About the atelier
Two makers. One shared respect for wood.
LIGNORAE is an independent Munich atelier founded around a simple idea: a writing instrument can carry the warmth of natural material, the precision of careful work and an invitation to slow down.
The people behind LIGNORAE
An artistic eye and a technical hand.
Daniel Schneider and Iacob Tamas bring different histories to the same object. One begins with form, atmosphere and meaning. The other understands how wood behaves under the tool. Their work meets where design becomes material.
Founder & Designer
Daniel Schneider
Daniel studied violin and piano at an art school in Sibiu during the first part of the 1990s. It was there that art became more than a subject: it changed the direction of his life. That visual and emotional education later continued through thirteen years of fine-art photography.
After many years in logistics and operational leadership, LIGNORAE was not a return to an earlier life but a new beginning. Working increasingly with wood revealed its warmth, vitality and almost paradoxical complexity: a material that can appear simple while holding endless variation.
Daniel founded LIGNORAE from the desire to become independent, to step away from the industrial and the anonymous, and to create objects capable of bringing a little more joy into everyday life. He develops the forms, selects materials, turns, assembles, finishes, tests, photographs and registers every piece, while also carrying the digital, financial and organisational work of the atelier.
Technical Artist
Iacob Tamas
Iacob is the technical artist of LIGNORAE. A carpenter with twenty years of practical woodworking behind him, he has spent much of his professional life creating useful structures and objects from wood.
Behind that practical experience, however, there has always been a turner fascinated by fine, almost filigree detail. At LIGNORAE, that instinct finds its place in precision turning, material preparation and the technical development of the atelier's objects.
Daniel and Iacob have known each other for almost seven years, after their paths crossed in Cluj. Iacob brings remarkable patience, quiet precision and an extraordinary kindness to the work. Where Daniel often searches for the final line and finish, Iacob gives the material technical certainty.
Between two ateliers
The object passes from idea to hand, and back again.
A LIGNORAE writing instrument is not produced through an assembly line. Materials are selected, prepared, turned, examined, adjusted and finished through a continuous dialogue between design and technique.
Iacob's strength lies in fine turning and technical preparation. Daniel's lies in proportion, surface, finishing and the complete identity of the piece. Their roles overlap deliberately, because every object improves when both perspectives remain present.
Material
The wood is not asked to disappear.
Each piece begins with the grain, density, texture and irregularities already present in the material. Rather than forcing every blank into an identical form, the design responds to what the wood offers.
The aim is an elegant object that still feels alive in the hand: warm, tactile and individual. A writing instrument that quietly asks its owner to stop rushing and remain with the moment a little longer.
Registration & provenance
Every object retains its history.
Each writing instrument is individually registered in the LIGNORAE archive. Its material, technical details, production record and identifying characteristics remain connected to the object through its permanent registry entry.
This archive forms the foundation of The First One Hundred, the founding edition of the atelier and the first chapter of a longer body of work.
The Cocoon Box
Presentation conceived as part of the object.
The Cocoon Box is not treated as disposable packaging. It is designed as a sculptural companion to the writing instrument and as part of the complete ownership experience.
Instrument, material, certificate and archive are brought together as one coherent object, created to remain rather than to be discarded.
An atelier, not a factory
Attention is the measure of growth.
LIGNORAE will remain deliberately small. The purpose is not anonymous volume, but the preservation of attention, craftsmanship and individuality.
For Daniel and Iacob, success means creating objects whose warmth can be felt, whose details reward closeness and whose presence makes writing by hand feel worth the time again.