LAMY 2000 – more than 30 years of classic modernity

In 1966, when the LAMY 2000 fountain pen arrived on the market, it took its place in the ranks of products in a new and unusual design world. They included strange-looking office-machines from Italy, and coolly elegant electrical and audio equipment from Frankfurt. There was a talk of a Bauhaus revival.

LAMY 2000 was the great opportunity for a small family firm to find its individuality, its unique product profile and to make its appearance on a larger stage. This was not only due to the desire to create a contemporary product.

The customers at whom Lamy aimed this writing instrument were successful, middle aged men, who were image conscious, but tended towards understatement.

LAMY 2000 was also, technologically speaking, unknown territory. Never before had a clip been made of solid stainless steel - the was no precedent for this procedure, which would create an even surface of both stainless steel and plastic. In this way we created products whose almost unique character was due to the high degree of manual craftsmanship required.

Despite the intensive preparations of the Lamy sales force and the trade, despite positive survey results, no one expected that the LAMY 2000 would quickly make an impression on the market. However its permanent market penetration did increase, due to the example of the first users, and it was followed by a ball point pen, a mechanical pencil and a four-colour ball point pen.

The sign of the commercial success and timelessness of this design is that these writing instruments are still being sold today, more than 30 years later. As a result, the LAMY 2000 has been included in almost every selection of German and European design and in 1984 was awarded the Busse Long life design prize.

Design: Gerd A. Müller