Good Made Better Keeps Getting Better

SUZANNE C. LEE tests Dan Keller's wood and metal reading and writing accessories and finds her childhood dream desk come to fruition.

- SUZANNE C. LEE

As a child I had big ideas, and one of those was a design-in the crudest possible term-for a portable mini-desk with niches built in for immediate needs: pencils, erasers, a tiny bottle-like recepticle meant to contain any other essential items. I used a huge, flat book and multiple measuring cups to accomplish a primitive version of my invention, but of course the cups spilled when the surface moved even slightly, and a large children's book is no substitute for a solid wooden desk with a roll stop.

Fast-forward a few decades: I'm a writer with a creative mind but am absolutely incapable of even modest engineering. Advances in technology terrify me. Luckily for me and others who might be limited in their abilities to assemble, a slew of sensical but magnificent products are ever available to us. Under the name Good Made Better, the desk products by Dan Keller of South Dakota are not only useful tools, they also imbue the user with the confidence and understanding necessary to actually use them.

When I pulled out the Writewell, my own primitive blueprint stared back at me in its ultimate evolution: a miniature desk with nooks and crevices for accessories; a brilliant and sloped wooden surface on which to work, write, or dream. My childhood tiny-desk concept in final form, the Writewell is professional and perfected, as cool and convenient as I always imagined it would be.

The slope of the Writewell desk makes writing effortless and allows for a more comfortable and healthy posture while doing so. A long slot called the Miscellany Niche is at the front-center for essential items, flanked on either side by Penwells.