Getting To Know...Vito Grippi
Getting to know
What’s behind your concept?
Story Supply Co. is a community-driven design, print, and bookbinding studio in York, PA with the mission to create high-quality and inspiring tools for storytellers while supporting communities like our own. Our community efforts include donating notebooks, sketchbooks, and writing utensils to programs that offer free writing and arts instruction to kids. We also strive to create products locally and sustainably.
Who are your books for?
Initially we made them for artists and writers like ourselves. But we think everyone is a storyteller in their own way. We have accountants, busy parents, community organizers, designers, engineers, programmers, mathematicians, teachers, coffee grinders, welders, contractors, you name it. In the end, it’s really anyone who cares about the products they consume. For some people it’s the design aesthetic, for others in the philanthropic mission.
Do you take notes?
Yes, absolutely! I’m in the “if it’s not written down it doesn’t exist” camp. Meeting notes, reading notes, journaling, etc. I try to do as much as I can on paper.
What’s next for you?
The hope is to continue making products people desire and stretch the capabilities of what we can do with analog. We love the challenge of creating new designs. For us, the notebook format is like a blank canvas. At the end of the day, it’s just a cover and some text pages. We try to take that template and tell our own story. And like all art, the exciting part is when we release it to the world and see how people take our creation to tell their own stories.
Describe yourself in three objects
A rubix cube, soccer ball, car keys
Notebook, Notes App or both?
Both, though I try to rely mostly on a notebook. I found that the fancier the app, the more it becomes about the app and managing the app for me. I used to swear by Evernote and apps like it, and then one day I realized they weren’t making me any more productive. In fact, they were causing me more anxiety than anything else.
So, notebook, and occasionally the Note app on IOS.
What’s in your pencil case right now?
I usually have at least one Blackwing (I like the ones with the extra firm core) a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 2B and a few Mitsubishi 9850s.
Pencil, ballpoint, gel, or fountain pen?
I love pencils. I love the simplicity and that you can literally use them up when you are productive. I also love that most of them are affordable enough that you can give them away without breaking the bank.
I love fountain pens too. The design, the filling mechanisms, the stories and history.
But honestly, I use gel more than anything else. My favorites are the Uni-ball UM-151 in .5mm. I also use the .38mm for writing notes in book margins. Blue/Black all day long.
Which three famous people, (living or dead) would you like to have dinner with?
Mark Twain, Leonard Cohen, and my family.
What’s the best thing about the place you live?
We have a thriving arts and maker culture and we are within a four-hour drive of New York City, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC.
What’s your most treasured possession?
I don’t usually get too attached to objects. For one, I tend to break or lose things. I do, however, cherish my 2003 Martin HD-28 guitar. I don’t get to play it as often as I used to, but I purchased it right before my first daughter was born knowing that I will eventually give it to her.
Where are some of your favourite Stationery spots on the Internet?
Jet Pens, even though I always get myself into trouble when I visit their site. I tend to have a similar experience with CW Pencil Enterprise. For blogs and such, the Pen Addict and Well-Appointed Desk, Clicky Post, and the many sites belonging to all of the incredible friends I’ve made at pen shows and throughout the community. And Nero’s Notes, of course! But you knew that.
