About Studio 602

First, the name. We could call it a blog or a magazine but that implies one-way communication. At Studio 602, it’s about the ability to have a conversation.  But if you’d rather just read, watch or listen, you’ll be free to do that too. Your husbands, wives, mothers or fathers won’t even need to know you’re there. We even toyed with calling it “A Sanctuary for People Who Want to Explore Creativity of Themselves and Other Cool People from Anywhere in the World Blog” but that was just too long.

The “602” is a nod to the world’s most famous pencil, the Blackwing 602. Favored by creative geniuses like John Steinbeck and Chuck Jones, the Blackwing 602 has a certain mystique that lends itself well to the vision of this project. Subject matter won’t be limited to Blackwings, or even pencils for that matter. It’s going to be about the creative processes that pencils help define. One of the goals at Pencils.com is to grow the use of pencils throughout the world. To do that, we want to grow our audience by offering a broader range of topics that focus not just on pencils, but the people who use them to do interesting things.

Studio 602 is centered around five different sections of feature stories written by a stable of young hip emerging writers. The “News Desk” will feature news and updates from the pencil industry. Remember, we’re not moving away from content about pencils; we’re just supplementing it with more diverse topics. We are committed to remaining the number one source for pencileers on the internet.

Our “Music” section will focus on songwriting and composition. Among other features, it will introduce readers to up & coming musicians and songwriters.

Our “TV, Film & Books” section will focus heavily on topics that touch the creative side of Hollywood. Screenwriting and animation are a couple that come to mind.

Our “Art” section will contain articles, lessons and tutorials about different forms of visual art from illustration to architecture and beyond.

Finally, we’ll have a “Sports” section. I know, you must be thinking, “how can something as cool as sports possibly relate to pencils or the people who use them”. Well, to be honest, we didn’t know at first either. We just knew that a good periodical needed a sports section. Since accountants, mathematicians and people who work with numbers favor our pencils, we will focus heavily on statistical analysis of the games you love, like this article from Alexander Poirier on the influence of pitching in baseball’s modern era. In fact, the Blackwing 602, with its replaceable eraser and ability to hold a point (for at least nine innings!), is the perfect baseball scorers’ pencil. So sports fans, when you aren’t walking through the gates of Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, we hope you’ll open the door to Studio 602.

Who exactly is Studio 602 for? It’s for aspiring musicians, songwriters, authors and artists. It’s for movie buffs, book lovers, and sports fans. It’s for number crunchers and anyone who likes attention to detail. Ultimately, Studio 602 is for people who like unique stories about interesting subject matter. We plan to integrate more audio and video along with lessons, tutorials and interviews featuring people of influence from across the globe. Somewhere along the way, we even hope to inspire you.

The blog has a slightly different look than the rest of Pencils.com for a reason. Not just to make it easier to navigate the topics you care about most, but to separate it from our e-commerce store. Sure, we’d love nothing more than for you to shop at Pencils.com, and there will be plenty of links, buttons and banners to help you find your way. But truthfully, when you’re in Studio 602, we want you to be able to let your guard down and meander unobtrusively. And you won’t even have to leave your home or favorite coffee shop to do it.

It’s important that you find fresh content and hear from different voices. Studio 602 is committed to providing you with exactly that. We’ve hired a professional team of writers with experience in a broad range of topics. Our goal is to post new content daily Monday-Friday so check back often, subscribe via RSS, or follow us on Twitter. After all, Pencils.com has built a reputation for high quality products and the content inside Studio 602 shouldn’t be any different.

Kick your shoes off, pour a cold beverage and come on in. The doors to STUDIO 602 are always open.