Ninth Wave Designs

Re-Writing History

The small pamphlet that accompanies every Moleskine, with the title The History of a Legendary Notebook, has been recently redesigned.  The images of the notebook line have been updated to include the newest notebook styles (storyboard, music, and Cahiers) and color has been added to the small notebook icons.  The 'history'' is now available in six languages instead of the original four, reflecting the expansion of distribution of Moleskine notebooks worldwide.

What is most interesting about the new pamphlet is the change in the Moleskine story that has played such a large role in this notebook line's marketing success.  It is shorter, more distilled and very highly crafted:

"To capture reality on the move, pin down details, impress upon paper unique aspects of experience: Moleskine is a reservoir of ideas and feelings, a battery that stores discoveries and perceptions, and whose energy can be tapped over time."

Makes me want to stop what I'm doing right now and put pen to Moleskine!  But then what to write? What to draw?  At times the mystique behind the Moleskine story can be intimidating, raising questions of worthiness of ideas and images.  The blank page yawns before me, accuses me of being without a single creative idea.  It is times like these when great copywriting has its downside - intimidation!  But then the "history" goes on to end this way:

"The adventure of Moleskine continues, and its still-blank pages will tell the rest."

So it seems now that it is up to me to fill this notebook. I had better get to work!

That's Italian!

I was recently surprised to find something a little different inside one of the promotional packets from Moleskine for the "Writing" campaign.  In place of the usual 3 samples, a postcard, writing labels, and writing stamps, I found instead Italian versions of the same.  They proclaimed "Scrivere . . ."

The quotes used on numbers 1 through 8 are all the same as the English version, but instead of the American Frank Lloyd Wright as quotee number nine, the Italian version features Emilio Salgari (1863 - 1911).  His quote translates into English as "To read is to travel without all the hassles of luggage."  A Google search reveals that he is described as the Italian Jules Verne, being the author of hundreds of adventure stories, and a pioneer of science fiction writing in Italy. Much of his writing has yet to be translated into English.

Modo & Modo includes one of these items with each Moleskine notebook. There are nine different post cards, a sheet of notebooks labels (very handy), and a sheet of stamp-like stickers of each of the nine quotations.  If you have examples of these promotional items in other languages I would love to hear about it!

 

Click on image for larger version.

MOLEKSINE & Blackwing 602

I began using Blackwing 602 pencils as an art student years ago and have never found another pencil to compare with the richness of the lead.  They give a deep dark black without being overly smudgy, and all the silvery range of greys are there too.  The feeling that comes to mind is "smooth" and it is a pleasure to put this pencil to paper. 

Below is a rough sketch done using the Blackwing 602 in my Moleskine sketchbook. The sketchbook paper in the Moleskine notebooks has a very high finish to it, but a small amount of tooth is still there, so the combination of pencil on the page is very satisfying.  The cream color of the page nicely compliments the shades of grey produced by this pencil. 

The Blackwing 602 has come back into style lately, or maybe for the first time, since they were never very well known to begin with.  They were originally produced by Eberhard Faber, and then later by FaberCastell who stopped making these in the late 90's. This has made them somewhat of a rarity, and I have been watching with strange fascination as single pencils sell on eBay for prices ranging from $20 - $35 each.  I am happy to have a good supply on hand so that hopefully I won't succumb to the need of having to pay so much for a pencil that must have originally sold for less than $1.00 a piece.  I can understand how many feel that $20 or more is not too much to pay for a good writing instrument - look at how much money people spend on fountain pens!  For now I have enough to still feel free to use and enjoy them without the concern of their being extinct hanging over my head as I draw.

One curious aspect of the Blackwing 602 is that it is a pencil with a motto: "Half the pressure, twice the speed."  Do other pencil manufacturers market their pencils with mottos?  It seems like an interesting concept for such a common item and I imagine it contributes to the developing legend surrounding the 602. FaberCastell currently sells a similar pencil the NOBLOT INK PENCIL 705 and it has a motto too - "A bottle of ink in a pencil".  But in this case the presence of a motto is not enough. Sadly, this pencil is not the reincarnation of the Blackwing, and the lead, although capable of some very dark lines, does not compare with the smoothness of the 602.  It has a rough and scratchy feel to it and is no where near as satisfying to use.  When all the Blackwing 602s are sharpened down to their stylish ferrules, or else under glass in a pencil museum (if there is such a place), all I will have left will be my box of NOBLOTs and fond memories of the best sketching pencil ever made.

Click on thumbnail below for a larger image.

Cahier Arts & Crafts

Moleskine released the Cahier line earlier this year as a replacement for the Volants.  The Cahiers are the first notebooks to be made without the "moleskin" / oilcloth type cover material that is so recognizably "Moleskine".  The heavy paper covers of the Cahier create a completely new feel to these notebooks, and also provide an opportunity to break out from the basic black color with the introduction of "Kraft" as a cover choice in all sizes and page styles.  This notebook line is styled after European school copy books, and the visible stitching on the spine is a similar construction to the black and white marbled school composition books more familiar to American students.

The light cardboard covers on the Cahiers lend themselves to personalization and labeling in a way that the formality of the classic Moleskine binding material resists.  It is a natural progression to write or draw on the covers, add collage elements, or any number of creative applications to make a distinction from one notebook to the next.

Below are a few examples of Cahier covers that I have added images to:

I use this pocket size kraft Cahier as a book wish-list to carry in my backpack.  I added a picture of lavendar fields that I cut from an advertising post card printed on glossy card stock.  I peeled the glossy image away from the surface of the post card to make it thinner, so that it would glue down easier and not be as bulky.  I cut out the image using an Exacto knife and attached it to the cover material using an Avery acid-free glue stick.  The title "Livres" was added using rubber stamps.

This large size black Cahier is embellished in a similar way.  The image came from a greeting card that I peeled the glossy part away from the rest of the card stock.  I first made a band from metalic origami paper and attached that with the glue stick.  I cut out and attached the central image in the same was as above using a bone folder to get all the little edges down flat.

Since the Cahiers have fewer pages per notebook than the classic Moleskines they lend themselves to specialization.  I keep several on hand for different types of notetaking  so these additions to the covers make identifying one from the other much easier

MOLESKINE Page Styles

One of the most important qualities of the Moleskine notebooks is the paper. The spacing of the lines and squares in relationship to the page size are a large part of the aesthetic appeal  experienced while writing in these notebooks. The color of the paper is off-white, not quite cream, but just warm enough to make approaching the blank page not seem so cold and daunting. The paper has a very light knap to it, not enough that the ink bleeds, but just enough to make running a pen or pencil across the surface a more pleasing experience. You can feel what you are writing through the pen without simply slipping across the page. Sure the notebook looks great from the outside, but it is the quality of the paper that will keep you coming back for more.

These are direct scans of the pages from Moleskine pocket size (3 5/8" x 5 5/8"; 9 x 14 cm) notebooks. 

The ruled page notebook has 22 full line spaces to write in, with 1 partial line space at the top and the bottom of the page.  The distance between lines measures just under ¼" (6 mm). For the extremely precise I measure 15/64" between lines. The lines on the page are printed with a light grey ink, which prevents the lines from dominating the page.

The squared page notebook has 27 full squares the length of the page and 17 full squares the width of a single page.  These are approximate and depend on how the pages are cut.   The squares measure 3/8" (4mm). The squares are also printed with the same grey ink as the ruled pages.

The paper is acid-free.