Sunday, September 23, 2012

Faber-Castel, who are you trying to fool?

OK, the "new" product is Gelatos. People are confused because Faber-Castell already has a product called "gel sticks". I was at CHA in 2011 and "gelatos" were their new thing. FC sent Suzi some gelatos, and she gave them to me to play with, then Suzi gave me some gel sticks for Kelly's birthday (yes, for Kelly's birthday I got a present). And so I took a gel stick and a gelato in the same color and scribbled them in a sketchbook and added water and here is the result:


That's right people, there's NO DIFFERENCE. At all. They felt the same going on and the reacted exactly the same when I added the water. WTF is up with that? The gel sticks are in the kids' art section and they're fun, like watercolor crayons but they feel more like pastels when they go on. They look like chapstick, each one in its own plastic tube so they don't rub off on each other, that's pretty nice. The gelatos are WAY more expensive that the gel sticks, and I think they're just f-ing with us because they seem the same to me. Jerks.

3 comments:

  1. Hi There!

    Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft® here. Just wanted to add in a few facts about the Gelatos™-unlike the Gel Sticks, the Gelatos™ have a formulation that we have uniquely designed to be lightfast, acid-free and archival for paper crafters.

    You were right when you thought Gelatos and Gel Sticks looked similar, Gelatos were in fact inspired by our children’s Gel Stick but we knew that the basic children’s primary color set and the children’s formulation would not meet the paper crafter’s need.

    Gel Sticks don’t have the lightfast quality of Gelatos, crafts created with Gel Sticks will begin to fade over time.

    Another difference between Gel Sticks and Gelatos™- Gelatos™ have broader color palette to choose from. Before we released these new colors, we conducted an extensive study on the hottest trends in the crafting industry. Our new colors not only coordinate with other pens and pencils in our line, but also with the current selection of paper, ribbons, and embellishments that are on store shelves. Our Mix & Match concept lets you work effortlessly by simply choosing your favorite color collections and shopping across the medium choices (like combining mixed media techniques using Gelato’s and Watercolor Pencils, or Gelatos and Stamper’s Big Brush india ink pens) We know trends change and that’s why we continue to add to our color collections like our expanded Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Neutral, and Metallic collections. These color collections reach beyond just your basic red, and include more sophisticated and adult colors like our Guava, Lavender, and Metallic Melon colors. This winter we will be adding our Gelato designer color series, inspired by popular combinations of colors designed to pop when used alongside one another. With this further addition of option to shop by a preselected designer color, you will have 32 colors of Gelatos to choose from.

    You can visit our facts page for more information: http://www.fabercastell.com/design-memory-craft/newsroom/faqs

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  2. I feel like you now need to do a lightfast test, AKA scribble on some paper with each one and put it near a window for a while to see the difference. Or that may just be my bitchy self! :)

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  3. I feel like you now need to do a lightfast test, AKA scribble on some paper with each one and put it near a window for a while to see the difference. Or that may just be my bitchy self! :)

    ReplyDelete