I forget who asked for this, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to make for a while: a hard bound full-size journal. After over a year of searching for a supplier for the covers, my print guy got some samples in and I believe we can finally move forward into production!
I jumped into Illustrator to make a mockup layout for notebook prototyping, and that’s today’s “thing of the day”. Details follow.
Design Details
Basically, the notebook will be using a covered cardboard core, like a high-quality sketch notebook. I showed the printer the kind of notebook I wanted (the Cachet Classic Graph quadrille notebook), and so we’ll be producing something very similar.
PROPOSED SPECIFICATIONS
- 92 pages (3 months of planning)
- Paper pages are 8.8×11 inches. The extra 0.3 inch is to account for the wire binding, which will allow one to slide 8.5×11 pages in between the pages of the notebook without sticking out.
- Front is ETP, back is a graph paper / day grid extention
- Double-wire bound, pebbled coat, glued inside cover
- Same paper stock, ink, look as the regular full-size ETP. It’s been adjusted slightly.
- Projected cost: Trying to keep retail to around US$18-$25. This is comparable to my Cachet Classic Graph 9×12, which costs around $25 a whack when I buy one in Boston. These things are EXPENSIVE to produce in small quantities.
- Limited run of 500.
If anyone is interested in this, let me know in the comments. I could use some feedback.
OTHER THOUGHTS
I’ll probably release the graph paper back for it tomorrow as an easy thing to do; these daily project things are becoming very time consuming. I think I’ll use the weekends for light blog entries to give myself some time to get ahead on this production schedule.
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10 Comments
I would click buy right now if I could. That being said, there’s a few things that I’d choose to change ;)
Either reverse the order of the pages (ETP on the left) or move the “date” box on the ETP page to the right — searching for a date in the current format involves opening the journal wide. love the double wire bound, how many additional pages will you include when you’re sizing the wire? Maybe about 150 or so? Looking through all of my existing paper journals, that seems to be about how much additional paper ends up in them (1 page for every other page)
Also, please ship to Canada :)
This is going to be great. I have used the printables, the pads and recently started using the smaller wire-bound books. I enjoy being able to look back through the books to see what all was going on at this time last year. Keep pushing forward and let me know when they are available please.
James: Excellent feedback on the moving of the date box!!! I’ll see if I can effect that change. As for the number of pages, I’m thinking 92 pages. My Cachet Classic Graph has 80 pages, but the paper isn’t as thick as the stock I use. I’m thinking it will be around 0.75″ of paper + the heavy board thickness. When we get a prototype made, we will do another sanity check.
Jeremy: Awesome! Do you have an opinion on which side of the spread the ETP form should be?
This is fantastic Dave! I have been using the Mini ETP for quite awhile and have gifted a few including a friend’s daughter who was hospitalized with a serious illness and needed a daily journal for tracking her daily goals. Having the larger notebook size is great and having the back-side graph on the opposite pages would be very helpful for notes (and doodles.) I also really like James idea of moving the date box to the outside corner for easier date finding. I love the spiral binding and soft cover because it makes the journal feel flexible and comfortable.
I would be all on this like a fat guy on biscuits and gravy. (which I am).
Great, I too would buy one right now. And for next day (I’m going backwards), I like the date on the right. Go go David, us fans love this.
I love seeing these build posts. It makes me want to go out and make something. Also, would insta-buy.
ETP has changed the way I work. Will buy as soon as this is available. You’re a demi-god, Mr. Seah!
Project Update!
I am still waiting on covers from the printer to finalize. I’m hopeful that it will be all worked out before June, but the speed at which suppliers operate is unpredictable and awfully slow.