One Year, One Moleskin

Feb 9, 2010

Have you read about or seen Michael Beirut’s notebook collection? It’s insane! Over the span of 26 years, he obsessively filled and wrote in 85 notebooks filled with things from random telephone conversations to poster design sketches. Apparently, it’s just the way he worked. Lots of designers carry around something with them to jot down notes and ideas in, from beautifully sketched presentation notes to quick and sloppy wireframe mockup designs.

Writings

My somewhat obsessive behavior

Me? I am a collector at heart and I can be nostalgic to a fault. Since Jan. 1, 2007 I have recorded and jotted down personal and professional notes in these somewhat cheap “At-A-Glance” flexible datebooks. I feel guilty if I don’t fill these out for a few days, so sometimes I will pour over what I did or what I was working on at any given time. Just over 3 years into this routine, I have almost every page filled.

But whenever I need to refer to something I wrote down that was more design-related, it would be more of a hassle than anything to find what I was looking for. What I decided to do is dedicate one book strictly to my design-related notes and inspiration. I wanted it to be portable and and unobtrusive, so I stuck with the ever-popular Moleskin (which Bierut candidly points out in his article as not being for him), pocket-sized and with a soft cover.

It’s been almost exactly one year since I’ve started using and carrying one around. So far, I feel like it’s only affected my work for the positive and I can already see the difference in the way I approach certain projects. Just like this blog; I wrote down a few months ago that I needed to redesign and write more, which at the time was just a random creative thought that passed through. But by having those random thoughts recorded on paper, it serviced as a constant reminder to me to do something about it. I can only highly suggest anyone who may read this to try and do the same if you haven’t already. It opens up so many doors when you may happen to be in a design “funk” needing motivation or it can be fun and interesting to look at from time-to-time to regain a certain glimpse that you may have lost over time.

2 comments

Edgar

Where there’s paper, there’s a writing utensil. Pencil,ball-point, or “sharpie/marker”? In my opinion there’s nothing more important than a fluid writing/sketching experience.

David Trang

Usually a pen or sharpie, if I used a pencil I would be tempted to erase all too much. But really, it’s usually what I have in front of me at the time. I could tell you had pretty nice penmanship on the projects we worked on together.