February's 365/30: 10/28 My top must have pens are...

10. My top must have pens are...

Oh dear... This is not a question you want to ask a stationery addicted graphic designer! How much time do you have?

• Faber Castell: Anything by Faber Castell makes me incessantly happy! I've used these pens for years due to their versatility and incredible life span. They're almost like the Fairy Liquid of the of the art-pen world (this may vary between users). I'm a sucker for bold outlines and noticable details, so the variety of thicknesses and quality of the finish (unless my hand isn't quite as steady as I want it tot be) makes me proud of almost every piece of work I've used them on. I highly recommend these pens to anyone who is arty or creative. A felt nib set of four will set you back about £9.99. I recommend waiting until you have a voucher for WHSmith, valid for stationery or art supplies, and use that to pick up a set.

• Paperchase Mechanical Pens: There's something about the action of these pens that makes me really happy to use them. Slightly smudgy on finer grain paper and cards (I've already one card with my inky impatience) these pens seem to be made for filofax flex paper. As Paperchase is constantly creating new ranges, there is a design for everyone and almost every filofax!

• Bic 4 Colour: I've had many multicoloured pens in my time, but none have matched the quality, strength and ergonomic design of the Bic 4 Colour. I currently own two; one for each of my Kingfisher Metropols (Oh? Did I not mention the second one?...) as the colour match of the blue Bic makes the designer within me very happy. Very useful for anyone who still writes things down. Comes in two sets of colours (that I know of), normally around the £2.20 mark from most retailers.

• Frixion Erasable Pens: I first discovered Frixion pens in secondary school (that's  "high school" for those of you with alternative, and therefore incorrect, dialects) and then proceeded to forget about them until college/university. This may have been due to their unsuitability for check-box based examinations as the computer that is used to mark the papers has difficulty in reading the "ink" inside Frixion pens. Right now I use these for noting things which may change, like work shifts, and for labelling tabs. I despise filofax's recommendation to label your fresh new tabs with indelible ink.