Design.Y notebooks

Design.Y notebooks

It seems to have been a while since this blog has been so excited about a new stationery product. The notebooks shown here are from Design.Y, the brand of Mr. Hiroshi Yoshino-san, a bookbinder from Sendai, Japan.

The products are amazing because every aspect of the notebook is of exceptional quality – the cover, the binding, and the paper. I learned of these notebooks at the Fountain Pen Network, where many fountain pen users are claiming it is the finest paper they’ve ever used.

Design.Y notebooks

The two notebooks shown are the Record 216 and Record 336 models. These numerals refer to the page counts.

The covers are in brown goatskin. Black is also available. At first, I found the look stern, and perhaps conservative. But I’ve warmed up to the look, especially after starting to use the smaller notebook. The goatskin is luxurious and very pleasant to the touch. I am not aware of ever having seen anything nicer as a notebook or journal cover.

Ruled and plain paper are available, and depending on the model, elastic closures, bookmark ribbons, and dyed edges are available as options. The Record 336 shown here has dyed edges and two bookmark ribbons.

The notebooks do not lie perfectly flat, but there is no difficulty using the whole page.

Design.Y notebooks

There is a small notch exposing the ribbon:

Design.Y notebooks

The back has a small maker’s mark:

Design.Y notebooks

The goatskin covers and hand binding are beautiful, but the paper is what seems to have received the most online English language recognition. (The notebooks have been featured in several Japanese stationery magazines, but I’m not able to read those reports.) Of course, this praise is in the context of the fountain pen community, which finds most modern paper unsuitable for water based fountain pen inks.

The paper is exceptionally lightweight. It is called Tomoe River, and comes from the Tomoegawa Paper Company. This allows thin notebooks with 336 pages, for example. Yet the paper doesn’t bleed or feather. Being thin, it does show through to the other side. A Bruichladdich list taken with a medium 14K Lamy nib and Lamy blue ink:

Design.Y notebooks

An HB Mitsubishi Hi-uni pencil also works:

Design.Y notebooks

These notebooks are on their way to becoming cherished items, and I’ll join the chorus of those praising their quality. If the look is to your taste, you may want to try one.

Beautiful Pigs and Beautiful Sheep notecards

Beautiful Sheep notecards

This is the season when we celebrate the harvest. My friends in the US just celebrated Thanksgiving – a holiday which is also celebrated in Canada, though in October. Of course, many countries and regions have their own versions of harvest festivals.

A fond childhood memory for me was the annual fall trip to Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, an event I’ve continued to attend as an adult. They just wrapped up their 88th season.

A particular treat of such an event is seeing less common varieties and breeds of livestock. The preservation of these animals is championed by organizations such as Rare Breeds Canada and their international counterparts.

When Ivy Press contacted me, I was delighted to learn about about the theme of their notecards and other products – less common and endangered breeds of farm animals. They kindly sent me samples of their Beautiful Pigs and Beautiful Sheep notecards.

There is no exaggeration – the products are beautiful. Each item is a boxed set of twenty notecards and twenty envelopes. Each box has four different portraits – five cards each. The pigs were photographed by Andrew Perris, and the sheep by Paul Farnham. The boxes themselves are very sturdy and attractive, and I can’t imagine throwing them out when the cards are gone.

The boxes:
Beautiful Pigs notecards

Beautiful Sheep notecards

The cards:
Beautiful Pigs notecards

Beautiful Sheep notecards

Among the sheep, I especially like the Suffolk yearling:

Beautiful Sheep notecards

Less familiar but incredibly captivating is the image of the Blonde Mangalitza boar, a native of Hungary:

Beautiful Pigs notecards

To me, the theme and photos are very appealing. Though they don’t (as far as I know) sell at retail in Canada, the list price of £8.99 for 20 cards plus envelopes is very good value based on the quality and originality of the product.

Photos of a couple of other sets:

Beautiful Ducks notecards

Beautiful Tractors notecards

The first and last two photos are official photos from the Ivy Press, and copyrighted by them.

Clairefontaine notebooks

Doing some fall cleaning, I found a dozen Clairefontaine A4 notebooks from student days in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

vintage Clairefontaine notebooks

The notebooks strongly resemble the current offerings, and have held up very well over time. Good job, Clairefontaine!

vintage Clairefontaine notebooks

Düller Memo Pad

Düller Memo Pad

An unexpected local find, the Düller Memo Pad.

An elongated notepad, the paper features a dotted grid. The cover is a very nice forest green.

Shown here with a Düller Dietrich Lubs fountain pen:

Düller Memo Pad and Düller Dietrich Lubs fountain pen

Midori notebooks

Midori Notebooks Midori Notebooks

The globe is shrinking – recently found locally (Ontario, Canada) – Midori notebooks.

Plain and simple, yet high quality. Nicely finished. No visible cutting or processing artifacts or residue.

Relatively expensive, but their reputation preceded them.

The Midori paper loves graphite, and graphite loves this paper!

Midori Notebooks

Whitelines isometric graph paper

Isometric graph paper is still manufactured and sold in 2011, and has become an expensive specialty item.

I recall seeing engineering notebooks from decades ago that had isometric patterns, often facing a ruled or blank page. The tasks that require isometric graph paper (along with polar graph paper) long ago transitioned to computer software.

So, let me state that it was an immense surprise to see pads of a new isometric graph paper for sale at a brick and mortar stationer.

Alvin, who might be considered a traditional drafting and engineering supplier, claim isometric graph paper is “Ideal for mechanical drawing or design needs, especially machine design, architecture, and patent office drafting.”

Whitelines, the Swedish stationer known for using white ruling on grey backgrounds, are the creator of this new product, and state that “isometric graph paper helps you visualize ideas and draw in 3D for design, mathematical illustration and just sheer play.” It sounds like a slightly different market segment.

Isometric graph paper

Shown with two of the most technical drawing leadholders I could find: a Caran d’Ache Fixpencil 22 with roughened grip (purchased at Phidon Pens) and a Rotring compass pencil.

Isometric graph paper

I’d like to also see the Alvin paper – it is about the same price per sheet as the Whitelines paper.

Isometric graph paper

The “sheer play” purpose seems just right!