Lamy

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Last week I talked about Montblanc, the status symbol. This week I talk about Lamy who takes the complete opposite approach. Lamy, the prime example of how a single principle is the soul of the brand and is embodied in every aspect of the company. Lamy stays true to the philosophy of usability. All Lamy products are strongly pragmatic. They put function as the soul of the brand. This is why Lamy choose the Bauhaus design philosophy since the design philosophy of Bauhaus emphasis on function and art, in another way, a functional art.

C. Josef Lamy, photo courtesy of Lamy.com

First, a short history of Lamy. Lamy is founded by C. Josef Lamy who was working as a sales for Parker Pen Co back in 1930. With a great spirit of entrepreneurship and knowledge of the market, he founded his own company in Heidelberg, the Orthos Fu?llfederhalter-Fabrik.

From LAMY site: 1952 The streamlined LAMY 27 fountain pen, which with its innovative “Tintomatik” system ensures a smooth, clean flow of ink, symbolizes the birth of the LAMY writing instrument brand and achieves the firm’s breakthrough on the market.

in 1957 the company moved to its present location at the Heidelberg district of Wieblingen and changed name to C. Josef Lamy GmbH. Thus establishing the company solid foundation.

In 1966 the marketing manager, Dr Manfred Lamy join with Gerd A. Müller, an ex Braun designer,99999999999 and mark the beginning of the Bauhaus principle that embodied LAMY ever since.

This whole functional art is embodied in every single product that Lamy makes. From the pens all the way to the ink bottles that are very good and thoughtful for every day filling.

the iconic LAMY Safari, the most copied pen in the world

The function-oriented philosophy is so embodied that Lamy only produces their pens in Germany so they have 100% control over their quality. Quite a challenge given the high cost of production and the plethora of fake and tribute pens out there that blatantly copy the design of Lamy. Lamy Safari is actually the most copied pen in the world.

Lamy Safari is designed for beginner pen users with flat sides so children 10–15 years old can hold the pen in a correct way when they began to learn how to write and carry it out throughout their life before they do a weird grip from the lack of instruction. The tools teach (or force) you how to use it properly.

In the spirit of Bauhaus, Lamy Safari doesn’t have any other different shape. The variation of the products truly only in colors. To me it is just the same thing, then again for the lover of the pens, it makes sense to collect them all. I don’t understand the mindset of collectors that collect every color available in regular and limited edition colors. As long as they are happy, it’s all good. It also works well for people who color sync their inks with the pen colors.

The ink bottles come with an indentation in the bottom middle of the bottle so you can suck out the last drop of ink as easy as possible provided you use Lamy pens (some other brands have larger or93 smaller nib and it might not work as good as Lamy pens). Lamy even thoughtful enough to include the paper to wipe the excess ink on your pen. The wipe paper is an absorbent paper sandwich with wax paper so you can clean your pen and keep your fingers clean from the ink stain. You can get ink stains if you only use regular tissue paper because the ink sip through. Very thoughtful of Lamy. I even keep my empty bottles to pour other inks that do not come with such a nice bottle.

One thing that Lamy excels at is the timeless design. The design follow function, since the hand of humans never change (still have the same structure and five fingers), there are only so many ways to hold a pen, thus some design stay eternal since it fits the way people hold the pen perfectly. Of course, there is no perfect pen for everyone, but Lamy has several designs for you to try out for. Chances are, one of them is for you.

Lamy 2000

The prime example is Lamy flagship, the Lamy 2000. First designed in 1966 by Gert A. Muller and it stay the same today as it was 50+ years ago. The pen still well known as a workhorse and it fits most hand comfortably. A prime example of functional art.

This philosophy is very important as a pen is ultimately a tool. A tool is an instrument to accomplish a task, to get the job done. In that sense, it must be able to do its job. A design that follow only beauty can fail to get the job done, but when the artistic follow the function, it is formidable as the tool is functional and also beautiful. Well design tools are able to accomplish the job better than a poorly design tools.

Behind every pen, there is extensive research for every design to ensure the best fit and robustness that represent the spirit of Bauhaus design that LAMY embodies. I have no idea how many hours must go into every model that makes them fit comfortably in most hands.

The Bauhaus spirit is what puts Lamy solid in its place as a function base pen. None of the Lamy products are price in the high/luxury level. All of them are priced according to the quality, not the cheapest, but you get what you paid for. Lamy products are robust, well designed, and backed by the company guarantee.

The Bauhaus spirit is everywhere in Lamy. From the products, website design, advertising, everything. Even the showroom, outlets, the factory, and office are all design with Bauhaus in mind. Lamy truly embodies the spirit of functional art.

In turn, the customers understood the principle immediately and able to align themselves with the brand and this creates a blue ocean, a group of fanatic customers, a fan club, evangelist customers that defend and promote the brand at their own expense.

Lamy is one of the prime examples of the principle embodiment that I always emphasize. A good brand must have a solid principle. It makes it so much easier for the company to place itself in the market and for customers to align themselves with the brand.

Lamy consistency with the Bauhaus principle paid off big time as the brand solidly sits in the heart of many with a strong following among pen users. This helps to secure the future of the brand for years to come.

As always, have a nice week and please do share this article if you find it interesting. You never know who will benefit from it. God bless.

If your customers don’t have loyalty to your brand, probably you don’t have a solid principle behind your brand. contact me to assist you. You can message me on LinkedIn or email me: [email protected]