the five pens (l-r): naguib mahfouz's pen designed by toyo ito, toni morrison's pen designed by alessandro mendini,
wole soyinka's pen designed by cleto munari, jose saramago's pen designed by alvaro siza viera and saul bellow's
pen designed by oscar tusquets blanca.

cleto munari is a world-renowned designer from vicenza, italy. he began his career in 1973 thanks to the
encouragement of architect carlo scarpa. he has continually collaborated with numerous international designers
and architects throughout his career. for his latest collaboration he invited four international architects to help him
design a collection of pens dedicated to five nobel laureates in literature.

in collaboration with architects toyo ito from japan, alessandro mendini from italy, alvaro siza viera from portugal
and oscar tusquets blanca from spain, munari created five pens inspired by laureates naguib mahfouz,
toni morrison, jose saramago, saul bellow and wole soyinka.

the project was inspired by munari's belief in the power of the written word to convey romanticism and warmth.
the designers were each allowed to choose which writer they would like to design for. the process resulted in
five pens inspired by the life and work of the laureates, each one featuring 24k gold and sterling silver accents.
the pens are available for purchase in a fountain pen version (600-690 USD) and a roller-ball version
(550-640 USD).

the pens are all accompanied by 'the book of five pens' published by cleto munari. the book features replicas of
the letters each writer wrote to munari discussing their personal relationship to the hand-written word. in each
letter you can directly feel the power and emotion that written words convey. in addition, the book contains the
biographies of all the designers and writers, process sketches and the final products. the letters from each writer
and the documentation of the design process begin to reveal the way each pen manages to distill the personality
of the writer into the object. their spirit, writing and philosophy is compacted into the small form factor of these
delicately crafted pens.


the letters of naguib mahfouz and toni morrison


the cover of 'the book of the five pens' & the letter of wole soyinka


the letters of jose saramago and saul bellow