It All Started with a Pen | 115 Years of Blick

Born to English immigrants, Dick Blick grew up during a time when retail advertising depended on handcrafted signage. Stores relied on artists known as showcard writers to create bold promotional displays for windows and counters.

These artists combined expressive lettering, decorative alphabets, and graphic flourishes to attract customers’ attention. Their work required skill, precision, and specialized tools.

Dick Blick was one of the best.

After studying at Chicago’s Koester School, he became an award-winning showcard writer known for his mastery of pen, brush, and airbrush techniques. Early airbrush systems were powered by hand or foot pumps or compressed CO₂—far from today’s equipment.

Blick also shared his expertise through published tutorials featuring striking alphabets and lettering styles of his own design. Like many artists, he was deeply invested in the tools that made his work possible.

That passion would soon become a business.

In 1911, Dick and his wife Grace Blick launched a mail-order company called The Card Writer’s Supply Company, which would later become Blick Art Materials.

At the time, Chicago was the center of the American catalog industry. Mail-order shopping played such a major role in the economy that catalogs received special low postal rates, allowing businesses to reach customers across the country.

You could order nearly anything by mail—even an entire house. Dick Blick saw an opportunity to supply artists and signmakers with the tools they needed, no matter where they lived.

Fast delivery became part of the company’s mission, symbolized by the Running Man logo that artists still recognize today.

But the business needed a first product.

That product was the Payzant Pen.

Designed for showcard writing, the pen featured a distinctive curved nib that allowed artists to produce both broad strokes and precise lines. The nib’s adjustable width made it especially versatile for lettering work, helping artists create bold, expressive signs efficiently.

For showcard writers, it quickly became a dependable workhorse.

The Payzant Pen captured what would become a defining idea behind Blick: the belief that great tools empower artists to do their best work.

Soon, the catalog expanded. Products like Black Cat Card Writing Colors and Masterstroke Brushes followed—brands that artists still know today.

But the Payzant Pen remains the tool that started it all.

In 1948, Robert Metzenberg acquired Dick Blick Art Supplies, continuing its growth as a family-owned business. Over the decades, the company expanded its assortment and its reach.

The first retail store opened in 1974, bringing Blick supplies directly to artists in local communities.

Meanwhile, the famous Blick catalog continued to grow, eventually exceeding 400 pages at its peak. For generations of artists and teachers, each issue became both a shopping guide and a creative resource.

Today, Blick operates more than 60 retail stores alongside an industry-leading online store at blickart.com. Yet even in the digital age, the catalog remains a beloved part of the company’s history.

Dick Blick believed artists needed more than tools—they also needed knowledge and inspiration.

That idea remains central to Blick today. From tutorials and guides to classroom resources and artist education, the company continues to support creativity at every level.

Whether you’re a student, a teacher, a professional artist, or someone discovering art for the first time, the mission remains the same.

To make the tools of creativity accessible to everyone.

And it all started 115 years ago with a single tool—the Payzant Pen.