⬤
A hand-bound, lay-flat notebook from Japan
Hi, I'm Craig Mod, and I do all my note-taking, essay drafting, sketching, and schedule planning in ⬤, a simple, blank notebook.
Does the world need a new notebook? Absolutely not. Good god no. But I made this notebook with its precise specifications because I couldn't find another like it. And figured others might like it, too.
This dumb (very dumb) bundle of smooshed trees can't check your spelling or grammar, can't suggest new phrases, can't rewrite a paragraph. It's just you and your brain, pencil nub in hand, mano-a-mano, toe-to-toe in the ring of ⬤'s blank pages. You can't even pronounce ⬤'s name. It is the Prince of notebooks. It does not care.
The body paper of ⬤ is a slightly off-white cream, matte, blank. It's Solist SP, a bulky Japanese book paper (87gsm) from Chuetsu Pulp & Paper, made from high-grade wood pulp that won't yellow with age, with an uncoated, flat surface made for writing. It holds ink well. Has minimal bleed (see photos for Copic liner test). Perfect for pencil, ballpoint, gel pens, and fine liners. Not suitable for watercolor or other heavy wet media. Each ⬤ is hand-bound to lie flat on every spread. There is effectively no gutter, you can sketch deep into the depths of the spine.
The covers wear well. Cream ⬤ will look like it's seen things once it's full of your smarts. Orange and Blue scuff well, too. They're all meant to patina, be thrown around, beaten up. They're nice, yes, but more importantly: they're tools. Don't baby them.
⬤ comes in three colors:
- Orange
- Blue
- Cream
More stats on ⬤:
- B6 (128 × 182 mm)
- 160 blank pages
- Matte white ⬤ foil stamp on front (top right) and spine
- 244gsm cover papers (Biotope GA); French-flap softcover style (仮フランス装)
- 151gsm white endpapers (NT Rasha)
- 87gsm slightly off-white, uncoated, matte body pages (Solist SP book paper by Chuetsu Pulp & Paper)
- 1mm cover overhang beyond body block
- Flexible in hand, but sturdy enough to protect the pages
- Assembled and bound in Nagano, Japan
⬤ was a somewhat accidental project. When you make a book, you get blank "dummy" books. The dummy for the Japanese edition of my book Kissa by Kissa was sitting on my counter. I thought: Hmm, this is kinda nice. And used it as my notebook earlier this year. Turns out it was really nice. I looked around the notebook market for something similar and came up with bupkis. B6 is such an ideal size: it travels well, small but not too small. It's light, fits in many a jacket pocket. A great companion. So I decided to refine that dummy book. I improved the binding, added a useful foil stamp to number / label each one, and made a few more colors. I figured if I liked this thing, others might, too. Here we are.
Paradoxically, it's sort of the best time in history to be using notebooks. As models / agents have gotten better at reading handwriting, extracting your chicken scratch is easier than ever. So that pain of struggling to reread your own handwriting is effectively … gone. Magic. We're living through a weird moment in time. Might as well have a great notebook by your side.
Hi, I'm Craig Mod, and I do all my note-taking, essay drafting, sketching, and schedule planning in ⬤, a simple, blank notebook.
Does the world need a new notebook? Absolutely not. Good god no. But I made this notebook with its precise specifications because I couldn't find another like it. And figured others might like it, too.
This dumb (very dumb) bundle of smooshed trees can't check your spelling or grammar, can't suggest new phrases, can't rewrite a paragraph. It's just you and your brain, pencil nub in hand, mano-a-mano, toe-to-toe in the ring of ⬤'s blank pages. You can't even pronounce ⬤'s name. It is the Prince of notebooks. It does not care.
The body paper of ⬤ is a slightly off-white cream, matte, blank. It's Solist SP, a bulky Japanese book paper (87gsm) from Chuetsu Pulp & Paper, made from high-grade wood pulp that won't yellow with age, with an uncoated, flat surface made for writing. It holds ink well. Has minimal bleed (see photos for Copic liner test). Perfect for pencil, ballpoint, gel pens, and fine liners. Not suitable for watercolor or other heavy wet media. Each ⬤ is hand-bound to lie flat on every spread. There is effectively no gutter, you can sketch deep into the depths of the spine.
The covers wear well. Cream ⬤ will look like it's seen things once it's full of your smarts. Orange and Blue scuff well, too. They're all meant to patina, be thrown around, beaten up. They're nice, yes, but more importantly: they're tools. Don't baby them.
⬤ comes in three colors:
- Orange
- Blue
- Cream
More stats on ⬤:
- B6 (128 × 182 mm)
- 160 blank pages
- Matte white ⬤ foil stamp on front (top right) and spine
- 244gsm cover papers (Biotope GA); French-flap softcover style (仮フランス装)
- 151gsm white endpapers (NT Rasha)
- 87gsm slightly off-white, uncoated, matte body pages (Solist SP book paper by Chuetsu Pulp & Paper)
- 1mm cover overhang beyond body block
- Flexible in hand, but sturdy enough to protect the pages
- Assembled and bound in Nagano, Japan
⬤ was a somewhat accidental project. When you make a book, you get blank "dummy" books. The dummy for the Japanese edition of my book Kissa by Kissa was sitting on my counter. I thought: Hmm, this is kinda nice. And used it as my notebook earlier this year. Turns out it was really nice. I looked around the notebook market for something similar and came up with bupkis. B6 is such an ideal size: it travels well, small but not too small. It's light, fits in many a jacket pocket. A great companion. So I decided to refine that dummy book. I improved the binding, added a useful foil stamp to number / label each one, and made a few more colors. I figured if I liked this thing, others might, too. Here we are.
Paradoxically, it's sort of the best time in history to be using notebooks. As models / agents have gotten better at reading handwriting, extracting your chicken scratch is easier than ever. So that pain of struggling to reread your own handwriting is effectively … gone. Magic. We're living through a weird moment in time. Might as well have a great notebook by your side.