* Breaking News * Dante Del Vecchio Is Leaving Visconti...

[colex]

Dante Del Vecchio is leaving Visconti.
Incredible, but true.
He sent a note yesterday, announcing that he’s leaving the direction and chairmanship of Visconti by the end of the year, due to internal conflicts with his business partner.

 

From Giardino Italiano Blog

(Susanna Buffo)

 

http://blog.giardino.it/2016/12/dante-del-vecchio-leaves-visconti/

 

 

 

[mulrich]

Transitioning from a founder is hard. I hope they make it.

[TSherbs]

interesting

[jar]

Good luck and hopefully the next regime will produce pens of interest.

[Ghost Plane]

Uh oh. Waiting to see which way the designs go.

[Behike54]

Good luck and hopefully the next regime will produce pens of interest.

 

Agreed, but your comment is interesting. This following the FB FPN page know that they made a pen from a terra cotta looking clay from near the headquarters. The product was lovely but lacked a brightness; it seemed almost muted, if you will.

 

Where I'm going with this is the YT vid showcased the inspiration and execution of the pen, but when they started to appear, the pics appeared with photoshopped with a darker color or they were treated in some way. The responses, of course, mentioned not only the disparity in appearance, it seemed, at least to me, that had people known the pen would have come in that darker/reddish terra cotta, more people would have ordered...........assuming, of course, the final outcome is what you will be getting as a buyer.

 

I know it's never ONE thing, but it does point out a kind of fundamental cohesive vision, if you will.

[Ceelo]

This is very sad. I wonder if that is because the company wants to consolidate its position as a premium writing instrument brand for the masses and relies less on innovation to survive. As mentioned above this is always a tricky time for businesses when the founder leaves and hopefully they keep making great pens.

[zaddick]

Maybe he was tired of pens that don't write out of the box.

 

It will be interesting to see what changes.

Edited December 15, 2016 by zaddick

[FriendAmos]

Dante Del Vecchio is leaving Visconti.

Incredible, but true.

He sent a note yesterday, announcing that he’s leaving the direction and chairmanship of Visconti by the end of the year, due to internal conflicts with his business partner.

 

From Giardino Italiano Blog

(Susanna Buffo)

 

http://blog.giardino.it/2016/12/dante-del-vecchio-leaves-visconti/

 

 

 

 

So?

[gerigo]

I am sad to hear this news. I am personally a fan of the brand with at least 20 pens in my collection.

 

I have met Dante himself recently. I remember him as a quiet man. However he was infectious in his enthusiasm for pens and also his never ending pursuit in new and different ways to excite consumers with new product. I remembered him sharing photos of his encounter with the marble and the manufacturing process that would lead to the Millionaire pens.

 

I wish Visconti and Dante well in whatever future direction each of them will take.

Edited December 16, 2016 by gerigo

[BillZ]

Got to meet the man at Dromgoole's in Houston last year when I bought my Homo Sapian Midi. He was a very gracious gentleman and I will remember the meeting for a long time. I have 4 Viscontis. Just picked up a PIninFarina last Monday. All are great writiers.

[s_t_e_v_e]

The blog post rightly points out the similarity between Dante's exit and Steve Jobs' exit from Apple. I hope Visconti does not lose it's soul with his exit.

Edited December 20, 2016 by s_t_e_v_e

[dapprman]

The blog post rightly points out the similarity between Dante's exit and Steve Jobs' exit from Apple. I hope Visconti does not lose it's soul with his exit.

Steve Jobs was not disagreements with business partners, he created internal division resulting in his best friend from childhood refusing to speak to him for years and having to be forced to Steve's wedding (which was the one and only time that The Woz spoke to Steve post their split), and almost bankrupting the company. What Steve Jobs learnt post then and he proved to be extremely good at was a mixture of marketing and spotting when tech had come of age and was finally ready for the public.

[fuddles]

The blog post rightly points out the similarity between Dante's exit and Steve Jobs' exit from Apple. I hope Visconti does not lose it's soul with his exit.

Apple had no soul under Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs restricted innovation while he was CEO. He didn't want a wide/long screen iPhone for instance and everything was always behind in hardware innovations. I'd say Apple has innovated way more after he left.

Edited December 21, 2016 by fuddles

[Uncial]

It might not all be bad news. I actually feel like Visconti have been stuck in a rut for a bit. All of the new pens seem pretty similar and the higher end releases all seem to live in the shadow of the HS (which is an amazingly beautiful and well designed pen). In a sense they have been a victim of their own success on that front. The only thing that I can recall them doing that I thought would enliven the whole thing was their Royal Brown. I thought that was a pen to die for....until I noted it was limited and had a price that was circling somewhere in orbit. I honestly felt this was a silly decision as they could have added a very good pen to their range that looked a bit different. But to me it wasn't the only silly decision they made. The switch to the palladium nib I believe was a huge mistake. I haven't bought a single Visconti since I tried a palladium nib - it just doesn't even come close to their old gold nibs. The gold Dreamtouch nibs - when they wrote - were incredible; the palladium are ok but the QC issues are all magnified with it to the point where you almost come to expect a skippy, scratchy nib out of the box.

 

If they can move forward with pens like the Royal Brown as part of their standard line up, I for one would suddenly take great interest in the company again. What really does't interest me are four hundred different finishes on an HS or a thousand iterations of a Van Gogh type pen. Make an affordable Royal Brown and I'll be your friend forever!

[Andrea_R]

 

So?

He was the founder and chief of operations, just so you know.

[s_t_e_v_e]

Steve Jobs was not disagreements with business partners, he created internal division resulting in his best friend from childhood refusing to speak to him for years and having to be forced to Steve's wedding (which was the one and only time that The Woz spoke to Steve post their split), and almost bankrupting the company. What Steve Jobs learnt post then and he proved to be extremely good at was a mixture of marketing and spotting when tech had come of age and was finally ready for the public.

The prime reason or Jobs' departure was that his vision was different from that of John Sculley. Also Apple didn't do any better after his exit in 1985, after all Sculley was a cola guy. When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 he stuck to his guns and even today Apple mostly follows his broad vision of a closed ecosystem.

[s_t_e_v_e]

Apple had no soul under Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs restricted innovation while he was CEO. He didn't want a wide/long screen iPhone for instance and everything was always behind in hardware innovations. I'd say Apple has innovated way more after he left.

I agree that Jobs was no saint. He was ruthless to his employees and an egomaniac. As far as innovations go, a lot is debatable. I think being a step behind isn't bad when you are trying to get it right in the first attempt , which is what Apple did well under Jobs.

 

Also, the work on many of the products that were released even 2-3 years after Jobs passed away would have been started while he was still alive.

[dapprman]

Sorry no, Jobs was actually fired for the discord he brought. Even he admitted to towards the end that he had created discord within Apple, but the reality was he had not created an atmosphere of competition between the Lisa/Mac team and the rest of the company, but one of out and out hostility. Additionally his side's Lisa/Mac program had almost bankrupted the company, it was only rescued as a result of that financial disaster through the Bill Gates investment. Sure the old Apple II product line was dated, but it was making money. The original MAC may have been liked amongst graphic artists, but it never did that well. It was it's successor that really made the platform - and that did come about through Jobs recognising the potential after, a soon to exit Scully, had suggested that project be scrapped.

 

Post NeXT (I actually used one, it was neither revolutionary, nor that well done, but it was cheaper than it's rival UNIX workstations) Jobs seemed to undergo an epiphany over marrying what technology was now good enough to be ready for the public and what the public wanted. In this he had become a genius and that's turned a long term near dead company into the cash cow it is today. It should also be noted that none of Apple's great successes have been their own derived technologies or ideas (this direction was scrapped and banned by Jobs when he came back to Apple) and Apple themselves were sued with mixed results way before they started doing that to others (Xerox lost to Apple over a very obvious rip off of STAR in the Lisa and MAC, Apple lost to Creative over the menu structure and original software design in the iPod).

Edited December 24, 2016 by dapprman

[Ghost Plane]

Meanwhile, back on topic, I'd love to see a return to usable, affordable beauty like the original Van Gogh Maxis that had nibs competitive with an MB 149 instead of all the low quality steel-nibbled bling. Or unusable bling with uncomfortable in the hand sections or body shapes.

 

I love the gorgeous usability of the Divinas with the silver insets in the Maxi lengths, instead of the chopped off Midis of late that are too short for me to write with.