B.I.BLOG

Picked these up along Grand Street dollar store stroll in Brooklyn last week. 

SNOWMAN BOOTLEG

Pretty sure this is a bootleg of the Snowman series of marker from Seiko Seisakusho…because it came from a dollar store on Grand Street. The label is printed on plastic wrap around, and doesn’t have the trademark snowflake icon on the label. English, French and German text translations appear on the body. NIce bold wordmark in a red cylinder shape. Chisel tip. Makes nice deep black markings, no bleed, good fades. Heavy alcohol smell on this one. 

COLORIFIC WASHABLE MARKER

This came in a marker set. Screened on label, minimal detailing. Wordmark is made up of a multicolored letters, none of which really look good when placed together. Color sequence goes magenta, magenta again, brown, brown again, yellow, lime, lime again, blue, blue again. Heavyweight plastic construction. Conical nib, similar to Crayola brand. Ink is a light tone, closer to a dark grey. Makes nice smooth marks. No odor. 

DRY ERASE MARKER

Pretty no frills marker right here. Plastic construction, white body, black caps. Just says “DRY ERASE MARKER” screened in a slanted non-serif font, twice on the body. Bullet tip. Really faint ink color. Closer to a medium grey tone. Makes smooth lines. Slight alcohol odor. 

HENG BAO WHITE BOARD MARKER

This is a pretty common silhouette for dollar store markers. Plastic body, sticker wrap around label, ribbed black top cap and rounded black end cap. Bullet tip. Nice medium weight black ink, makes smooth lines. Medium alcohol odor. Pretty basic all around marker.

XINYIDA WHITEBOARD MARKER

Have a couple other of these whiteboard markers that have built in felt erasers in the caps. This one has a bonus magnetic strip on the cap so it sticks to a whiteboard, I guess. Solid plastic construction, white/silver/greem colorway. Minimal label details. Bullet tip This thing came DOA, dried out, even though it was in a plastic package.

STAPRO WHITEBOARD 

Stubby whiteboard marker with a felt eraser built in the cap. Bullet tip, makes smooth lines. Really dark ink, which is surprising for a dry erase marker. Minimal label details, black screened on text, white plastic body. Heavy alcohol smell. This thing is pretty under the radar, but is a better than average dollar store marker. Shoulda picked up a couple more of these ones.

Cleared out the stockpile of “to be documented” markers from the holding tin, loaded up on some DVDs, and sat down to draw for an evening. Up to date on all the illustration documentation of the marker collection and did a current count.

622.

Second round of marker pickups from Lakeshore Road drive. 

SUPERSTAR YH-200

This has the familiar quality of Made in China cheap dollar store marker. Ribbed black plastic cap and endcap, inferior quality soft plastic construction, printed silverish plastic wrap label featuring slight Chinglish. Bullet tip. This thing arrived DOA, in true dollar store fashion, so no ink quality property review. I do like how someone at the marker design department cut and pasted the SUPERSTAR wordmark from a Super Sharpie bootleg onto this label though.

XINGYU LIME PEN

A no frills Made in China Crayola bootleg. Good quality plastic construction with screened on black label and design. Rounded squiggles and lines make up the exterior design. Really nice angled chisel tip on this one, quite surprising. Thought it would be a conical nib like a Crayola. Makes nice precise marks, heavy black ink, no bleed, with a slight “sparkle” quality to the ink. This is actually a really nice marker, contrary to its appearance. 

XIN LU WHITEBOARD

I’m not sure if I have this one already. I remember drawing a similar “W” from the label, but the Chinglish label seems new to me when I read it. This is a nice dollar store marker that features wrap around label on sturdy plastic white barrel base and black cap and end-cap. Bullet tip marker, high alcohol smell, makes medium grey marks, no bleed. Whiteboard markers always seem to have lighter ink quality and this is no different. Pretty average marker.

INC DRY ERASE 

I have a marker similar to this, exact same construction, specs, colorway, but made by a company called MAINSTAYS. This marker has bilingual french-english label details. Chisel tip, no bleed but applies a bit jagged. Nib quality is a bit frayed. Makes darkish grey lines. A below average marker. INC makes markers with not very good INK.

XINGYU FACILERUB DRY ERASE

A nice dollar store Made in China special. Screened sparse black label on sturdy white plastic barrel. XINGYU wordmark appears in Cooper font. Bullet tip. Medium to dark grey ink quality, applies smooth with no bleed. Medium alcohol odor. An average dry erase marker. 

Took the long way back home for Christmas along Lakeshore Road. Hit up a bunch of dollar stores along the way to look for new markers. The cluster of discount shops and convenience stores around Long Branch turned up the most finds. One spot used to be a Biway. Biway and Bargain Harolds were dope back in the day.

GOODWILL SUPER SUPERSTAR

Another example of a Super Sharpie bootleg. I have so many of these things, and just when I think i’ve seen every play on words, another one turns up.  Goodwill double superlative Super Superstar Marcador…Listening to Ghostface Nutmeg while I write this description…This marker was made for the spanish dollar store market. Features spanish label descriptions and a bootleg wordmark SUPER SUPERSTAR. Hard nib, ink bleeds like crazy, surprisingly faint odor.  Good dark markings. A great bootleg to add to the roster.

PERMANENT MARKER 

I picked up this little no-frills number at this convenience store in a strip mall at the corner of Dundas and Winston Churchill. This is the same strip mall where I tried Kentucky Fried Chicken for the first time back in the 80’s, when their fries tasted like cardboard, had plastic Colonel Sanders coin banks for sale, and their original recipe was actually still banging ! The convenience store had the OG Street Fighter which I used to play with greasy fingers. I think this marker is a hold-over from those days. Sun faded exterior, still in cellophane wrapping. Bilingual label. Not gonna pop it open to test it out. Nice marker.

HAIJIAV TOKENS PEN

Another pseudo-Super Sharpie bootleg. I have another one like this, but the label says HAIJIAN. Plastic labelling, Made in China, from a company that may or may not be called Fluency. Bullet tip nib, minimal bleed upon application, nice medium tone of black ink. Medium alcohol odor. A better than average performance dollar store marker.

INC 2 IN 1 DRY ERASE MARKER

This is a new school marker from INC, flashy twin tip with BLACK marker on one end and RED on the other. Shiny metallic labelling with a BLACK into RED halftone pattern . Solid plastic construction. Conical tip, similar to Crayola. Faint greyish ink quality. Medium alcohol smell. Made in China. Style over substance on this marker. Not the best product.

MARVY UCHIDA DECOFABRIC 

This is an older model Deco marker from Marvy Uchida, who put out the Decocolor metal jacket series. Still in cellophane packaging. Paint marker to apply on fabrics. Fine 3mm tip. Not gonna bust the nib on this by testing it out. Prolly should have grabbed a backup so I could test one and archive the other. 

Hooked up with Bay Area based Atlas to produce custom artwork and designs for this pair of decks as part of their ongoing artist series.

Available now, exclusively through Atlas Skateboarding.

With a solid citywide support system and a talented roster of riders including Patrick Beaudouin, Levi Brown, Julian Klein, Marco Lerma, Tony Manfre, Brandon Nguyen and Mark Suciu, Atlas continues to be a hub of activity with forward momentum.

Finding new markers around the city for the collection is a bit of a challenge these days, so I started looking online. It’s not as fun as physically hunting things down, but it does bump up the number count efficiently and effectively. Here’s a little selection I received this week.

8MM MARKER

Oh this thing I picked up at the dollar store. Came nicely packaged in clamshell plastic on cardboard backing. Has the same markings and text as another marker in my collection, but all the labelling and details are screened directly on the black plastic, as opposed to being printed on a wrap-around labelling.

The best pull quote from the label reads “ It is more developed and smells soft “. Flimsy-ish plastic construction, barrel bends in a bit when squeezed. Good heavy ink flow, applies smooth without bleed. A better than average marker for an economical cost.

JIFFY ARTLINE 400 PAINT

Jiffy is the first marker company that I wrote to asking for samples, who promptly replied and fulfilled my request, so I guess I have a slight bias towards their products. That being said Artline makes excellent product, offering a variety of product that performs consistently with high production value and good design. This is a classic silhouette from Artline / Sichihata. Slim metal construction, white barrel base with attractive markings and black plastic cap. Bullet tip. Xylene free. Good quality nib and ink properties. Applies smooth. A nice Jiffy/Artline co-brand product.

STABILO PLAN BOARD MARKER

Stabilo products always have better than average performance qualities, but I never really like their design. This marker is no exception. White plastic barrel, with printed-on-plastic label. Cap doesn’t really stay on the back when plugged in. Pretty sloppy design detail. 4mm chisel tip. The ink property, is excellent though. Most dry erase markers have a brown-tinged ink. This ink is a true medium-to-dark black that applies smooth with no bleed or stagger. Great potential for a marker brand if design matches product quality.

INTEGRA DRY ERASE MARKER

The ergonomic trend in dollar store markers continues. It’s really cool to see some companies try to offer interesting design product at low price. This marker flares out wide at the end, matte heavyweight plastic construction throughout. Rubberized grip towards the nib with “finger-holds” up the barrel. I guess “marker-slippage” is an on the job danger that they really want to prevent. Faint alcohol smell. Good clean ink properties apply medium/dark black. A bit of stagger on application, but that was on paper, not on whiteboard for which it was designed for. Overall a great economical marker.

ARTLINE ECO-GREEN CHISEL TIP

ARTLINE ECO-GREEN BULLET TIP

Same overall design and ink properties, just different shaped nibs. Dry safe ink properties made from 74% recycled materials. Claims that the cap can be left off for 2 weeks without drying out. Let me test that out. I’ll get back to you on that one…Refillable, nibs are replaceable, xylene free. Great ink quality. Applies smooth. Nice dark tint. Couple of subtle design features to this marker that impress me -

The interior cap has an extra plastic bit built in to sheath the tip. Most caps leave that space empty. The rounded exterior cap has a notch, and a flat base on one side. Another notch is built just below the marker nib. The notches click together, allowing you to hold the cap and marker in place, resting securely so it doesn’t roll off the surface. Wow. I guess my only re-occurring inssue with any “ECO” marker product is, why the entire product line can’t be created eco-friendly, only one product out of their range. Can the printed inks be “environmentall friendly” as well ? Not that i’m a huge environmental crusader, but if you are going to take one step towards that direction, you might as well see how you can go all the way. But yeah, that notch system. WOW.

PICK ’ N ’ FIX MARKER

Here’s a little vintage gem I picked up off of ebay. Made in Japan, 60’s or 70’s. I’d like to think its bakelite. Nice silhouette with subtle accent lines towards nib and on cap. Simple wrap around plastic label. Nice red and yellow color combo, attractive font and design. This thing was DOA so no report on marker ink qualities. Nice soft chisel nib. Great little marker.

Some random marker pick-ups from here and there. Maybe some repeat entries.

DISNEY PRINCESS ARIEL / DISNEY CARS

Went into Honest Ed’s while waiting to meet a friend in the area. Picked up a couple of licensed marker sets, Disney Princess series and a Cars series. I got the Spiderman series a while ago. Small bullet tip marker, plastic wrap labeling. Ink is medium gray. Pretty good markers for a cheap price. 

TATTOO MARKER

This one is a bit larger than the Disney ones above, but same silhouette and cap details. This was also found in a set of assorted markers. Got this in a Dollar Store on St.Clair. On the label there is a picture of three hands with some marker drawn tattoos of a tribal scribble, hearts,and a peace sign. It’s already dried out. I think it was DOA.

DISNEY CARS STAMPER MARKER

Got this one from Honest Ed’s as well. Pack of 3 stamper markers for $1.50. Plastic wrap label features some characters from Cars movie that I don’t know. The stamp makes a “crown insignia” shape. And thats about it. It’s a pretty large size marker just to be making crown shapes. I have a couple of these stamper markers. These are a really stupid idea.

PROJECT POPPERZ

I went to a Zellers for some reason, and picked up a marker set. These are made by Elmer’s, a name I trust because of their white glue making. The silhouette is pretty much a Zebra McKee Twintip, chisel on one side, bullet on the other. Good consistent dark ink quality. Makes even conistent lines. A good to great standard marker.

DESK TECH JUMBO CHISEL

Got this at the Dollar Store around the corner. A rather cheap quality dollar store marker. Plastic label wrap features bilingual french-english translations. Flimsy plastic construction on cap, but surprisingly strong plastic barrel core. Really thick black ink quality. Bit of bleed and stagger when making lines. This marker is rough around the edges, but performs rather nicely under the right conditions. 

CHARTPAK BLACK P98

Not sure if I have this already. The general look of these graphic design markers always looks the same, but sometimes the side label details change throughout the years. This is a really great marker once it gets worked in and starts fading right. This marker is operating in its prime.  Makes butter smooth lines, shows a real nice range of color from dark black to medium grey speckling, as pressure is applied differently. Really nice wide chisel tip. These markers have excellent quality nibs. Consistently excellent product from Chartpak.

Around-the-corner-dollar-store pickups.

DESK TECH JUMBO

Plastic construction, shrink wrap label. Sparse detail and design. Don’t know why, but a lot of these dollar store markers use this silvery plastic base finish. Made in China for Canadian market. Chisel tip. Makes nice and thick dark black lines. A bit prone to bleeding on normal paper stock. A pretty good marker to use for large fills, for a cheap price.

SPIDER SENSE SPIDER MAN MINI 

Seen a couple of these assorted marker sets in Dollar Stores before and wondered whether the black marker fit the criteria for my marker collection. Size-wise, a few other markers in my collection are slightly longer or slightly shorter, but of similar width…

…so I guess this scale marker can be included in the collection.

These markers are sold in a set of 10 assorted colors for a buck fifty. 

Took the black one for the collection, the rest are going to my niece.

Licensed by Marvel, the labels feature a new-school looking Spiderman in various poses, busting out of a windowpane-crack shape.  New school licensed Spiderman looks “funny” to me. Another jagged text box of various onomatopoeia appears above. The one on the black marker is THWIP! but others include WOOSH! and GOTCHA! 

Black plastic base, with green background label color, and Spiderman image over top. 

Black costume Spiderman should have made an appearance on this marker.

Bullet tip. Ink is a nice shade of black, if a bit on the lighter side. Makes nice smooth lines. Surprisingly good ink quality and performance for a cheaper marker set made for children. 

I’ll have to return to the dollar store to pick up the other licensed versions. I think there was a Cars set, and some Disney Princess set.

TEAMSTAR JUMBO CHISEL

Picked this up at the corner store. Appealing WHITE/ORANGE sticker label features minimal text. Cheaper plastic construction, the barrel bends in when pressing it. Thought this was gonna be a large chisel tip, but its only a 5mm. Looks unproportionate to the overall size. Makes thick ink marks, with minimal bleeding on porous paper. Runs smooth with no bleed on coated surfaces. Quick drying, non toxic. Made in China. For all this marker’s low-quality quirks, overall it’s a good marker.

I while back I met Kirk, who introduced me to Amber’s work. 

Really talented and creative lady who makes and does a myriad of things.

Artist.

Element Eden Advocate.

Curator.

Photographer.

Etcetera.

I really liked the stuff she had on the CREATURES section and asked her to make me a custom soft sculpt logo.

It came in the post the other day. Unwrapped it and love it ! Nice thing to have kicking around studio. So far it’s been used as a laptop stand and I leaned on it once on the floor while reading a comic book.

Went to St.Lawrence Market last Sunday and bought a few bits and pieces from the Gadabout table. They had some nice things and told me to check out their shop down the road.

Gadabout is an amazing spot to spend some hours. Lot of nooks and crannies and drawers and cubbies and shelves and racks to look in.

Well organized, relative to the amount and array of everything thats on the floor. 

They had a couple drawers and nooks labelled OFFICE SUPPLIES, and I found this gem in a canvas pencilcase.

VENUS SANFORD’S MARKER - COMPACT

A really nice vintage marker from the Sanford company. I think I have the larger version from the same era. Really fond of this design. Quality metal construction with screened on label. Light brown and white stripes run up the barrel which backdrop the simple black body text nicely. Signature shaped black plastic cap. Nice surprise to see this wasn’t dried out. Makes clean, consistent, heavy ink marks with no bleed. 

SENIOR N50 - ARTLINE BOOTLEG

Popped into this spot in Chinatown on the way out of dim sum. They sell all sorts of knockoff Made In China goods. I spotted this marker amongst a bunch of shoes in a tin can of writing/labeling instruments.

This wasn’t “store stock” and I would need to do some persuading to acquire it.

Offered $2 to this one lady and she flat “noooooo”-ed me. She said it wasn’t for sale-they use it to label things.

I said i’d go buy them a new marker to replace it. Got ”noooooo”-ed again.

Got her to ask the lady in charge, and eventually got the yes.

The bootleg sub-section of my marker collection is a favorite, happy to add another to the mix.

This is a bootleg Artline that borrows the silhouette, color blocking and tri-colored wavy line details of the original.  The wordmark font is slightly chunkier with awkward serifs. Wrap-around plastic label on metal base construction. Really soft bullet tip nib, which makes line thickness fluctuate. Super heavy marker odor from this one. Nice dark ink, makes nice flare effects. Minimal bleed. 

All the above mish-mash qualities make this marker a winner.

Friend rounded these up from Chinatown Buenos Aires for me. 

EDDING 100

Sleek little number, all black with white accents, bilingual Spanish-English text. Edding makes great quality markers. This is a 3mm bullet tip that makes nice consistent dark lines with no bleed. I’d have a box of these lying around for general studio use.

KEYI KY-200

Dollar store Chinatown marker. Similar silhouette as a whole slew of generic dollar store markers originating from China. Flimsy plastic construction, grey wrap around labeling. This is a chisel tip, which is something you don’t see too often in Chinatown Dollar store. Most markers like this are a bullet tip. Better than average performance. Usually dollar store markers have thinner ink and bleed heavily. This has a nice dark ink and minimal bleed. I tend to buy markers like this in bulk, pop the end caps off, cut the inner felt open, and use it to create light ink cloud effects, similar to smudging.

HUAYING 

Dollar store Chinatown marker. Similar silhouette as above, with different end cap. Sturdier plastic construction with wrap around labeling. Nice logo of a hawk on a backdrop of a globe. Chisel tip. Nice dark ink quality, no bleed. Really good quality marker for a Dollar store find.

TRATTO CHISEL TIP

Quite happy to have this in the collection. Rounded-square shape, similar to Copics, but in a scale and size that is unique in the marketplace. Sleek black finish with sticker label. Would have been nice to see the label details screened on. Top cap has edging that makes the lid come off easier. Makes super smooth lines with no bleed and really nice dark ink characteristics. Italian or Spanish company. Marcatore/Marker label translation. Color code is Nero Black.  Always good to have international markers to add to the archives.

TRATTO GROSSO

This is a jumbo 12mm angled chisel tip. Sturdy plastic construction. I’ve seen this silhouette before in another marker brand. Made in Korea. Firm felt nib, heavy ink quality, applies smooth with no bleed. A great quality marker. 

A bunch of marker pick-ups from Dick Blick on Bond Street. 

CHARTPAK FINE TIP SUPER BLACK

I don’t really give graphic design markers much props or elevated status in my marker collection. For something that is used by, and made for illustrators/graphic design people,  I think these types of markers always look plain and void of design appeal. I guess this is kind of a nice change of pace. Chainlink/Diamond pattern motif on the label, nice banded blocking and interspersing of wordmark and information. Nice crosshair sticker applied to the top cap. Interesting translations up the side. Sturdy conical nib. Makes fine or wide lines depending on how you angle the marker. The ink bleeds too much for my liking. They haven’t really improved on that aspect since I used to use these a lot 10+ years ago. Nice in looks, poor in function. This doesn’t deserve the moniker Super Black.

PENTEL WET ERASE

This is a rather strange marker to see on North American art store shelves. Sharpie seemed to push all other chalk markers like Zig/Posca out of the market many years ago. This is a nice Jumbo chisel point. The Dark Green plastic barrel color is a strange choice. The bottom and tip closely resemble a Zig Posterman, but the cap is more like a Pilot Jumbo. It’s interesting how all the translated copy is written in different fonts for each language on the side. Takes a while for the ink to saturate the nib, but once it gets going, it applies a nice coat of thick black ink with good sheen and consistency, with little bubbling. We’ll see how it handles in the long run. Made In Japan. 

BLICK STUDIO TWIN TIP

Typical Fine Tip / Broad Tip configuration common to this genre of graphic design markers. Nice sturdy plastic construction with sticker wrap label that simply features the Dick Blick palette logo, website details, and UPC code. Pretty good ink characteristics on this marker. Doesn’t bleed out as much as it should with tip left on the paper. Makes nice clean lines. Not the strongest shade of black. A nice cost effective store brand graphic marker.

FABER CASTELL PITT ARTIST BIG BRUSH

I usually don’t like the product design of Faber-Castell marker products. Always on the side of safe, no personality. This marker may change my mind. The base details are really nice. Inset B on the top cap, painted white. Nice ridged endcap with engraved marking that reads PRODUCTO PERUANO. Sturdy black plastic construction that segues from gloss to matte bands on the cap, before ending in gloss again. The layout of two horse mounted knights as a logo beside their wordmark could have been handled better.

This is supposed to be a “big brush” marker, but it doesn’t perform as advertised.The nib doesn’t have that supple quality to flair out letters and lines from thin-to-thick like a good brush marker should. The shape is a brush nib, but the fiber is too stiff, resulting in bullet tip consistency in thickness for all lines. That aside, the ink is a really nice heavy black and runs smooth with nice coverage. Despite the off comments, I really like this as a black marker.

Poster / Tee / Graphic Collateral for Adidas Fixed Gear Revolution 3.

Spread out over a 3 Day program in late August, hundreds of riders and spectators gathered for this annual event that brings together members of the International, Chinese and Beijing fixed gear cycling community.

Looking forward to working with the team at Beijing Fixed  to create next years graphics. 

Event Information:

PROGRAM

Event photos:

DAY 1 / DAY 2 PART ONE / DAY 2 PART TW0 / DAY 3 

Event video:

FIXED GEAR REVOLUTION 3 - VIDEO

5 STAR GENERALS  Shabaam Sahdeeq featuring Eminem, Skam, A-L (All Lyrics) & Kwest. Produced by DJ Spinna 1998 Rawkus Records.

More markers from Broadway stretch of Dollar stores.

Background image is Animal Husbandry by artist Sue Williams.

FIVE STAR SUPPLIES 

No frills dollar store marker. Plastic construction, white barrel, minimal labeling. Medium weight ink, a bit on the dark grey side. Makes nice smooth lines with no bleed. A rather nice marker.

STA PRO WASHABLE MARKERS

This came in a box of assorted color markers. Pretty much a bootleg Crayola. Same barrel and cap shape, same conical tip. Whereas Crayola markers give off a nice indigo black ink, this one gives a dark greyish/black ink.  Makes smooth lines, no bleed. 

DYNAMIC STAMP MARK

This came in a box of assorted color markers, called stampers. Same silhouette as a Crayola, with a nice musical note motif running up the side. The tip of this marker features a musical note. You’re just supposed to stamp down the image, not draw or write. The musical note doesn’t even look good when stamped. Not really a practical marker. It does make lines and is capable of writing, but the results are really wonky and unpredictable. 

E-CLIPS BOARDMARKER

What an ugly marker. Thin sticker paper label on blank plastic marker. Design and layout is all over the place on this one. Appearance aside, the ink is nice and dark, and the bullet tip makes clean lines with no bleed. 

FACILERUB DRY ERASE MARKER

This is another cheap looking dollar store marker. The words on the labeling bleed into each other, a poor quality screen job. Somewhat thin plastic construction that bends in a bit when you press on the barrel. Smells something fierce. Light ink quality common amongst dry erase markers. Not a beauty, but it works.

BAZIC SCENTED MARKERS

This is a bootleg version of the Sanford Mr.Sketch line of scented markers. Same marker silhouette, but different labeling and marking. Semi-gloss silver gray barrel, with Crayola-like wavy lines near the tip and ends. For some strange reason they chose the color black to smell like…SWEETCORN ? It does smell pretty good though. Somewhat weirdly appealing, like Jelly Belly popcorn flavor. Makes smooth black lines of average consistency and quality. 

Walking the Broadway stretch continuing south east from Marcy station is always good marker hunting territory. Lot of Dollar shops / Discount Stores the whole route, with cheap food and drink spots along the way. I walked the stretch the Friday before “Hurricane” Irene, and it was a hectic time with a strange mood about the way. Every dollar shop was kinda busy with peeps buying water and batteries and flashlights and candles. I kept thinking - ” Should I be buying something other than black markers right now ? “…

iTHINK PERMANENT

Has the same silhouette as a StaRed/Mon Ami. Shape flares out from the tip, distinguishable shaped cap.  No frills marker. All black plastic with screened-on minimal white labelling. Bullet tip. Smells pretty strong. Good coverage, no bleed, applies smooth.