Visconti has been world renowned for the past twenty years for their extrodinary and beautiful writing instruments. Since day one, the firm has been under the direct and creative supervision of artisan and pen extraordinaire Dante Del Vecchio. Viscontis wealth of knowledge, craftsmanship and vigilance to detail has made them one of the most recognized and desired writing instruments today.
Jim Paradise had the pleasure of assembling an interview with Dante and we are excited to share today with you.
Dante del Vecchio of Visconti
What year did you start Visconti?
I founded Visconti in late October 1988, after over one year of work, research, and know how achievement. The official date is 20 October 1988, nevertheless we were already shipping pens to customers since May 1988.
What was your motivation for starting the business?
A good mixture of passion, business and madness. Before Visconti I was a shop owner, so to turn from the trading to manufacturing was quite a shock. Surely I wanted to produce and sell pens to make my living, but [there] was also the idea to own a brand to turn my ideas and dreams into reality. It was a lot like an American Dream.
What is the hardest thing that you have ever experienced owning your own business?
Credibility: to achieve the status of a pen maker and have everybody to trust the company. Visconti has been manufacturing excellent pens since day one but to penetrate the European market was harder due to our short history.
In Europe a shop owner asks: “Tell me who you are…..probably I will buy from you.”
In USA: “Show me what you make…probably I will buy it!”
What is the most rewarding thing that you have experienced owning your own business?
The passion and faith for Visconti of so many customers. Many ultra rich people treat us like kings. I remember an Arabian sheik told me: “Dante your [work] is the same art of the great painter Van Gogh.” Many Americans like to include Visconti in their Italian trip, they write to us months before to reserve a factory tour.
Is no doubt one of the most rewarding sentence I received from the consul of Monaco in Florence during the presentation of the Dance of the Iris in front of the Mayor and 300 business men: “One of the reasons of friendship (beside others) between Monte Carlo and Florence is Visconti because Prince Albert choose Visconti to make pens, he said during his speech.”
If you weren’t producing pens what would you be doing with your life?
I studied political science and probably as an ambassador I could have been quite good! When I was young I liked traveling through the world because I was convinced that the world was my playground. Today Visconti exports to more than 50 countries, so I can say that I made my dream true.
Visconti Divine Proportion Fountain Pen
Where do you find your inspiration to produce the pens that you do?
It is very simple: in Visconti we have a dream tree full of ideas and when we want to make a new pen we take the right apple!
Is there anything more difficult to explain than creativity?
Why Van Gogh painted the Starry night? Why Armani makes the best men suits? Sometimes the most insignificant detail is the key to make a new pen.
Is very easy to make a pen, for [example], the Divine Proportion, I got the idea while I was reading the Da Vinci code. [It is] much worse to make a pen under a request: recently the famous Swiss watch maker Ulisse Nardin asked me to design their pen line: then I had to enter their history and find what is significant for them and put it in a pen. I have to say they liked so much that they wanted Visconti to appear in their booklet in a prestigious co-branding.
While I was in Colorado last year, just before attending Paradise managers meeting I have invented an incredible ink well that will be into production before the end of this year: sometimes ideas come to you, is enough waiting for them!
How many different pens would you estimate that you have produced under the Visconti brand?
This is easy to answer: 934,256 excluding prototypes as total number, at the end of 2011. Last year Visconti has sold a bit more than 70,000 writing instruments. Different models, not just colors, including LE.
What is the most successful pen that you have ever produced?
There are more than one at different price points: I cannot forget some instant sell out like: Uffizi, Alhambra, Taj Mahal Ivory, Divine Comedy, Skeleton, Shunga set, Divine Proportion, Templars…Ragtime celluloid, Voyager, Van Gogh , Opera.
What is your favorite pen that you have produced and why?
My favorite in design is [the] Divine proportion. In technique: the Gordian Knot/ Metropolis.
Divine proportion was designed during my reading of the Da Vinci code and my research with Leonardo Da Vinci. I have sketched the pen on a piece of paper pointing out all features I wanted: Golden ratio, the Golden Spiral and the geometrical figure generating them, the Pentagon. I took my best turning machine technician and I spent with him one entire day making samples in the factory until we have reached the shape, the thickness, the length I wanted. Then I asked to my production manager to insert in each side the silver trim, ten in total. He believed I was crazy. We did it.
The Metropolis was designed in 2 years and is the result of my ingenious mind: I was willing to make the most complicated and innovative pen ever made: the push up filling system is still a piece of art, with over 29 components.
Dante del Vecchio of Visconti: the artist
Outside of Visconti is there another pen brand that you especially admire and why?
Speaking about a single model is one pen that I love: Mont Blanc Semiramis, a beautiful piece of art. Between the vintage my favorite pens were Conklins where I have taken the crescent that now is the airhole of all Visconti nibs. For modern pens is impossible to not admire Mont Blanc and for what they have done from 1993 till now.
Outside of Italy what is your most successful market for the Visconti brand?
With no doubt USA. There are a few reasons for this, first of all you guys give a chance to the people that have something to say, the American Dream is reality. I personally think that USA has invented fountain pens and still now USA has the deepest culture for pens worldwide. The number of Americans that yearly visit us is the proof that Visconti love for USA is well spent!
What is your prediction on the future of the pen business and how will it continue to stay relevant in our digital society?
Writing is one of the reasons of the Homo Sapiens, only by writing we are what we are. Without writing, goodbye civilization. If we will lose our memory for writing and therefore, for pens too, it means we will have lost our roots.
Horses have been for years the main transportation vehicle, and now they are used most for pleasure. Pens, in the worst case, will be a pleasure tool, a gratification for our daily living, a passion that will be above the need.
Is there any message or final thought that you would like to offer to our readers?
These are difficult times in the world and we need good things that last to surround us and we want to leave to our children a good message. In the world of exhibition were your look is more important of your being, a simple pen of any price and brand can be important to share feelings, events, dates, and be loved forever. Feelings like this will never happen with a computer, if you understand what I mean.
Nib Notes 
Posted on March 2, 2012
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