EL MARKO RIDES AGAIN !

Another mixed bag of markers, most of which came from an ebay lot I popped on last month. Lot of nice classics in the mix.

EL MARKO WATERCOLOR

Wow. The El Marko was my Holy Grail for the longest time until I got one from the homey DIET HTK earlier in the year. This is the watercolor version - same silhouette as the other el Marko, but a white body. Nice multi-faceted chiseltip. Really nice indigo hued ink, similar to Crayola - makes crisp, sharp lines. Just as excited to have this one in the collection. El Marko rides again !

CARTERS MARKS-A-LOT

This is a classic. Tri-color foil sticker label on black plastic body. Has the old skool CARTERS logo/wordmark on it, before MARKS-A-LOT became the property of AVERY. Chisel tip. Smells like italian salad dressing. Gem.

FABER CASTELL 3000

This is a low-key, no frills marker. All black plastic construction with simple 2-line metallic gold imprinted logo and labeling. Lightweight. Chisel-tip is all mashed in and soft so give off tar-scratch lines. Mellow odor. 

AEROMARKER 900 

A simple, long black sleek marker with stylish gold metallic wordmark and minimal labeling on side. Chisel tip. Makes good clean marks with no bleed. A fancy marker to be used while wearing white gloves and a monacle. Fancy. Nice acidic bite in the odor. 

EDDING No.2

This is a unique tapered silhouette from edding. Plastic construction, Grey body, bold blue wordmark. The “e” is scratched off. Huge deviation from all the previous edding designs. Gone is the familiar red/blue/white colorway, logo and wordmarks. Bullet tip. Makes super precise lines that cut and curve without bleed or loss of control. An understated, utilitarian marker that performs extremely well.

ARTLINE POSTER MARKER

Surprised that I didn’t have this one yet. Water-based tempera marker. Circle tip. Juiced up right now, works like gangbusters. 6mm tip. Pretty solid construction for a plastic body. Eccentric White/Red/Yellow/Blue color scheme on black base. Artline always makes dope products, this beauty included.

MERANGUE PERMANENT

Here’s some random marker from the dollar store. Has the weird metallic grey plastic body color prevalent in dollar store markers. Chisel tip. Makes nice clean deep black lines. Good quality marker. Better than average for a dollar store find, on par quality with some name brand markers.

A LOT OF MARKS-A-LOT

The bounty of marker pick-ups courtesy of DIET - HTK continues…

AVERY LOGO 

The Avery logo was designed by Saul Bass in 1975. 

This guy was an amazing designer. I think it’s really cool how aspects of design/graphic design are found within the different specimens of my marker collection. Understated details and factoids and interesting histories contained in each and every specimen, some more than others.

Read up on Avery company history here and peep their website over here.

AVERY MARKS A LOT - LONG

This is a newer version of the Marks-A-Lot marker, in a long version. Sleek black barrel,  great die cut sticker label. The newer versions have an updated font and wordmark that is slanted, with red “marker lines” backdrop behind the “A” in MARKS-A-LOT. Made in Mexico. One of the overlooked characteristics of the Marks-A-Lot series is their signature marker caps. 15 triangles join a top octagon shape to a smaller bottom octagon opening to form something “jewel” like. I totally described that awkward. But that is kind of how I see it. It’s just a really cool marker lid, mini-feat of design excellence. Anyways, chisel tip nib. Mashed in a bit from use. Makes smooth black ink lines. Smells a bit like croutons and italian salad dressing. Made in Mexico.

DENNISON MARKS-A-LOT - LONG

Avery and Dennison merged in 1990 to create the current version of AVERY MARKS-A-LOT. So this marker was produced before 1990 by Dennison Stationery Products Co. Framingham, MA. Exact same specs as the long-version MARKS-A-LOT, just different label details. I really like how this die-cut label sticker has been kept as a design feature, just changed and adapted throughout the years. This label features a BLUE/SILVER/RED colorway, strong block font MARKS-A-LOT wordmark, and great copy. “MARKS MOST ANYTHING”. “CAUTION EYE IRRITANT”. I’m holding this thing by my open eye, and yeah, it’s kind of irritating. This marker also smells like croutons and italian salad dressing.

CARTERS MARKS-A-LOT - LONG

Dennison acquired Carters Ink Company in 1975.  Carters made a whole range of amazing, well designed, quality product throughout their existence, and I’d love to find more examples of their work for my collection. This marker has the CARTERS logo, but also contains copy referring to the DENNISON CARTERS DIVISION, so at this time, Dennison still hadn’t completely phased out CARTER from the marker appearance, perhaps to preserve the name brand association to the consumer. Seems to have the same sticker label shape, but affixed so the tip faces right, instead of left. Has the same wordmark as the DENNISONS version above. This thing came DOA. Dried out so I can’t tell anything about scent or ink quality.

CARTERS MARKS-A-LOT - SHORT

Great classic marker. This has the Carters logo and trademarks alone, so this marker specimen can be dated before 1975. Great metallic die cut labeling. Made in USA. Nib is a bit soft, but this thing still works great. Super smooth lines, dark ink coverage. Packs a whole lotta stank after all these years. This one is an understated gem.

AVERY MARKS-A-LOT WASHABLE - SHORT

So to return full circle, this is an Avery Marks-A-Lot. Same silhouette as the Carters. Same metallic die cut label. They upped the metallic look of the strong blue background, and changed the font and wordmark appearance. The black doesn’t pop off the background as well as the white. That’s an art direction mis-step. Sticker label is slightly peeling. Which is strange since that Carters one from pre-1975 is still affixed great. And then someone decided to put a white cap on this thing. I guess they wanted to differentiate this product from others in it’s line-up. They shoulda made the entire thing white. Dark indigo tint to the ink quality. Runs smooth on untreated paper, bubbles up a bit on slightly gloss stock. 

THREE THE HARD WAY

Another 3 markers from DIET HTK round-up. 

CRAYOLA TOTAL TOOLS JUMBO 

This thing is awkward. Total tools is right. The base cylinder has the same silvery plastic wrap label found in cheap bootleg markers. Not a fan of this rounded font Crayola wordmark. Huge awkward rubber grip bridges the barrel and tip. Makes nice dark, even lines on plain white paper, but trying to mark on different stock really affects the ink quality - the ink pools and bubbles. Crayola ink gives off a unique tint, and for that reason, I always keep a range of their product on hand for drawing work. Interesting nib shape on this thing. This is the second “new” crayola shape I have come across recently. They should’ve stuck to their classic design on this one; white barrel, black lid, just scaled JUMBO size, with a more subtle rubber grip. Overall, a fail of a marker from Crayola.

MARKS-A-LOT JUMBO

I have something similar in the collection. Exact same body shape and construction. This one differs, as the label is BLACK/WHITE, not BLACK/RED/BLUE. The plastic construction is rather flimsy on this one. Barrel bends in when pressed. Really simple labeling. Made in Mexico. Chisel tip nib, softens up a bit after repeated use. That’s not a great quality. Whoah. Inhaled a whiff of this thing and it’s a doozy ! Flawless broad line quality and dark ink output when new. When the tip is mush, this marker will give off some interesting effects. 

FENLOT 10 MM JUMBO MARKER

This is a great example of a better-than-average dollar store jumbo marker. Plastic construction, detailed cap shape - made to mimic a PILOT jumbo silhouette. Wrap-around silver hue plastic labeling. Some “funky” fonts all mashed together on the label, with some Chinglish for good measure. Solid chisel tip. Makes super smooth, dark, consistent ink lines. Cheap price, high performance = great marker !

BAZIC INSTINCT

A bunch more marker pickups from the weekend Chinatown stroll. 

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

This is a long marker, similar to the long version Marks-A-Lot. Bazic seems to be the brand found in most of the Chinatown Dollar stores I visited. Heavyweight black plastic construction, with screened on white label details. Bleed on the label screen creates some nice shadow effects. Chisel tip. Heavy black ink. Bazic may be prevalent in many dollar stores, but they do make good quality product at a budget price, and are quick to appropriate different marker silhouettes and styles based on other popular marker brands. 

B10 TEXTA

Got this from one large. messy, Chinatown dollar store. The place had all sorts of plastic pails collecting roof leak drips. Stock was overflowing everywhere. So I was a bit disappointed that I only got 2 markers from the place. Bullet point. Plastic wrap label. Not going to pop it open. Have a strong feeling that even though it is wrapped in plastic, and was sealed in a plastic clamshell with cardboard backing, that this thing will not have any ink in it. 

LEARNING DAYS

This is the other marker I got from the messy Chinatown dollar store. Came in a box set of assorted colors. The label has a smiling dancing cartoon marker on a green background with a bunch of stars on it. It makes good, thin, heavy black ink marks. Good times.

BAZIC PERMANENT MARKER

Could this be a bootleg of a Bazic dollar store marker ? Most Bazic markers I have in my collection are actually well constructed. This marker is made from a lighter plastic, that bends in a bit when I squeeze the barrel. The label is plastic wrap around, on that silver toned background, that I often see on cheap dollar store markers. Bullet point marker. Makes thin lines. Nice medium black ink quality. Bazic makes SO many different versions of marker, that maybe they bootlegged a bootleg marker, down to these cheap design details and construction.

OSB WHITEBOARD MARKER

A familiar dollar-store marker silhouette. Some nice design details on this. Features screened-on gloss plastic label, color blocking, and geometric pattern on the barrel. Chisel tip. REALLY faint ink quality to this marker. Appears light grey. Lines run smooth.  Whenever markers have different tints or shades of ink, I try to stock up on them to create good tone variance in my black marker illustration work. I will try to remember where I got this one from and pick up a bunch.

HA CLICK EM…

A mixed bunch of markers, i’ll try to remember where I got them as I do the write ups.

MARKS-A-LOT - I know I got this from someone’s place in Shanghai…I remember seeing it and was like, hmm, never seen that before ! It’s a jumbo version of an Avery Marks-A-Lot. Pretty much exact same design, markings and shape. Really solid plastic jacket construction with sticker label. I like the bevelled screw cap. This marker had a nice worked in nib when I got it. Produces thick lines, smells like heavy alcohol. Just what I needed to get me through these posts…

CORPORATE EXPRESS - I just got this one yesterday at Nadir’s shop, La Carrera. It just meets the criteria I have for size requirements to be in my collection. What kind of saves it is the nib size and the line thickness it produces. It’s a pretty simple private label marker. Plastic jacket, printed on label. Nothing special, does the trick.

ZM MARKER - Got this in Shanghai. Old Town. Another Zebra McKee knock-off. The ink is really thick and just pours out of this thing. Which is good if thats what you need the marker to do. I really should have made it a point to visit some black marker factories while I was in China and did some sort of special report. Next time…

ARTLINE CLIX CHISEL - Got this in some stationary shop in HK. It was right before lantern festival and there were all these really great lanterns hanging from the shop exterior. This CLIX format, I have seen before, and I kind of like it. Solid plastic construction, and the high quality ink one can expect from Artline products. My only gripe, is that I wish this was constructed from metal, like other Artline markers. That would make this a stand out winner.

ARTLINE CLIX BULLET - Same as above. This yellow hue that Artline uses in their body color scheme sometimes doesnt sit well with me. A grey or silver would make more sense. The going price on these things are 11 HKD.

RUNNING ERRANDS

Got all these while running a bunch of errands last week. Had to pick up some watercololor brushes and paint so popped into the art store and office supply store to see what kind of black markers they had in there. Was getting something printed out at Fine Art Print Studio and spotted some nice old ones in a cup, so I asked William for them and he said yes.

BUFFALO 88 - Nice metal jacket marker. Coincedentally, Buffalo Stance came out in 1988.

FABER CASTELL PITT 199 - A nice, elegant looking brush pen. Works quite well, as one would expect. Made in Peru, as one would not expect.

MR.SKETCH - I have two older versions of this black marker with different label design. I saw this version at the store and thought I should buy the set. The older set used to come cased in styrofoam. The new version is just a cardboard box. These markers are a true classic ! The odor is black licorice, but unexplainably, the label features a graphic of a scared looking slice of watermelon.

CRAYOLA TWISTABLES - Well you twist the base, and the marker nib comes out the top. So there’s no cap to lose. It has got a see through casing that houses a barbershop pole looking silver and black ink cylinder, so when you twist, it spirals. Has the same Crayola “black” ink, that is more of an indigo color. Nice marker.

CARTERS MARKS-A-LOT - I am so happy to have gotten this marker. I have another older model Marks-A-Lot, but this one seems to predate that one. I love the bevelled cap design with those elongated triangles. The body is a simple sleek black with a nice shiny metallic sticker label and proper looking metal clip. Made In Canada.

OFFICE CENTRE PERMANENT - A nice retro looking metal jacket marker fabricated for a store called Office Centre. Nice yellow jacket color, thick and smelly ink. I don’t remember Office Centre chain of stores at all when I was growing up, but I’m pretty sure it was a Canadian company because the label is bilingual.

LAURENTIAN DOUBLE ENDED - What a poorly designed marker. This one is really slender, which I find visually unappealing. And they named it “double ended”, instead of twin-tip. And BOTH marker nibs are exactly the same, instead of one side being a chisel tip, and the other a bullet tip. These markers should have been designed to look like a fatter version of their pencil crayons.