German writing instruments manufacturer Senator has struck a three-year partnership with DesignworksUSA, the firms announced this week. A subsidiary of the BMW Group, DesignworksUSA is a creative consultancy that lends design expertise to the automotive industry and many other high-profile industries and clients.

DesignworksUSA will collaborate with Senator on key design themes, conceptual work and more for the supplier’s writing instruments. The companies are launching a new program called “Your Personal Pen” that will allow clients to customize writing instruments specifically for their brand beyond an imprint on a pen clip.

“Senator and DesignworksUSA share the philosophy that the design of a promotional pen should reflect the brand’s DNA down to the last detail,” Senator CEO Christian Korte said in a statement. “With this service which no other company currently offers, we are giving companies the opportunity to individualize their promotional pens to make them fit their brands like a tailor-made suit in terms of shape, color and surface design.”

In a release, DesignworksUSA said Senator has a “new design focus” that will result in additional colors, shapes, surface options and personalization possibilities. The initiative started at January’s PSI show, when the supplier unveiled 50 different colors.

“The decision to make design a driving force of Senator’s new pen generation is an expression of the company’s vision and confidence,” said Sonja Schiefer, director of the DesignworksUSA studio in Munich. “The new design strategy covering the whole writing utensil portfolio is already in place. We are now entering the formal development phase and will reveal the first new pens later this year.”