During the1970's the UK sales force in Newhaven identified a customer's age group that previously had never been targeted by Parker, 18 - 30. They decided that they wanted a pen that would appeal to that age group, which potentially held 10 million customers. It should be modern in styling and design but should also be easily identified as a Parker product. The Newhaven Product design and engineering teams decided that they wanted an outside designer with a proven track record, according to Malcolm Troak in his book Pen to paper. Parker selected Kenneth Grange who had designed a whole range of modern products. He was given a list of specifications.

The pen should have as few parts as possible, it should be designed for automatic assembly, the finishing process should be held to a minimum and the repair and servicing requirements should also be minimized.

 

Grange came up with several designs and while they were indeed modern, most were just too modern for Parker but eventually they agreed on an all metal pen with a new one-piece collector, specially designed to handle air travel. The production technique was also relatively new. The body was made with a deep draw press which simply used a round piece of metal, like a large coin, and stamped it in several stages until it was in the shape of an elongated cup. Click here for image of deep draw.

 

At a sales conference in June of 1975, when the fountain pen business was at it's lowest, Parker UK introduced the cheap, but very functional Parker "25", for the low end market. It was a Flighter, made from steel and plastic, and had easily replaceable nib/sections. The shape of the Parker "25" was a bit odd, since the back of the pen was thinner than the front end, stepped down without really being tapered. It was indeed very square in appearance and sported a new, totally square clip, with the parker logo in a what else square plastic emblem. The nib was also in steel but in spite of the low price it was sturdy and proved to be a surprisingly good writer.

 

 

Courtsey of Tony Fischier