In the hands of a talented artist, an entire story can come to life through a single iconic image. Meet Levenger merchandising team member Lexi Fernandez, creator of the dramatic pen designs featured in this year's launch of the Nutcracker series and the wildly successful Christmas Carol series of years past.
The limited-edition Nutcracker pens, created as part of the exclusive partnership between Levenger and Retro 51, are destined to become one of Levenger’s best-selling items of the holiday gift-giving season. The limited run of 750 pens is expected to sell out rapidly, seemingly in the blink of an eye.
When the idea of creating a three-pen series based upon Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was first conceived, Lexi reread the story and set upon doing some additional research, reviewing both the book’s original illustrations and more contemporary versions, as well as several movie adaptations, to come up with a motif that would work for all three pens in the series. She is doing the same for The Nutcracker, reading the book and viewing performances of the famous ballet by Tchaikovsky.
Creating a design for a pen is challenging in a technical sense, which is why Lexi decided upon a repeating pattern of a single image. “The design has to wrap around the pen and the seams have to match up, so the pattern has to be simple to work.”
To convey the story and characters within the slim confines of a pen barrel, Lexi relies on symbolism and her learned discipline of printmaking, which she studied while pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida Atlantic University. (Printmaking involves the creation of pictures or designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks.)
For the Christmas Carol series, she selected a single iconic image to capture the essence of the ‘spirit’ depicted on each pen. For Christmas Present, she chose the torch wielded by the jolly Father Christmas-like apparition. For Christmas Past, the flickering candle held by Scrooge represents his journey into past memories. Last year’s pen, The Ghost of Christmas Future, depicted the lantern held by the final ghostly visitor to Ebenezer Scrooge, illuminating a dark vision of what may come.
Lexi’s designs also appear on the Nutcracker True Notes notebooks, the perfect holiday stocking stuffer.
Her love of art and talent for design notwithstanding, Lexi is equally passionate about the day-to-day duties of her job in merchandising, chiefly product design and development. She describes her merchandising job at Levenger as “a perfect 50/50 balance,” utilizing her creative skills as well as her sharp analytical mind, satisfying both left-brain and right-brain affinities.
Though Lexi’s career path has taken her in the direction of the business of merchandising, she still says creativity is her driving force. In addition to printmaking, she also dabbles in watercolor painting, drawing and sketching. She loves being called upon to use her artistic talents to create new Levenger products.
“Being part of a small team gives me opportunities I wouldn’t have in a larger company. As a product merchant, I wouldn’t be designing artwork for pens and notebooks. This is a creative release for me, and it’s nice that people get to see it...”