Let's face it: typical spiral-bound notebooks are pretty terrible.
Sure, they're usable enough for taking simple notes or general writing, but as a designer and engineer, I became frustrated with the countless pain points I encountered using regular notebooks. The common spiral-bound notebook design converged to the standard, spiral bound single subject notebook. With just a few simple design changes, I solved many minor annoyances I experienced with regular notebooks, creating the ideal design experience.
Let's talk about some of the problems with conventional notebooks. To start, the binding is on the long side of the page. In practice, this means that the user has to rest their hand on the uncomfortable spiral wire when writing on half of the pages in the notebook. I found that I would stop writing several inches from the margin on the back side of every page to avoid this discomfort. This is inherently wasteful: nearly a quarter of every other page is unusable from the notebook's design alone. In my Paper Almanac, all pages are top-bound, fully replaceable and customizable. You don't have to rest your hand on uncomfortable spiral bindings, and you can use 100% of every page. You can choose what type of paper ruling you want to use, whether that be lined, blank, grid, or my favorite, dot-grid. Finally, when you do fill up that paper insert, you can simply replace the notebook and keep using it.
Next, let's talk about the notebook's versatility. Most notebooks have soft plastic covers and thin cardboard backings, making them floppy in nature. As a result, all writing must be done at a desk or other solid surface. With my paper almanac, this is no longer the case. The front and rear cover of the notebook are made from rigid materials, effectively turning the notebook into a portable clipboard while keeping the same form factor. The front cover is made from laser-engraved acrylic, which is rigid and can be customized for each user. The rear cover is made from a paint canvas, allowing the user to add whatever design they'd like on the back.
Let's talk about the paper. In many notebooks, pages cannot withstand liquid ink without it feathering or otherwise damaging the paper. As a fan of roller-ball style pens and a former calligrapher, I grew frustrated when the notebooks I used could not handle lots of ink. This ink either feathers out or even will warp pages in extreme circumstances. When I practiced calligraphy, I tested many different types of paper before I found which brands worked with the heavy ink load they would need to support. My absolute favorite paper made its' way into this notebook: a Rhodia Dot-Pad in top-bound spiral notebook form. This paper is incredible with pens or pencils, heavy ink, pastels, or even paints. All pages are smooth, consistent in color, and perforated.
This notebook was constructed from a 9"x12" art canvas, laser cut cover and spine backing, half of a manila folder, and lots of bookbinder's tape. First, all rigid components were designed on Adobe Illustrator, and then laser-cut. I constructed a jig to properly space rigid panels so that the hinges could rotate properly. Each joint provides 180 degrees of rotation, so the cover can be tucked behind the notebook when it is used in clipboard mode or on a table.
After growing frustrated with minor inconveniences of conventional notebooks, I decided to design my own notebook that improves the writing experience in as many ways as possible. I created a notebook with a built-in clipboard, improved comfort, improved paper quality, and refillable notebook holder, compared to a conventional spiral bound notebook.
In addition to the notebook's design, I developed my own note taking system to organize my thoughts when I ideate. When writing not on a desk, I found that my hand still overhangs off of the edge of the page when I reach the end, and I cannot draw as precisely on the right margin. For this reason, I draw a margin on every page spaced by the page width needed to rest my hand on the edge. I use the left section of the page for my main focus, and I write down the date and any tangential thoughts or ideas as annotations in the right column. All pages are held tightly open or closed by a binder clip, so the notebook won't come open unless you want it to. On top of this, it has a built-in pencil holder in the notebook's protected spiral bindings, which holds my favorite type of mechanical pencil (the Zebra M-301 0.5mm).
When I first finished my paper almanac, I was thrilled. I wrote down all of my thoughts and ideas in it for several weeks, and it was the perfect writing and designing process that I had dreamed of. Unfortunately, its' use was short lived: about a month after finishing it, I bought an iPad. As wonderful as the perfect analog design process is, it cannot compare to the beauty and capability of digital technology. Being able to annotate images directly, copy and paste drawings, and erase perfectly is just too much for old-fashioned pencil and paper to compete with. In the realm of paper notebooks, however, I believe the notebook I created provides the user with a far improved design experience compared to the common spiral-bound notebooks we're all familiar with. Would you like to have a paper almanac for yourself? If so, let me know on my contact page! If enough people are interested, I will making them available for purchase. Thank you for reading, and feel free to check out some of my other projects!
