I think I’d mentioned the BRAIN SS as a rather unfortunately named product in the Mitsubishi chat. The rather raw industrial aesthetic features a grey stainless steel barrel (hence the ‘SS’ moniker), and a color molded cone and accents for the clip and button.
I think I finally overcame my aversion to the terrible name because… it was the ‘write match’ for another pen design that I enjoyed: the Lamy Vivo (or Energy), designed by Konstantin Grcic in 2004, and subsequently went out of production in 2009.
The strangely utilitarian design of the Vivo was the result of Grcic’s obsession with trying to reduce the number of components in a pen to the lowest number of parts. I particularly enjoyed the way the end cap fitted into the steel tube with a small cutout that seemed to flow into the thumb-actuated clip-knock. The milled edges on the cone cried out to the tinkerer in me.
And yet, Lamy being Lamy, the pencil version was really underwhelming. Let’s be honest: using your thumb to actuate a stiff slider repeatedly during use is not a winning experience.
And so, we come to the unthinkable. Resetting my personal cringe meter and obtaining 2 pristine examples of the BRAIN SS, in matching color accents to my pair of Lamy Vivo. Match made in heaven? Maybe…