Since launching our first lined notebook in 2016, we have been in discussion with our community of lined-notebook-users, in order to get the details just right: the line thickness and weight, the margins and spacing. Even if you've never explicitly thought about these elements, you will have noticed the effect they have on the 'feel' of a lined notebook and the way this can affect your writing style.
NOTEBOOK MARK TWO, NOVEMBER 2016
Our first lined notebook was the Notebook Mark Two, which we first produced in 2016. The design was based on many years' of using lined notebooks, and some personal preferences developed along the way.
The design we created was as follows:
— Clear, generous margins, to give the page breathing space and elegance; and because you can't write right upto the edge.
— Similarly, a decent margin at the bottom of the page, to avoid having to leave the last line blank.
— The lines are spaced so that you can write comfortably on every line, without being too wide.
NEW NOTEBOOKS, NOVEMBER 2020
Four years on, we sold out of our last batch of lined notebooks and felt it was a good moment to go back to the drawing board. As we reach our fifth anniversary, we wanted to bring together the best bits of all the notebooks we've created so far.
We spoke to a group of customers about the finer details and decided to make some tweaks:
— We have made the lines slightly lighter; they are printed in a lighter shade of warm grey, which compliments the cream pages and is less imposing than the darker lines on the Mark Two. Ideally your pen should be the most prominent mark on the page, with the lines providing an underlying structure without dominating the page.
— We have retained the margins, but made them slightly narrower at the sides, to allow a fraction more writing space per page; whilst some people prefer lines to 'bleed off' the page, we feel this gives the page an elegant feel overall and delineates the areas you are unlikely to write on as they are so close to the edge.
— We decided to keep the line spacing the same; we will never get everyone to agree 100% on this, as everyone has different hand-writing. But aside from our own personal preference, we received a compelling comment from a customer: "there is no other brand making a classy, high quality notebook with wider lines." We like the idea of putting usability first and making the notebook as beautiful as elegant as it can be, but at no cost to its functionality.
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Our new lined notebook is currently available in Rust and Sequoia.
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