Orthos, Artus, the Beginnings of a Real Good Thing: 1930 through 1952.
In the mid to late 1920's, the United States-based Parker Pen Company was seriously looking into viable ways to expand it's production, distribution and sales numbers, especially in Europe. On a cold and blustery day in January of 1928, Kenneth Parker, B.M. Palmer and Parker Pen Company's local export and branch manager, Carl Josef Lamy travelled out to the Osmia Fountain Pen Company's factory in the small village of Dossenheim, just outside of Heidelberg, Germany where Parker's branch office was. The Parker Pen Company had become extremely interested in buying out Osmia, since Kenneth Parker had heard through a "paid" consultant that Osmia was really under-valued and also the number 2 fountain pen maker in all of Germany at that time. Osmia was also appealing because they often produced a Parker "look-a-like" fountain pen that directly competed against Parker's own Duofold.
All three men laughed and made jokes once they arrived at Osmia's factory and discovered that it consisted of pitiful, run-down sheds and a barn, with rough looking farmers/workers creating writing instruments with near stone-age, dilapidated, and antiquated machinery. Despite their humorous discovery, Parker went through with the purchase and was soon injecting huge sums of capital and modern equipment into the fledgling company in order to swiftly bring their new acquisition up-to-date and producing Parker-Osmia products. More than one-half million 1928 dollars was spent on advertising and promotional stuff alone, attempting to improve Osmia's overall condition.
Even with the huge influx of cash and modern technologies, Parker still struggled unsuccessfully for two years to make their arrangement with Osmia work out before finally calling it quits in 1930. To avoid further losses, Parker disolved all agreements, and sold-off all of its interests in Osmia due to unfullfilled expectations, poor sales figures, increasing costs, and possibly even their customers, less-than-satisfactory response to a newly redesigned, rigid nib they including in some of the European-made products.
There were a lot of really high-hopes riding on the success of this partnership. For Parker, it meant higher sales numbers and lower production costs along with a real piece of the German and even European markets. For Osmia, it was the continued financial support and of course, wider distribution of their product. Unfortunately, nearly all of those involved in this endeavor, including a lot of customers, were terribly disappointed that it didn't work out. A huge investment in time, resources, and especially money were irreparably lost. A discouraged and disheartened Parker, in order to stop throwing good money after bad, chose to remove itself completely from nearly all agreements and the partnership completely by just pulling-out and selling-off it's interests at one of the first opportunities that came along.
In all the shuffle caused by the so-called “pull-out,” Parker's local export and branch manager in Heidelberg, Germany, C. Josef Lamy, quickly found himself no longer needed and promptly released to pursue other gainful endeavors elsewhere. C. Josef was not forced into leaving Parker but the selling of Parker's interest in Osmia meant that he would have to relocate elsewhere in order to remain a Parker employee, a company that Mr. Lamy had grown quite fond of and loyal to... Another issue at the time that made this decision more difficult was the extremely slow economy and the fact that there were practically zero opportunities for a 31 year old middle manager with writing instrument experience. Most of the pen manufacturers in and around the Heidelberg area were all feeling the pinch of the badly performing economy and were looking at letting people go, not hiring more.
After weighing his options and the pro & cons of relocating his family, Mr. Lamy decided that he would have to create his own opportunities for himself. Using his knowledge of fine writing instruments, he figured was his best chance for supporting his family and truly making a name for himself. No longer would someone else be responsible for his destiny, he would make it himself, by creating and running his own writing instrument firm. He would work hard to build good, solid, dependable writing instruments for middle-aged men out there that were successful, image conscious but leaned towards understatement... somewhat like himself. It would turn out to be a real target audience, if there ever was one.
Even though some close to him disagreed with his decision, despite the then poorly performing economy, regardless that few were buying higher-end pens... C. Josef Lamy immediately set about creating his own line of durable, high-quality, reasonably-priced writing instruments and the Orthos Fullhalter-Fabrik Company was born. Just a few months later, C. Josef presented his first patent, a pen and pencil combination.
Beginning with a flat-top Parker Duofold look-alike, button-filing fountain pen, Orthos began right away making exceptional writing instruments. One of their immediate constraints was that they generally could only distribute them in and around Heidelberg and surrounding communities. These were superb writers, that practically sold themselves at times once potential customers either were able to try one out or heard about the extraordinary pen being made locally, from someone that already had one.
One of the issues that plagued Orthos during those early years was one of just getting the word out about the new company and it's exceptional products and really convincing distributors, vendors, and retailers outside of the Heidelberg area to purchase and really peddle the Orthos products to their customers. It was in that light that Josef worked hard to re-establish old ties, distribution lines and working relationships (from his time at Parker) but this time for his own fledgling writing instrument company. Many distributors and retailers were more than a little nervous about once again doing business with Mr. Lamy due to their continuing relationships with the ever popular and much bigger Parker Pen Company. The last thing they wanted to do was to have Parker be upset with them.
Orthos sales gradually grew as did Orthos, the company, all the while establishing its own sale and distribution channels, agreements and business arrangements. Josef continually worked hard building up the business, though he was still limited to local areas around Germany and other European countries nearby, where the products could be literally be distributed and even delivered by Orthos itself.
Leading up to the start of World War II, the still young, Heidelberg-based writing instrument maker began doing armaments work when their country called them to, and they continued in that role through-out the war years. Not long after the war ended in Europe, with the fall of Berlin, C. Josef Lamy and Orthos acquired the already established pen maker Artus-Fullhaltergesellschaft Kaufmann and Company, also located in Heidelberg, Germany.
C. Josef efforts quickly turned towards integrating the two companies by cutting back on redundancies, consolidating and expanding overall distribution of Company products, etc. With the inclusion of the Artus product lines, Orthos continued for a while to produce both companies products, adopting a numerical system to name and keep track of their many models and different product lines. It wasn't long before sales increased to the point that Orthos was producing in excess of 200,000 fountain pens per year and finally dropped making writing instruments under the Orthos brand and adding more newly engineered models to the Artus one.
In those years immediately following the World War, Mr. Lamy's company produced some of the very first molded synthetic plastic resin based pens under the Artus brand. C. Josef Lamy is still considered today, as a true pioneer in the use of molded synthetic (resins) materials in manufacturing processes.
A couple of years later, in 1948, Mr. Lamy switched his company's name from the Orthos version of nearly 20 years, to the C. Josef Lamy GmbH, the company's name that we know and love today. He did so in order to mark the start of a new era for the company and for a World that was still reeling and recovering from a devastating and catastrophic war. It was around this same time that various simplistic forms of advertising began in publications like newspapers and the like. This advertising was initially started as a means of promoting the company image and getting the word out about the Company's new products. Advertising usually consisted of commercial newspaper print... a style that did not change for many, many years and usually included written articles in their original size and almost always included a handwritten sentence of sorts.
Later, in 1952, just four years after the announcement of a new era in writing instruments, Lamy releases an innovative, streamlined, Osmium-tipped, high-grade, and absolutely incredible fountain pen, called the Lamy 27. The 27 was Lamy's first product to be released under the newly established Lamy brand. This model had a new revolutionary and patented system of inlaid micro-segments around the feed of the pen. This virtually made the ink flow insensitive to both air pressure and/or temperature changes. The “Tintomatik” system, the design of which is still being used today, more than 57 odd years later, was a monumental success since this allowed people to travel with their pens with little worry about them leaking ink all over.
The Lamy Model 27, with it's new, remarkable feed system, quickly became an extraordinary best-seller. It eventually would be produced in twelve different varieties from a fully plastic model (27e) to luxury versions (27n) adorned with gold-plated metal caps, etc... There were intermediate varieties, between the two mentioned above also. At the time of the Model 27's release, C. Josef Lamy was not well known around the world like Montblanc or Pelikan was, though the pricing was similar to Montblanc's and Pelikan's own models, not a cheap pen, especially for anunknown company at the time. (那时候,Lamy的产品价格和龙也是不相上下的哦。 ) This all swiftly started to change and the 27 was the vehicle of that change. They were greatly in demand until the 1966 (more on that a little later).
Defining Lamy, the Early Years: 1952 through 1966.
As we've learned from previous page(s), in 1952 the Lamy Model 27, with it's new, remarkable feed system, quickly became an extraordinary best-seller. A few years later, something else occured that would eventually change the direction of the firm for good... C. Josef Lamy's son, Manfred first appears around the halls of C. Josef Lamy GmbH... while finishing his doctorate in Economics at college. Later in 1962, Dr. Manfred Lamy began as the Company's Advertising/Marketing Manager. He was responsible for bringing a whole new set of ideas, skill sets, designs and ways of doing business to Lamy. It wasn't long before the younger Lamy was influencing practically every aspect of his father's business, and doing quite well at it.
In 1964, C. Josef Lamy GmbH begins production and releases another risky but incredible product... the Lamy Exact, Germany's very first ball-point pen, made by Germans. (德国的第一支原子笔是由Lamy公司于1964年制作的,叫做Lamy exact!)
With it's large ink capacity and a tip made of high-grade stainless steel, the Lamy Exact was an immediate hit - sales and production numbers quickly proved it. By this time, the Lamy 27 had been around for more than 12 years and still very successful. It was also around that same time when people began to look at Lamy as one of the best German, or possibly one of Europe's “elite” or “premier” writing instrument makers around.
There is just so much that can be said about the next period in Lamy history, the mid-1960's era. The winds-of-change were blowing through-out the family-owned and operated enterprise in Heidelberg and affected the implementation of virtually every new product from then on into the future. These changes were born from a successful collaboration (partnership) between Dr. Manfred Lamy and bauhaus style-focused designer, Gerd A. Müller (known for his moderistic designs of Braun electric shavers). Together, they fundamentally changed the whole process of establishing and designing new products utilizing bauhaus principles developed prior to World War II at the Bauhaus School (1919-1933) at a few different locations in Germany.
Bauhaus, is the modernistic design method that includes the tenets: &ldquot;form follows function&rdquot; and &ldquot;ornamentation is a crime.&rdquot; Generally speaking, if an object has to perform a certain function, it's design must wholly support that function to the fullest extent possible. The Bauhaus or International Style of Design is marked by the absence of ornamentation and by the harmony between the function of an object and it's design. Lamy's designs quickly became modern, functional, honest and distinctive. This new direction was tested and determined while developing Lamy's newest product, to ensure it's effectiveness. It was the beginning of a new era for C. Josef Lamy GmbH.
Gerd A. Müller also helped develop and streamline many of the processes and procedures including a focus on high-design around the company in the following years with Dr. Lamy's approval, sponsorship and participation (partnership). Their marks on the company will still be seen and felt until the company and its products no longer exist. If is thanks to their focus and passion for high-quality, technology and style, Lamy writing instruments became highly desireable design objects. Lamy design has become an integral part of the Company's philosophy which comes to life in every design,product, document, brochure and packaging that leaves their building each and everyday.
The basic values for Lamy Design were determined with/through the creation of a new, distinctive, modern-looking product (briefly mentioned earlier), the Model 2000 or Lamy 2000, which was released in 1966. The award-winning 2000 was an absolutely ground-breaking design innovation - the combination of matte-cut stainless steel and a fiberglass reinforced makrolon (a special plastic) didn't exist until then. The 2000 was technically speaking, unknown territory. Never before had a clip been made from a billet of solid stainless steel. There just wasn't a precedent for this procedure, which created an even surface of both materials. In this way, Lamy created the 2000, whose almost unique character was due to the very high degree of manual craftsmanship that was needed to build each and every one of them.
As stated in the Company's literature, most modern works of art are swimming around in museums. This one still works for a living. Not only was the new shape of the 2000 beautiful, and its distinctive surface feel convincing, each and every detail provides it's user an innovative and fully-functional benefit. With the 2000, Lamy provided the first truly modern designed writing instrument, which continues to advance itself as a real classic design, even today. As for demographics, Lamy aimed their 2000 at successful, middle-aged men, who were image conscious, but tended towards understatement... a formula that served them so incredibly well for decades.
In spite of intensive preparations by Lamy sales personnel, representatives and other employees, despite positive survey results, no one really expected that the Lamy 2000 would quickly make such a huge impression on/in the market when it was first released. Its permanent market penetration improved further still, due to the example, excitement and word-of-mouth advertising of the initial users. The Lamy 2000 fountain pen, was soon followed by a ball-point pen, a mechanical pencil, a four-color ball-point version and several true special editions.
A deffinate sign of the 2000's continued commercial success and the absolute timelessness of its bauhaus-inspired design is that they are still being produced and sold today, more than 43 years (at the time of this writing) later. As a result of this longevity, the Lamy 2000 continues to be included and considered in nearly every selection of German and European Distinguished Designs, obtaining the prestigious Busse Long Life Design Prize in 1984.
Design, Innovation Comes Of Age: 1966 through Present Day
Lamy had an incredible product in it's 1966 released Lamy 2000. The Lamy 2000 was a huge opportunity for a small family run company to find its individuality and its unique product profile and to make its appearance on the World stage amongst the other fine writing instrument makers. At the time, they simply had no idea how well it would sell and considered even the initial production run as a big gamble. Once it was out there, they had a hard time keeping them in stores since they really didn't have a clue how well it would do and they had a hard time even believing their market research figures. It became a very big success in nearly every way, but it didn't always look like it was going to turn out that way. Even the Makrolon material it is made from, had issues at first. Dr. Lamy sometimes relates a story about how the first Lamy 2000 pens made from a brushed resin material turned white after long storage, and for the longest time no one had a clue of how to correct the problem. Later on, an employee of the resin supplier finally found a viable solution that was acceptable.
Two years after the initial release of the Lamy 2000, changes regarding all of the lessons learned and the establishment of various focus groups are still taking place at Lamy. Their marketing and new product development areas are adjusted to include the feedback from “target groups” and their input related to their various different functional writing requirements. Though there was perhaps some scepticism at first, this is seen as a signiuficant step moving the company forward toward continued new product designs and development.
In 1973, forty years after his father initially founded the company, Dr. Manfred Lamy officially takes the reins from his father as the sole Managing Director of C. Josef Lamy GmbH. He initially began working at the company originally in 1957, and became full-time in 1962 when he assumed the role as the company's “Advertising Manager for the Promotion of Political Economics in Marketing,” a position in which he created the corner-stone, distinctive Lamy design focus and philosophy that's is a part of what Lamy is, even today.
1974 was a momentus year for both the country (Germany won that year's WorldCup Championship), and a tremendously successful one for Lamy (they released the highly praised and very popular cp1, designed by the bauhaus-inspired & highly-acclaimed German industrial designer of the Lamy 2000, Gerd A. Müller. Developed according to the specifications in the recently formulated “Lamy Design” Requirements/Rules, at the time, the cp1 is seen more and more frequently in the hands of not just their usual targeted customer base, mentioned earlier, but also design-conscious women. These design-conscious women quickly and significantly became a bigger share of the market for Lamy than the numbers showed in the past. In fact, they often make design adjustments/allowances specifically for this market segment, beginning with the cp1. One of the main reasons for this is that the Lamy cp1 ball-point quickly became Germany's best selling pen in it's class, at that time. The slim, cylindrical, all-metal writing instrument began to make more and more National and International design award commitees aware of Lamy and Lamy's designs and products. Later the same year, designer Gerd Müller launches a new program for writing instruments which interpreted the theme of “functional design” in such a new, refreshing way that it becomes very attractive to the new target groups.
Beginning in 1976, with C. JosefLamy's increasing success, the advertising and marketing of the Lamy Brand needed sprucing up, updating and revising. Recreated by Leonhardt & Kern (a Stuttgard-based advertising agency), the initial appearance of Lamy's new advertising campaign appeared for the first time in Spiegel Magazine. Their campaign continued to continually develop through-out the remainder of the 1970's, 1980's, and on into the 1990's as one of the longest and most award-winning German advertising efforts, ever. Lamy Design continued to evolve also with the creation of new product and the innovative ways Lamy does business.
After extensive research into young-person psychology, input fromvarious target groups, and a close collaboration with Wolgang Fabian and the Mannheim Developement Group (under the direction of Professor Bernt Spiegel), in 1980 C. J. Lamy GmbH launches an incredible and robust fountain pen for school children, ages 10 to 15 years old at the Frankfort Exhibition Complex. It was instantly well received. The very first Safari's were made of Olive Green ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic and its avant-garde style brings a breath of freedom and adventure to the use of fountain pens by young people. Lamys Safari with its unusual, casual, and industrial look soon finds itselfat the front of the class. These modern-looking writing instruments not only become extraordinarily popular with the kids but also for all ages in America and other locations/demographics around the world as well. Being made of ABS, literally makes the Safari indestructible and highly durable, perfect for those just beginning to use fountain pens.
Lamy's high-technology standards can easily be seen in 1981, reflected in the business itself. A newly built central warehouse that year, with its advanced set-up, high-bay racking, and completely equiped with ultra-modern and highly-sophisticated control systems.
1982 brought with it the “White is Nice” slogan, along with it came the Lamy White Pen which quickly became the world's first and most copied writing instrument - in white. A mere one year later, Wolfgang Fabian exceeds all expectations, by adding the designs of the Lamy Spirit with his introduction of the Lamy Logo. With its innovative clip “Push Button” unit it became a deffinative and long-lasting cornerstone of the companys product lines.
The designer that partnered with Dr. Lamy to develop the Lamy 2000, Gerd A. Müller was at his height of productivity and creativity in 1984 when he was responsible for not one product going to market, but two - and at the very same time, The Lamy Unic was born along with its cousin the Lamy Twin Pen.
The Lamy unic with its round, cylindrical body, its cool, technical modernistic beauty clearly distinguishes itself from the wave of nostalgia for writing instruments that was widespread at the time. It quickly becomes the preferred writing tool of people who are not afraid of modern technology, design and who are impressed by innovative product details such as the extendable, telescopic tip.
This was accompanied by the Lamy Twin pen, released at around the same time, it has a slim metal body containing terrific and very useful surprise when needed, this ingenious ballpen converts with a twist into a propelling pencil! It truly was the first modern writing instrument for taking notes AND making sketches and only needing one instrument to do it all. The Lamy Twin Pen opens up the door for a whole series/line of multi-system writing instruments, a specialty which Lamy is well-know for even today.
In 1985, C. J. Lamy GmbH celebrated the start-up of its brand new injection molding hall, surprising even the industry insiders present (at the opening) with its unusual versatility and unique depth of production, toolmaking and injection molding as well as the manufacture of pocket clips, nibs, refills and even ink cartridges - all of these operations are now performed in-house, thanks to this new building addition.
After an incredible “water-shed” year, producing more writing instruments, experiencing greater sales, enjoying the biggest revenue increase ever, and biggest market share so far, C.Josef Lamy celebrates these milestones and the 20th anniversary of what made all of the above possible, the implementation twenty-years before of Lamy Design.
Sadly, with nearly 57 years of success with his namesake company: Lamy, about 69 years in the writing instrument industry and at the age of almost 88 years old, Carl Josef Lamy dies in July of 1986. Even with all of the tremendous successthe company enjoyed up to this point, it was a very sad and contemplative time around the halls of C. Josef Lamy, GmbH in Heidelberg.
Children starting school in 1987, had a special reason to look forward to their first day in the classroom. Called the Lamy ABC, a beginners fountain pen, like which has never existed before. The ABC is made of wood and the toy-red plastic and represents the start of a complete system for learning to write. A collaboration between teaching experts, the designers of the Mannheim Development Group (under the tutelage of Professor Bernt Spiegel), Lamy developed the first writing instrument especially designed to meet the needs of children who are learning to write for the first time. This effort created a new niche in the market, that Lamy is the leader of from the very beginning.
In 1988, as a result of steadily increasing inquiries from foreign trade partners, Lamy responds with a new distribution concept. Markets are no longer served indirectly through “freelance” style agents but directly from Heidelberg by Lamy's own salaried staff. Also that same year, for its tremendous commitment to design - from product, packaging and advertising through to the company architecture and design management, Lamy is awarded the newly created “European Design Prize 1988,” presented by the Commission of European Communities. This award also marks Lamy's on-going increase in International recognition.
The very next year, Lamy begins production of its own branded fountain pen ink. Once again C. Josef Lamy GmbH exhibits its incredible depth of production and product independence that sets it apart from nearly all of its competitors.
On Grenzhöferweg in Heidelberg-Wieblingen in 1990, everyone celebrated the fall of that ugly wall, the reunification of Germany, and Lamy's 60th anniversary. Invited guests to the celebration are able to admire the planted roof garden on the Lamy Production Halls for the very first time since it was created.