Carole Hubscher (PMD 73, 1998) remembers the first box of Caran d’Ache colored pencils she received as a child: the smell of hewn wood, the rainbow of bright hues, and the sense of unlimited possibilities. “You think, what am I going to do with all these colors? There was such excitement and joy.”

It’s a memory shared by countless Swiss children: Caran d’Ache has been producing carefully crafted drawing and writing implements—pencils made of sustainably sourced incense cedar wood, pastels, paint, and luxury pens crafted from silver and gold—in its Geneva workshops for more than a hundred years. Hubscher, now president, is determined that future generations will have the same indelible experience of holding a well-made pen or pencil she did. It is, after all, a family legacy. Hubscher is the fourth generation to lead the company.

She wasn’t always sure she would. As a child, Hubscher dreamed of living and working in New York. Her parents encouraged her to pursue her outside interests, which included studying hotel management and working in luxury marketing, but those experiences brought her back to Caran d’Ache. After a stint with the company in New York, “I fell in love with the brand,” she says. Later, she served in various roles at the company in Geneva, joining the board in 2002 and then becoming president in 2012 when her father retired.

When Hubscher took the helm, the company was about to celebrate its first century. There were traditions developed in those 10 decades that Hubscher knew she wouldn’t touch. “The product itself hasn’t changed,” she says. “A pen or a pencil remains a pen or a pencil.” She was also committed to Caran d’Ache’s artisanal approach to production. Crafting a single pencil requires up to 35 steps, with a manufacturing process that can last as long as a week, from the preparation of the lead to the packaging. Yet there still was room for innovation.

Under her father’s leadership, the company had expanded its reach internationally and diversified its product line, each with its own branding. Hubscher brought those products together under the single, well-known Caran D’Ache name. She also focused on expanding the company’s online presence and increasing the transparency of its production process. “We were too discreet, too Swiss,” she says. The company’s long-standing commitment to sustainability, quality, and artistry had become, in the 21st century, a business advantage.

Hubscher is often asked if a company that makes colored pencils and elegant fountain pens is out of step in the digital age, but she is undaunted. “I don’t know many people who don’t use a pen or pencil,” she says. For some, they are a quick way to jot a note, but for Hubscher, the romance of an analog writing implement remains: “For me, they are tools of freedom. You don’t have anything between you, your soul, and the paper and the mark that you leave.”

How to: Pick your pen-and-paper moments

For creativity. Computers are for productivity, Hubscher emphasizes. Pencils and pens are more inspiring. “Look at an artist, an architect; they will always draw the first lines by hand.”

For learning. Studies show that students who take notes by hand retain more information and understand it better: “The brain is like a muscle you have to train through the gesture of writing.”

For impact. “A love letter you write by hand and an ‘I love you’ sent by WhatsApp are not the same.” She chooses a fountain pen for her most important personal notes.

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