Category RSS Archive for the ‘Editorial’ Category

Handwriting and fonts

Posted March 26, 2012 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

Murielle passed along this site a few months ago, which allows you to create a font from your own handwriting and use it to send your friends an email.

Alas, we were both too late, because the campaign ended last June and the service is no longer active. I still wanted to blog about it, though, not just because I think it’s a practical way to personalize electronic messages, but because it brought back warm memories of other handwritten fonts I’ve encountered, like the one in the Moosewood Cookbook. (Weirdly, I can’t seem to find images of it online, and my own battered old copy is at my parents’ place.) There’s Comic Sans, of course, which designers love to hate. And there are other sites, it seems, that will turn your handwriting into a font, albeit for a fee.

Do you like or use handwritten fonts?

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Articles and optimism

Posted March 21, 2012 by
in Editorial | 1 comment »

One of the main characters of Norman Rush’s Mating, Nelson Denoon, keeps a stack of old Economists at home, certain that he’ll one day get to them. I thought of that when I shared an Economist article about personal metrics, because it’s from an issue dated early March and I only just got around to reading it.

For me, saving magazines is more of a problem with The New Yorker than it is with The Economist (which I can justify tossing if it’s not current and the news I want to catch up on has seen too many subsequent developments). I used to think the iPad would fix this — no need to waste space on paper copies if I’ve got everything electronic form! Trouble is, I’m less likely to return to old issues if I can’t see them cluttering up the table, and I’m less likely to remember which pieces I meant to read if I can’t fold the covers straight to them.

How long do you save old magazines?

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Au revoir, Encyclopedia Britannica

Posted March 14, 2012 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Editorial | 6 comments »

We never had a set of Encyclopedia Britannicas in our house growing up, but I certainly used the books in school, and I continue to think of them fondly. By the time I was in college, Encyclopedia Britannica had been put online, and in those pre-Wikipedia days, I accessed it through our university’s ethernet connection. In grad school, my research needs took me beyond encyclopedias, and I haven’t used or thought of Britannica in at least the last eight years.

Today, of course, comes the news that Encyclopedia Britannica is ceasing production of its print edition. It’s kind of a funny milestone, thought I’m still surprised and impressed that the print volumes lasted as long as they did.

Did you ever own, or do you still own, a set of Encyclopedia Britannica?

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Planners at work (and electronic overload)

Posted March 12, 2012 by
in Editorial | 6 comments »

While reading through the comments to one of my recent posts, I was interested to see that several of you keep separate planners for work and personal use.

I used to use an Outlook calendar for work-related calls and my Space 17 for face-to-face meetings and personal appointments. Then I had to switch to Gcal for one of my freelance clients, or, I should say, I had to start using Gcal to manage calls and meetings with that client. Another client I work with uses one of those online project-management systems. Now I need my Space 17 to coordinate across my work calendars and make sure the appointments on one don’t clash with those on the others.

That works all right, but lately, I’ve been wondering if I should consolidate and use just one electronic calendar, plus a paper one. I don’t like the interface of Gcal as well as I do that of Outlook, but the fact that it’s cloud-based makes things easier, and I’m not such an old bird yet that I can’t learn to make it work. Of course, that makes me wonder if I should consolidate my email systems, too, and abandon Outlook altogether. Too many choices!

Does anyone else suffer from electronic calendar overload syndrome (ECOS)?

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Lizzy Ross Band

Posted February 14, 2012 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People, Videos, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

One very gratifying part of my job is to be able to hear feedback from people who have made our journals, planners or sketch books a companion in their life. We send a blank page out in the world, and people take that blank page and make it into beautiful art, music, or part of their life story. Wow… That is fantastic, and a little humbling, too.  On the manufacturing end, this certainly gives meaning to our work.

One such person is Lizzy Ross, a singer/song writer from Chapel Hill, NC.  A few months ago, the Lizzy Ross Band released their debut album “Read Me Out Loud.” 

You can see a video here. 

Singing used to mean trouble for Lizzy Ross. Her elementary school teachers couldn’t make her stop singing, even in class, so they’d fuss at her or call her parents. In college, singing and songwriting became Ross’ creative outlet. Her solo debut CD, “Traces,” was released last year and her voice drew comparisons to Janis Joplin and Grace Potter.

Lizzy and her band tour all over the South.  Her music has been described as “Folksy, jazzy, bluesy in all the best senses of the words…a voice like cigarettes and the smoothest whiskey you’ve ever tasted.”

http://lizzy.net

 

 

 

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Paper and Digital Journals

Posted February 7, 2012 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 8 comments »

Do you agree with the following description of a paper journal?  Have digital journals caught up?

“A journal is personal.  I can play with margins, draw doodles, and make corrections in my own way.  When I go back and look at my marks on the page, I can even follow the train of thought that led to the changes.  The paper is mine, and I can skip pages or even fold them.  Words pour from the heart to the brain through the hand and pen onto the paper. This is the process of writing. Palm pilots and computers are excellent for logical order, planning and things, but not the free flowing emotion that is the centerpiece of a journal.” (by Robert I., college student, about 8 years ago.)

What do you think?

 

 

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What are your resolutions for 2012?

Posted January 18, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 2 comments »

I rarely make specific resolutions, but this year, I’m determined to repeat one of the things I did during the week between Christmas and New Year: go through my hanging files and sort out the things I don’t need.

Too often during the year, I see something I don’t have time to deal with but don’t want to lose track of completely, so I file it away for future reference. Unsurprisingly, a lot of those things then proceed to languish for years. It wasn’t even as difficult or time-consuming as I thought to sift through them once and for all.

What are your resolutions this year?

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A new planner for the new year?

Posted January 9, 2012 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 5 comments »

I’ve asked this question before, but the new year has me wondering: did you change planner formats in 2012?

I’m still quite happy with the switch I made in 2011 to the Space 17, so I stuck with that for 2012. On the one hand, there’s the old saying — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On the other hand, when it comes to planning, it seems there’s always room for improvement.

What did you decide?

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Old products for the new year

Posted December 28, 2011 by
in Editorial, Product Reviews | 15 comments »

It doesn’t always happen immediately, but we do sometimes bring back discontinued products and give them another chance to succeed.

Of course, before we do, we need to make sure that people want to see the product return, and are passionate enough about it to actually make a purchase. So in honor of the coming new year, let me ask: what would you like to have back? A few items we’ve toyed around with:

  • Habana notebooks with white paperExacompta journey notebooks

  • Businessnote planners
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Do you use your tear-off corners?

Posted December 23, 2011 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | 21 comments »

I just made the switch to my 2012 Space 17, and as I was fitting the book into its cover, I started thinking about those little tear-off corners at the bottom of each page — the ones that help you flip straight to your page when you open the planner. I don’t particularly care for them (they’re too prone to excess tearing, in my clumsy hands), and I haven’t used them ever since I got an elastic bookmark.

However, they’re still admirable in their simplicity, and I suspect they must have their fans. What do you think? Do you use them?

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