For designers, a notebook is so much more than a few sheets of paper tucked between covers – it’s a place where their imaginations can run wild. That’s why many events for creatives provide them as giveaways. Yet when was the last time you received one that both looked stylish and felt like something you would want to hold for hours on end?
Designed by Viktor Koen and hand-assembled by my good friend Karl Heine at DesignerJournals for the Pictoplasma conference in New York City, this beauty is deceptively simple…and simply impossible to put down.
Let’s start with the striking front cover whose title, at first glance, practically screams “Neon Yellow.” In actuality the cover –130 lb. Sappi EuroArt Digital Satin White – was digitally printed by GSB Digital with a rich Black, except for a “knocked out” space in which the title was printed in standard Yellow. But the effect, as you can see, is almost florescent.
Yet it’s the moment you pick it up that this journal truly comes to life. That’s because the exterior is covered with a clear Karess laminate film from Nobelus, which provides it with an exquisite “rose petal” feel – softer even than any Soft Touch coating.
The inside covers are laminated with Black Karess film, achieving that same tantalizing feel and rich Black look as the exterior, but without any printing.
Not only do these films make the notebook as pleasing to the fingertips as it is to the eyes, but they also provide a sturdiness and scuff protection you just don’t find in many journals nowadays. That means you can take it with you wherever you go without worrying about it getting dog-eared or dented, nor losing any of its visual appeal.
Of course in the end a notebook is only as good as the paper inside.
Here we find 60 sheets of 70 lb. Mohawk Options Smooth, a 100% post- consumer waste (PCW) paper that provides the feel of an uncoated sheet, while its Inxwell technology significantly increases the sheets’ opacity, guarding against show-through. Good news indeed if you tend to fill your journals with doodles and sketches on both sides of the page.
Rounded corners throughout and a convenient Wire-O binding complete a notebook that looks and feels appealing, while not being so beautiful that you’re afraid to “ruin” it by actually writing or sketching inside – the fate of so many journals today. (You know who you are 😉 )
