Not sure if this post would fit better in General Pens, but since it does have a pencil in it, I’m leaving it here for now.
In 1980, Pelikan worked with German industrial designer Luigi Colani to create a series of ergonomic pens. Famous for being a self promoter, Colani’s eventual designs featured clips that resembled a pelican bill from the side, plus his trademark organically shaped bodies.
Most notably, the pens bore his name and signature engraved into the side of each pen. The No. 1 is the best known, coming in many colors, and initially used a proprietary Pelikan Perfect 237 refill. Later versions switched to a universal Parker G2 style refill.
The No. 2 design is kinda like an ugly duckling and feels better in the hands than it looks. It uses an European ISO A3 refill with the super skinny tip.
The mechanical pencil was only released for the No. 1 design and used a Schmidt DSM type cartridge. The No. 1 was also produced as a deluxe edition ballpoint in black with either silver or gold metal clips and accents. Diehard fans will want to track down the capped fountain pens, which were supposedly only produced in limited quantities as prototypes.
I tend to think of these as the archetype of the modern ‘Promotional Pen’ - a somewhat attractive physical shape that was cheap to manufacture yet looked more expensive than it was, and included an oversized clip that was perfect for printing gaudy logos on to.