Ninth Wave Designs

Dear, Dear Diary.

Here's a little example of the power of notebooks and diaries that I came across recently while reading Sarah Waters' novel, Affinity.

"I had been sitting very still to listen to her.  Now, becoming more aware of myself, I found that I was cold, and I drew my coat a little closer about me.  The action made my note-book show at my pocket, and I saw her looking at it.  All the time we talked, then, her gaze kept returning to that edge of book; until at last, when I rose to leave her, she said, Why did I always carry a book with me?  Did I mean to write about the women of the gaol?

I told her then that I take my note-book with me wherever I go - that it was a habit I had fallen into when helping my father with his work.  I said I should feel very strange without it, and that what I wrote in it I sometimes later put into another book, that was my diary.  I said that that book was like my dearest friend.  I told it all my closest thoughts, and it kept them secret.

She nodded.  My book was like her, she said - it had no-one to tell.  I might as well say my closest thoughts there, in her cell.  Who did she have, to pass them on to?"

Affinity is an epistolary novel, told in the form of entries from the diaries of the two main characters.   What made this section jump out at me the most is the way that it captures the curiosity associated with carrying and keeping notebooks.  Who has seen someone writing in their notebook or drawing in their sketchbook in a cafe, and hasn't secretly wanted to seize the thing and examine all the pages while the author is off getting a refill?   Or conversely, who hasn't been themselves aware of the general interest that carrying a notebook inspires in others?  It's part of the fun, really, to be doing something so intensely private as writing about your intimate goings-on in your diary, but doing it in such a public place.  It's the feeling of - I want you to know, but I don't want you to know, at least not until I decide to show you myself.  It's the fun of building a mystery.

Additionally this section from Waters' novel appealed to me because it personifies the main character's diary as her closest friend, and reinforces the sense that she views her diary as a real person by having the second character also identify herself as a book of secrets.  Viewing a diary as a friend has come to have more meaning to me lately, as I have finally come to a place in my life where I am actually keeping a personal diary.  The irony of this shift in my perspective hasn't been lost on me - that only after coming to the end of spending three years selling diaries to others did I finally arrive at a place in my life where I had a deep need to write a daily, personal and confessional diary myself. 

I have come to see that for most of you out there, the real reason for your passion for Moleskine diaries all these years hasn't only been (as I thought) about form, function and quality, but that it has also been about being selective with the company you keep.  It's been about whom you are willing to trust with your most personal thoughts - it's been about carefully choosing your dearest friend.   As sappy as all that sounds, I still think it is absolutely true.  Hidden under the weight of all the cynicism associated with well-crafted marketing plans you will find that your Moleskine is still just a diary after all, and as such its worth is determined only by what you yourself entrust to its pages.   You may also discover as I have, that when you do find a friend that you can share your closest thoughts with, one who you know will keep them secret, life feels a lot less lonely because of it.

Inspiration: Mooch's Diary

This strip from September 18th just became available online, in that strange time-warp way that these things work.  It's a Mutts strip created by Patrick McDonnell, and features one of his main characters, Mooch the cat, getting all introspective:

Hope you're keeping up with your Moleskine Diary better than I am, but this new minimalist approach may be just the thing I need.

You can subscribe to receive the daily strip via email.

UPDATE 10/3/06: Apparently this is a week-long series:

UPDATE 10/4/06:

UPDATE 10/5/06:

UPDATE 10/6/06:

UPDATE 10/7/06:

Moleskine Planners: A Bright Future

The complete line of Moleskine Planners is now available at the Ninth Wave Designs online store (hurrah!).  Updates were made to the NWD online website that includes listings for all ten planner styles, so you can now use the store format to place your orders.  A reminder to buyers outside the U.S. - the shopping cart system only calculates shipping for within the U.S. - so email your orders directly and I will invoice with the correct shipping amount.

I have made some other little changes to the NWD online store layout, to make navigation easier and to correct some dead link problems.  Hopefully I have found all the dead links, but if I missed any please drop me an email.  I am in the process of moving my Moleskine sales off eBay, so the NWD online store is now my primary focus for online sales.  If you are a former eBay customer, bookmark the NWD online website, and welcome aboard!

I am working to add a few additional items to the online store - Exacompta index cards and some combo sets I have previously sold on eBay.  AT SOME POINT I will be adding the new Watercolor Reporter Notebooks, providing they ever arrive.  The new estimated delivery time is the first week in June, and I'm really hoping this is when they actually will ship.  Now, back to the planners:

For those of you who need a planner sooner than January 1, 2007, the two 18 month softcover planners begin on June 26th.  Both pocket and large planners are available in 18 month formats, so you can get started using the new planner format soon.  The red 12 month hardcover pocket planner promises to be a brisk seller, so I would suggest ordering one of those early to ensure you have one on hand when 2007 rolls around.

The tried and true Classic Hardcover Planners are selling well too.  New to this line is a change in the Large Weekly page layout.  This page format now matches the Pocket Weekly layout - one week across two pages with a short lined section for each day - instead of the previous layout with columns.  You can see a scan of the Large Weekly page format HERE.

I will keep the planners in stock as long as I can get them.  Last year Moleskine was short on planners, and I ran out months before I usually do.  This year the supply will hopefully meet the demand, but I still suggest ordering early to get the best selection just in case.  The future looks bright for Moleskine Planners, so plan ahead to plan your future!

2007 Moleskine Planners: Are They Here Yet?

Well, it's here, in all its glorious redness:

Finally! The limited edition red planner is here in front of me, along with some (not all) of the new softcover planners.  The pocket size softcover planners have not arrived yet, but I expect they should arrive soon.

I now have the following 2007 Moleskine Planners in stock:

• 2007 Limited Edition Red Hardcover Pocket Weekly Planner & Notebook (12 Month) $13.95.
• 2007 Large Softcover Weekly Planner & Notebook (12 Month) $14.95.
• 2007 Extra-Large Softcover Weekly Planner & Notebook (12 Month) $16.95.
• 2006-2007 Large Softcover Weekly Planner & Notebook (18 Month) $14.95.
• 2007 Classic Hardcover Pocket Weekly Planner (12 Month) $12.95.
• 2007 Classic Hardcover Pocket Daily Planner (12 Month) $13.95.
• 2007 Classic Hardcover Large Weekly Planner (12 Month) $15.95.
• 2007 Classic Hardcover Large Daily Planner (12 Month) $18.95.

I am in the process of adding the new arrivals to the NWD Online store which will take me a few days to complete. Because you are a dedicated reader of the NWD blog I will be happy to set up an order for you now.  So if you are itching to order any of these then send me an EMAIL of your order with your shipping destination and I will create an invoice for you through PayPal.  You can see my earlier post for the details on each of the planners being offered HERE. Feel free to combine the planners with any of the other items I offer in my online store.

Now, if only the new Watercolor Notebooks would arrive!

UPDATE 5/9/06: The Pocket softcover planners are here now, both 12 and 18 month versions - so that makes all ten types in stock now.  I am working on getting them up on the NWD store, but email your order if you are antsy to get your planner! - NW

2007 Classic Moleskine Planners Have Arrived!

Four of the ten Moleskine Planner styles are now in stock at the Ninth Wave Designs online store.  The four Classic hardcover Moleskine Planners for 2007 have arrived, but the new soft cover versions and the red hardcover planners will still take a few more weeks to arrive.

The four styles now available for purchase are:

• 2007 Classic Pocket Weekly Planner
• 2007 Classic Pocket Daily Planner
• 2007 Classic Large Weekly Planner
• 2007 Classic Large Daily Planner

These are the same styles that were available in 2006.  The only change in 2007 is that the Large Weekly Planner has now adopted the same page layout format of the Pocket Weekly Planner.  Gone are the columns of days running down the page, replaced by the small ruled sections that run across the page.  You can see a scan of the new layout HERE.  I have a limited supply of these available now, since I was unsure how many to order compared with the new planners.  If you are planning on using one of these for 2007 you may want to order yours early, since last year they were not available when I re-ordered stock.

The remaining six new styles of planners are going to arrive HOPEFULLY in a few more weeks - likewise for the new Watercolor Reporter Notebooks.  Stay tuned to the NWD blog for release dates.

You can access the 2007 Moleskine Planners at the Ninth Wave Designs Online store HERE.

Moleskine Planner PSA

The new 18 month Moleksine planners - the sexy red number and the flexible covered versions - are still a ways off from being available, with the new estimated arrival time of the first week of May (exasperated with waiting yet?).  In an attempt to ensure that you get the right planner from among the TEN available options from Moleskine this year I have gathered the following images and details.  Think of this as your Moleskine Planner Public Service Announcement. 

Moleskine 18 Month Softcover Planners - June '06/December '07:

Pocket sized will sell for $9.95.

Large size will sell for $14.95.

Moleskine 12 Month Softcover Planners - January '07/December '07:

Pocket sized will sell for $9.95.

Large size will sell for $14.95.

Extra-Large size will sell for $16.95.

Moleskine Limited Edition Red Hardcover Weekly Planner - January '07/December '07:

Pocket size will sell for $13.95.

Moleskine Classic Hardcover Planners - January '07/December '07:

Pocket Daily will sell for $13.95.

Pocket Weekly will sell for $12.95.

Large Daily will sell for $18.95.

Large Weekly will sell for $15.95.

The Classic hardcover planners come with a removable address book again this year.

I will keep you posted on expected delivery dates, and let you know when I am set up to take orders for these on the Ninth Wave Designs website.

Dear Diary: Corporate Meets Art Class

Above is a scan from my Moleskine Daily Diary, a copy of an ancient Egyptian image that came on the cover of a catalog in the mail.  I used a black Gelly Roll fine point pen and Pitt brush markers to make the image, and then wrote my entry around the figure (which I have blurred out to save you from the mundane blathering that was the result!).

My Moleskine Pocket Daily Diary has become a catch-all for the odd bits of information, rough ideas, and quick sketches that defy any attempts at organization.  I love using my diary for its designed function as well, writing a daily entry that takes up the one page allotted, but it is the more creative entries that break that mold that have become the usual fare for me.  It's when the unassuming exterior of a Moleskine contrasts with the boisterous interior pages - a feeling of corporate meets art class - that I find I am enjoying my daily diary the most.

No one does this process more justice than Kathrin2305 (aka Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel) over at Flickr. For several years she has been keeping an illustrated diary in her Moleskine Pocket Daily Diaries. You can see photographs of her diary pages HERE.  These images brought together into a set attest to the collective power of doing a little creative something every day.  I hope Kathrin's diary pages are as inspirational to you as they are to me.

Desperately Seeking St. Anthony

On my list of New Year's resolutions, the very first one was to write or sketch something on every page of my daily diary. Now that January is coming to an end I can report that I am 1/12 of the way to achieving this goal, having something on every page for the whole month.  I realized soon after beginning my 2006 diary that I needed to be a little lenient in my interpretation of what that first resolution meant. Rather than forcing myself to fill one page on each exactly corresponding day, I allow myself to fill more than one page a day if the urge strikes, and to skip days and then go back and fill them on another day when I feel I have something compelling to write about.  My approach is to never face the blank page with a feeling of obligation.  This more relaxed method to Daily Diary filling has been much more successful for me, and compared to the months of empty pages in my 2005 daily diary, my 2006 diary has a nice full feeling to it already.

Here is an excerpt from my Moleskine Pocket Daily Diary from January 13th:

"I was changing the sheets on my bed when I spied a little metal object that had fallen into the crack between the bed frame and the wall.  It was my pocket size statue of St. Anthony in his little nutshell of a metal container.  This made me wonder: Who finds St. Anthony when he gets lost?

I found this tiny item last summer in the local antique store, a secret little man in a secret little tin.  It looks like the kind of thing a spy would stash stolen microfilm in, in a Get Smart kind of way.  But when you open it up there is this tiny metal statue of St. Anthony holding an even smaller baby Jesus in his arms.  It is such a small thing to be the object of so much potential devotion, a secret of faith to carry in ones pocket, a thing so easily lost." 

New Moleskine Notebook Styles: A Lesson in Patience.

The new Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Notebook, which was originally slated for release next month, has had its release date shifted to sometime in April (read: May).   Modo & Modo, the Italian manufacturer of Moleskine notebooks, has reported an error in production for the new format watercolor notebooks, having used the wrong glue to attach the cover material.  This glitch will push the release date up a few months, and even the April projected release date is not a sure thing.  We'll get them when we get them.  Patience is a virtue.

This puts the Watercolor Sketchbooks on the same estimated delivery schedule as the new format Moleskine Planners for 2007.  I am hoping to have them available for sale by the first week in May, but I have no guarantees that this will be the case.  Stay tuned to the NWD blog for delivery updates.

Also, thanks to everyone for the great feedback on the new Planners.  I want to make sure there isn't too much confusion on what the new styles offer, so here are a few points I would like to emphasize:

The Red Hardcover Planner will be available only in the pocket size, and only in the 12 month new weekly format.

The Extra-Large size Soft Cover Planner is only available in the 12 month new weekly format.

The soft cover planners are really soft.  If you were to carry a pocket size soft cover weekly diary in your back pocket it would soon take on the shape of your butt the way a wallet does.  They have a similar feel of a pocket leather bible, and will be great for thumping on the table to emphasize your point during business meetings.  It is difficult to describe, but if you have any Volants on hand, stack three of them together and you get a sense of the feel of the soft cover planner.

Stay tuned for more updates on expected delivery times, and practice your relaxation breathing techniques.  Good things come to those who wait.

 

Moleskine: So Many Planners, So Little Time

As promised, here are some pictures of the new Moleskine 2007 Planner samples I received.  The pictures are of the following new styles:

• Soft Cover Pocket Weekly Planner (18 Months)
• Red Hardcover Pocket Weekly Planner (12 Months)
• Soft Cover Extra-Large Weekly Planner (12 Months)

The samples I received were prototypes, so there may be some slight changes with the final production.  There are a few differences in production for the soft cover versions, primarily that they use a thinner elastic for the closure.  They have ribbon place markers, and inside back pockets, but the pockets are not expandable with gussets as they are with the classic Moleskine design.  The front matter in the 2007 Weekly Planners is slightly different, with the addition of a four page fill-in-your-own time table.

The red hardcover diary has garnered the most interest on the NWD blog.  It has been produced with all the same production qualities of a classic Moleskine notebook, except all the details are in red.  There is something very Italian sports car about this version of the Moleskine planner, and the bright red color will mean that it will be easy to distinguish from your other Moleskine notebooks.  What runs through my mind as I look at this sample is the refrain from Prince's song Little Red Corvette.  Moleskine's gonna party like it's 1999 2007!

I am not the best person to assess the functionality of a planner.  As I have mentioned in this earlier post, I rarely have an appointment, in fact, rarely get out from in front of my computer.  Also, working for a business with a total of 1 employee (me!) I don't exactly need to schedule meetings.  I live in the wooded splendor of northern New Hampshire, just down the road from the neck of the woods that nurtured Bode Miller.  Here we're always on "Miller" time; things to do present themselves in a constant stream of needing to be done.  I don't know anyone who keeps an appointment book around here.

Many of you have the kind of jobs where a planner makes you a better employee.  It is a different way of life entirely that you live, and your planner is an important tool of your trade.  Now that there are ten different Moleskine ways to keep track of your life (as it rapidly slips by) how will you choose?  From my perspective ten choices seems like too many.  From the perspective of having to guess which versions will be more popular and then ordering accordingly, having to fight with monsters like Barnes & Noble for the limited inventory available from the distributor, and having to keep them all in stock just the right length of time to meet demand, ten choices is a challenge.

For those of you who do rely on a planner for increased productivity, why not help me out by voicing your preference?  Do you want an 18 month planner or a 12 month planner?  Do you want a soft cover version or a hardcover version?  Red or black?  Do you want your planner to be pocket sized, large, or extra-large?  Do you like this new page layout or will you just stick with the previous year's options?  Do you really feel you need this many choices in a planner?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Click on any of the images above to see larger versions.