introduction

 

I’ve always loved Rotring. When I was young I used to draw a lot. I liked it and spend hours drawing and sketching. Back then I used « child » tool, cheap pencils, watercolor markers, color pencils…

My father was an architect and his office was just close to our home. I used to spend some saturdays and sundays at his office when he was working extra-time, and I loved that. I can draw all day with much more « professional » tools : compasses, ellipse templates, rulers… But there was also that impressive set of black pens with strange thing written on : 0.18 – 0.3 – 0.8… They were stored in a plastic base with an even more strange humidity gauge, which give them a very futuristic appeal. Of course, I was not allowed to used them an I was told they were expensive and fragile stuff. Definitely not for the kids!

Then one day, my father came home with two Variant pens (big nibs : 0.8 and 1.0) and gave them to me. I can’t remember if they were lightly damaged or if he bought new ones, but anyway : they were mine ! From then I was hooked. They were far superior from everything I have used, and nothing can beat the dark and profound black they produced. You can erase the lead pencil, the black remains black. No watercolor marker can come close to this…

When I was 15, I started art studies. I’ve spent 8 years in Art Schools, ended-up my cursus at the Arts Decoratifs of Paris. At that time Rotrings were crucial tools. 3 or 4 Isographs, some Letraset sheets and an assortment of Pantone markers were vital stuff if you intended to became a serious graphic designer. Rotring was so inescapable, that – in fact – it was a generic name that can apply also to Staedler Marsmatic or Faber-Castell TG1 or any other cheap clones. We just named these tools « Rotring ».

I still use Rotring product on a daily basis, especially mechanical pencils for sketching. I also frequently use my Isograph and Rapidograph pens for illustrations purpose, and I still do some technical drawing, but this time for my own pleasure to use tools like compasses, french curves set, ellipse templates…

I haven’t found many blogs or websites dealing with Rotring products. The new official Rotring website is very attractive and you can buy online most of the current production. They are very reactive and ship fast. You should definitively paid a visit if you’re a Rotring bug. There a short history of the company, but nothing about the old product line or a complete listing of what Rotring have produced over the years. I’m in no way an expert of Rotring products, but my aim in this blog, is to show all the Rotring product I’ve collected over the years and share infos and pictures with other enthusiast all over the world.