Okay, this might be a little clunky since I'm just diving into blogging, but here's the real story behind Chalk Ink – and why we call ourselves the original gangsters of liquid chalk markers.

It Started with a Very Expensive Problem

So picture this: I'm a retail designer for Whole Foods, and we've just installed these gorgeous, expensive chalkboards all over the stores. Beautiful boards. Big investment. And then we realize we don't have anything to use for writing on them that actually works for food service.

Traditional chalk is dusty and absolutely not safe around food. Regular markers don't give you that chalk look and they're permanent on most surfaces. We literally had these amazing boards and nothing to use on them.

So I went out, found a supplier, and created my own marker. I came up with the name "Chalk Ink" and honestly thought this would just be my little side entrepreneurial project while I kept doing retail design. I figured Sharpie would eventually come along, buy me out, and that would be that.

Well, that didn't exactly happen.

The Science Behind the Solutions

Here's where my 35 years of retail obsession really kicked in. See, retail design isn't just about making things pretty – it's this fascinating science of people. How we act, how we shop, what catches our eye based on everything going on in our lives and the world around us.

I've spent decades studying this stuff. I know when sales happen at every store, where all the bathrooms are (trust me, this matters), who has the best products and exactly where they're sourced. Did you know Costco's vodka is made by Grey Goose and their diamonds are Tiffany? This is the kind of retail geek knowledge I live for.

But back to the markers. We didn't just make one formula – we actually ended up with two because different users need different solutions. We started with a really strong formula that we later changed. The chalk markers with the wet wipe formula is what Starbucks uses, and it's much easier to take off. The original formula we called Artista Pro, and it's almost semi-permanent. Sign makers like that one because you have to take it off with some muscle and some oomph with cleaner.

The wet wipe technically comes off with water, but the Artista Pro is more sign maker grade. Two totally different categories of chalk markers.

The Category That Didn't Exist

Here's the thing – we literally created this category. There wasn't such a thing as liquid chalk markers before us. We're the OG, the original, and honestly, still the best. Our products are made in Japan with incredibly high-end standards and all kinds of testing and certifications.

Then 2008 hit. Financial crisis, housing crisis – we lost all our design projects. I looked around and said, "You know what? We're going to focus on these markers full-time because we've never had to focus on them before."

The Starbucks Game-Changer

We did a show in Las Vegas called the GlobalShop Show – this massive convention where retailers from around the world come for ideas and inspiration. We had our booth set up with the markers, and then Starbucks came to our booth and asked if we would do a custom pack to match their decor.

And it was like, boy, did you come to the right spot, because that's what I do. Absolutely.

It took us two years before we got a purchase order, but we've been with them now probably 15 years. And here's the beautiful thing: when someone leaves Starbucks and goes to work for REI, or Dunkin', or Peet's, they usually know our products by brand name because we have all of our certifications. We usually win every test if there's a bunch of competitors. They usually test white because it's the most popular color, and they'll get all the different competitors together. We always win. We're the most expensive, but we always win.

These big retailers don't want to mess up their displays and fixtures that they spend money on, so companies like Target only use our markers in the store and in produce, but they don't necessarily sell our product because it's not cheap enough for their price point.

The Knockoff Wars

Want to know how fast we got copied? We did a craft show called CHA early on, and we had a booth. By the next morning, most of the art competitors had knocked us off and had a version of their own marker. So it was very, very, very competitive early on, like in 2009 and 2010. Chalkboards were everywhere. We kind of lived through that phase.

Menu boards since that time all went digital. But the weird thing is, people love a hand-drawn message because it makes it seem like the bakery items are fresh, the pizzas fresh. There's just something about that handmade touch. So we have seen a resurgence of the whole handcrafted lettering and those types of signage and boards and whatnot. We've kind of lived through that whole cycle.

What's Next: The Color Company Revolution

We're getting ready to launch a new Amazon store that's going to be a very big deal. We crushed it with Amazon early on, but then all of our competition came in and just sold it much cheaper than us. Anyway, we're getting ready to take that back.

We're going to be all things colorful because we're calling ourselves a color company and we're going to sell a lot of things, not just the markers. We're going to have a lot of new packs and new colors and so forth. But we're also going to be selling drinkware and merch and apparel and a bunch of tech items in bright, fun colors, so we can just kind of expand our color company to every genre, in every industry.

The Dyslexic Advantage

For me,  I'm quite dyslexic and have always "talked in color." It's how I break things down and solve problems differently. Maybe that's why I see retail spaces and color solutions in ways others don't. When you think in color, you understand how it affects people's emotions, their shopping behavior, their entire experience in a space.

We're Still the Originals

After all these years, all the competition, all the knockoffs – we're still here. Still the OG. We definitely are the original gangster when it comes to the Chalk Ink brand. We came up with the category. And we also have our Chalk Ink trademarked, and we should be able to keep a lot of folks from being able to use those terms. We haven't been able to do that in the past, but we're taking a new approach with a new company that's going to help us really do that.

We're going to have a big, huge comeback done with a slightly different tone and a lot of different categories. We've seen the handcrafted lettering trend come back stronger than ever, and we're ready for whatever comes next. Because at the end of the day, this all started with one retail design problem and my obsession with finding the right solution.

More stories coming as I figure out this whole blogging thing ...