Pen-to-graf: Where does our name come from?Pen-to-graf: Where does our name come from?

The first design decision a studio makes is its own name. Ours is made of two parts: pen and graf.

Pen: where every job begins. The blank page, the first sketch, the idea not yet shown to anyone. Graf, as in graphic: that line once it has taken form, become visible and producible. Pentograf is the name of the road between the two — from pen to graphic, from idea to form.

Let us also clear up a confusion we meet often: Pentograf is not pantograph. A pantograph is a mechanical device that copies a drawing at a different scale; search engines, too, occasionally try to "correct" our name to it. Our name, however, is about transforming, not copying. There is nothing to copy; there is something not yet drawn.

The name is also a summary of how we work. Strategy, design and production are not separate fields for us but the continuation of a single thought. An idea is not committed to a line before it is clear; a line does not count as finished work until it has become a form ready for production.

In short, Pentograf is the name of the phrase "from idea to form". Not the name of a tool, but the shortest description of what we do.