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The cult of Moleskine
Barnes & Noble hawks dozens of journals decorated with cats, flowers, and owls—a fitting gift, perhaps, for a tween suffering from ennui—but really, how many notebooks does a person need? And who writes with an actual pencil anymore?
But then there’s Moleskine. I NEED to have that set of 2 Volant Notebooks in sky blue!
My colleague Meg admits to owning 10, and can tick off the specs like a grocery list (black grid, lined, blank; mini red; mini pink; mini daytimer…). Another officemate owns 3 Moleskines, all in green [I'm a little obsessive that way. —Ed.]. My husband keeps a black Pocket Squared Notebook for each segment of his life such as Wedding, Car, Yard Work, Baby.
What IS it about these notebooks? And what’s more, how do they stay relevant in the age of digital?
Moleskine has a number of things going for them. First, they have a really great story. And the story is simple: if you are smart, creative and well traveled then you use a Moleskine—just like Hemingway, Van Gogh and Chatwin! The story is so compelling that I thought the brand existed long ago and was revived. But according to their website, the company, founded in 1997, simply turned the “nameless black notebook” into a brand.
Second, they’ve devised a meaningful visual system. The notebooks are black or solid color and are packaged in a beautiful palette of contrasting colored bands that correspond with the page format (orange for lines, green for plain, etc). The band has a mini diagram of the notebook’s format so you can understand what’s inside without opening the packaging. The design is easily identifiable whether seen from the cover or the spine; they look fantastic lined up together on the shelf.
Third, Moleskine serves a variety of purposes and personalities. Yet, unlike Starbucks’ ventures into teddy bears and airport-quality breakfast sandwiches, Moleskine keeps their products tightly reined in to the brand system. Whether you choose the Passion Book for wine collecting, The Hand of the Architect special edition, or the City Notebook for Boston, they’re clearly identifiable as a Moleskine. Once you’ve accumulated a few, there is satisfaction that you have developed your very own personalized system (and probably should expand upon it!).
Finally, Moleskine has maintained relevance because they encourage a relationship between paper and digital. A YouTube search for Moleskine produced 1,760 results including the official Moleskine channel. A blog called Moleskinerie had such an avid following that it was acquired by Moleskine.com a couple of years ago and the blog’s Flickr photostream has over 71,000 photos and over 14,000 members. Primarily the videos, images and discussions revolve around artwork and projects penned in Moleskines, as well as hacks and spin-off products like the DODOcase for your iPad.
The Moleskine has not lured everyone, to be sure. But while taking an informal poll about Moleskine ownership in our office I heard a murmur in the hall, “Maybe I need a Moleskine….”
Do you own a Moleskine? Do you balance your creative process or your system of organization between paper and digital?
Categories Design, Outside the Square
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It was about twelve years ago that I was in Denver looking around in one of my favorite bookstores (the Tattered Cover), and I stumbled upon the first, tiny Moleskine I’d ever seen. I was hooked by the book and the Chatwin legend. And been hooked ever since. Now that’s a brand and a story (I too thought they had been around in years past and were just revived)!