The INK series – inkstand

inkstand by Kakimori | customised inks

inkstand is a unique specialist store in Tokyo’s Kuramae area that is reminiscent of a laboratory in its aesthetics and also in its function. The shop invites you to mix your own fountain pen ink colour with dropper filled accuracy: choose three basic colours from a range of 17 options, blend your preferred colour composition drop by drop using a small pipette and then wait while your ink colour gets mixed and bottled.

This gives an abundance of possibilities and being able to mix your personal colour brings a new dimension to the standards of ink colours. The idea for the store’s concept was initiated by customers of the sister store Kakimori which offers customised notebooks. One can choose from a variety of papers, covers and even fasteners, then, a member of staff will put it together for you. The idea of customising inks is based on the same concept.

Blending inks requires similar ph values. It would be the most important quality inkstand was looking for.
Together with Turner Color Co Ltd., an Osaka based manufacturer of paints, they created inks that could be well mixed together, but also show the qualities of permanence and light-fastness. They decided to use pigments, which naturally provide those qualities.
With a foundation of 17 colours they opened the store in November 2016: Make your colour – meet your colour.

Aya Homma from inkstand would quite possibly agree with Mr Takahashi on the notion that hues express emotions. Daily she can observe customers blending their colour driven by their immediate state of mind, she says. Even when customers arrive with a fixed idea for a colour, they often end up changing to a different colour instinctively.

Every session customers are given enough time to mix a colour that will match their mood perfectly. The members of staff provide support and advice with colour charts that they provide to give inspiration. Interestingly, they keep different charts according to the seasons, spring offers lighter more pastel shaded colours whereas winter shows darker, more saturated colours.
Weather… knowingly the most common mood changer all over the world.

Return to the beginning of the article: The Ink series

LINK
inkstand

Words Mareike Besch