Cleto Munari is a designer and silversmith from Vicenza, Italy who has been working on avant-garde collections of silver objects and jewelry since 1985. He recently invited four international architects to help him design a new collection--pens dedicated to five Nobel Laureates in Literature.

With the help of Toyo Ito (Japan), Alessandro Mendini (Italy), Alvaro Siza Viera (Portugal), and Oscar Tusquets Blanca (Spain), Munari created a set of pens honoring Naguib Mahfouz, Toni Morrison, Jose Saramago, Saul Bellow and Wole Soyinka, respectively. Each designer selected the author they wished to commemorate, designing the contour, styling and color of each pen to reflect the aura of each Laureate. The pens are available in fountain or rollarball, and are accompanied by "The Book of the Five Pens," a visual compendium of the architects, their biographies, renderings of each pen, and excerpts from each author describing the personal relationship to writing. The influence of Saramago, the soft Alentejo landscape and the Lusitan world can be observed in the pen created by Viera. This isn't the first time such collaboration was taken on by Munari. He's previously produced a collection of watches with the likes of Hans Hollein and Ettore Sottsass.

More info: www.cletomunari.com

Date Posted: July 13, 2007
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