27 - Patterns in 1980

27 - Patterns in 1980

My Dad, Iain Sinclair, is a product designer. Back in the 80s, he would sketch and work up all his presentation material by hand, using a variety of felt tip and rotary pens.

He owned a metal box of Stabilo felt tips (similar or perhaps the same as this nostalgic throwback I bought from eBay), and, on occasion, he entrusted me to use them.

I remembered there being 50 pens - so with 40 pens, maybe this isn't an exact match. But still, the tin is nearly half a metre wide! Smashing.

Along with the pens there were drawing instruments such as bendable rulers and a selection of transparent, green stencils punched with circles and ellipses.

I made these pattern designs and I still feel excited about them. There's something beautiful about the tiny slips of the pen. Compared with the machine perfection of digitally produced graphics.

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This year I challenged myself to write one blog post per day, for 365 days. The project began on 3 March 2025.

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