inks. They are way too expensive internationally, probably due to difficulty in getting fluids out of China!

Rhohrer & Klingner are releasing a new ink every year now and this year is '“Kastanienbraun” or Chestnut Brown. Seems like a decent brown worth picking up!

Comfortable at best, and Stagnant at their worse: Waterman, Visconti, Montregrappa, Parker, Platinum, Bookbinders, Caran d’Ache, L’Artisan Pastellier, Toucan, Sheaffer, Cross, Kaweco…

2020

It’s been a year of trends! The end of shimmer, the middle of sheen and the beginning of pale/dual-coloured inks! I’d love for shading to be the theme of 2020. Last year I didn’t think the market was over-saturated but I’m starting to wonder whether that is beginning to be the case. How can normal people keep up with all the new inks the new brands the new new new! I’d like to see ink brands, going into the new decade, to be a little more reserved and to release only their best new inks. Not to release something just to release something. I still want growth and I don’t want to plateau but if brands focus on quality over quantity, I think it would be better for them, ultimately, as more people can afford to buy, and more people can be aware of the new inks.

This is pretty similar to what I wanted last year (“All I hope for overall is some slow but steady ink releases. Nothing huge, right‽”) and I think with some brands this was the case, but certainly not all. But rather than slow and steady for 2019 I want quality over quantity for 2020!

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

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

Looking forward to the rest of 2020!