There are so many ways technology helps us record information. Yet, the analog notebook hangs in there. Paired with a pen, nothing commits information to memory quite like sketching or jotting thoughts and observations by hand on nice paper.
A London design agency, understanding how personal notebooks inspire creativity, has created a platform called Book Block for creatives to design their own notebooks.
Mustard Design Agency and Monsieur Notebook has launched a Kickstarter campaign so that it can manufacture the notebooks on a larger scale. A single custom-designed notebook will run $23 during the Book Block campaign, which aims to raise more than $15,000.
Notebooks come in all shapes and sizes and have been a staple of every student, reporter, artist, and list maker. Moleskine, a long-time maker of leather-bound journals (Van Gogh was said to have carried a Moleskine sketchbook) made well-crafted notebooks fashionable in the late 1990s, and other companies began producing artfully-covered books with acid-free paper.
Monsieur has been making leather notebooks since 2010.
The notebook carrier interested in their own creations can download the template from the Book Block website to design the front and back covers with 2400×2400 dpi on an 8.25″x6″ book. They also choose from five different papers, a ribbon for marking pages and the color of elastic to keep the book shut.
With the money, the agency would buy binding machinery and a commercial printer that allows for printing the notebooks cheaply in small batches. They currently use a manual press to produce books.
