Archive for the ‘QV is Beautiful’ Category
February 5th
I found these images recently when I was straightening up my desktop (New Year’s resolution: keep my files better organized).
Karen sent them to me years ago, and it’s just madness that I’ve never blogged about them, because they’re totally interesting. Here, for example, is a montage of old print ads (click through to see a larger version):
And here’s an office display that seems to have been set up for a trade show booth or something:
Here’s a simpler trade show display:
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February 3rd
Lots of people write in with good suggestions for tweaks to our planning formats, and often those tweaks take the form of supplements or additions. More space for notes is a popular one. Another popular idea, at least for those formats that don’t already have it, is adding a monthly view that would supplement a daily or a weekly planner.
First of all, let me say that we are always grateful for your suggestions, because it helps us understand how people actually use our planners. Also, they do make a difference, as Karen has described. But when it comes to adding pages, we face a problem: if we add pages to our planners, for the most part, then we have to delete other pages. We can’t make the planners larger because the refillable covers would be useless—the planner inserts wouldn’t fit. (Of course, they could stretch a little bit, and as Karen will describe later, we are indeed planning to make notes supplements for the Business and Minister planners.)
So periodically we ask: what would you like to add? And more importantly, in exchange, what would you eliminate? An address book seems quaint to me in this era of Outlook and cell phones, but maybe there are still people who prefer to store that stuff in their planners. Similarly, the maps and reference materials—I like that they exist (though I rarely consult them), and it’s true they come in handy while traveling, but as Marty pointed out, Google can give you the same information with much greater specificity…
So, what do you think? Should we do an annual bound book (i.e., not refillable) with extra pages for notes and calendars? Would you be willing to pay more for that expanded edition? Or should we try to find a way to fit those things into our current planners, or create special supplements for them?
February 2nd
We have a sighting! Neither Karen nor I has made it to the theaters to see It’s Complicated, the romantic comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. But several friends and readers have, and they’ve been able to confirm that one of our planners does indeed make an appearance. Writes a friend:
“The funny thing about Meryl Streep’s character (in the movie) is that she forgets appointments and meetings. Steve Martin’s character gives her the gift of the leather bound Quo Vadis planner to help her remember her appointments with him. When she opens the gift, the back of the planner is face up. The imprinted Quo Vadis label is displayed before she turns the planner over.”
Note that we did *not* pay for product placement, which is part of the reason we’re so excited about this! Director Nancy Meyers is apparently just a fan of Quo Vadis — as is Meryl Streep.
February 1st
Guest blogger Laurie Huff is a planner aficionado and frequent traveler. She currently lives in Tirana, Albania.
When your daily patterns are mostly predictable, your planner needs are straightforward. You know what your home and work life consists of, and your planner needs are usually consistent from week to week.
But all this is turned on its head when traveling. What works fine at home or in the office may break down when you’re out in the world. Unpredictable things happen while traveling (which of course is part of the fun of traveling in the first place), and you need a planner that is flexible enough to handle out of the ordinary needs. This is especially true when traveling internationally. Suddenly you need information at your fingertips such as international dialing codes and time zone information that you might not normally need in your day to day life. Especially for people who travel frequently, whether for work or pleasure, you need a planner that can handle your day to day life as well as your travel needs.
Several years ago while traveling back to the US after living in Nepal, I spent 3 weeks in Paris and 3 weeks traveling around Scotland. That year I used an Exacompta Daily Pocket planner, and that little book was a champ. The book itself is tiny, light, and took up no space at all in my bag. But the page size is still substantial, and having a page for each day was great during my entire trip. I used that little book for everything. Each page had plenty of room to write flight reservation details and phone numbers of hostels I stayed in. While in Paris I took a short course in French language, and the daily pages held my lesson reminders and reading assignments. On one page I drew a map of how to get to a new friend’s apartment off the Champs-Elysees for dinner. I recorded each place I went on my journey around Scotland. In the cover pockets I tucked in slips of paper with people’s email addresses, ferry schedules and postcard stamps. I filled the pages with the location of that excellent crepe place, the quaint restaurant where we ate a delicious dinner, and the cool shops I found on the little side streets. Now it’s an excellent record of my trip, and when I look through that little book the memories come right back.
Last fall on a trip to Budapest I didn’t even bring my planner because the one I was using at the time was too bulky. Besides, I was only going for a week, surely I could live without my planner? No, of course not. I had forgotten to notify my credit card company that I was traveling, and when I used my card to pre-pay my hotel the early warning protection caused it to seize up. I needed to call the US from Hungary to rectify it. But what is the code to dial OUT of Hungary for an international call?? If I’d had my planner with me with its page of international dialing codes, I would have had that information at my fingertips. But instead, with no planner (and no internet) it took me about 30 minutes of searching and asking people before I found out it’s 00, like much of the rest of Europe. By the time I placed my call, the Fraud Protection office was closed. 5 minutes ago. So I had to wait until the next day to call. Lesson learned: don’t leave home without my planner and its list of international dialing codes!
My most recent trip was to Scotland over the holidays, and I brought along my Minister planner (with its list of international dialing codes, time zones and extensive maps, which I love). I didn’t really think I’d be using it much during my vacation. I wound up using it extensively, to my surprise.
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January 29th
Quo Vadis uses Clairefontaine paper for most of our agendas. (The recycled paper used in the Equology line comes from another French company.) Clairefontaine is famous for its exceptionally white and ultra smooth paper. It is the best paper in the world for writing.
The paper used for Quo Vadis planners is made at the main Clairefontaine mill located in the Vosges region of France. It is situated 90 km from Strasbourg in the Meurthe river valley. Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of Alsace in north-eastern France.
In 1858, Jean-Baptiste Bichelberger chose the small town of Etival-Clairefontaine in the Vosges mountains to set up his paper mill. Â It is in the heart of a region with a long-standing tradition of paper-making. Clairefontaine was established on the site of a paper mill built in 1512.
Taking advantage of the rags supplied by the local textile industry, Clairefontaine quickly became one of the most important mills in the area. The mill has been making paper since 1858 and stationery products since 1890.
Clairefontaine paper is shipped in rolls from the mill to the Quo Vadis manufacturing plant in Hamburg, NY. The paper is different colors and weights for the different books: most are bright white, but some are ivory and others tinted a very light mint green. The planners made at the Hamburg plant are destined for the U.S, Canada, Australia and the U.K.
Read about Clairefontaine’s environmental commitment here.
Learn more about the different Clairefontaine mills here.
Who is Claire Fontaine?
January 26th
Tom Hall is an IT lawyer, fountain pen aficionado, author, and frequent guest blogger round these parts. Here are his thoughts on the Habana — and a page from his newest work-in-progress…
Some days we are lucky, and the mail carrier does not leave behind any bills. Other days we are VERY lucky and he or she leaves behind a fat envelope containing a sample from Karen at Exaclair.
A few weeks ago one of those envelopes arrived, holding a Habana notebook. I’ve been a bit slow to write about it. It is almost too nice to use, leaving me with a puzzle: What should I write in it? Daily notes? Class notes? To Do lists? Article drafts? Sketches for never-to-be woodworking projects? Probably not. All these are ephemeral, or, at least disposable. 80 sheets of 90 gram Clairefontaine paper is simply too good for “Take out the trash,” “Fix the kitchen sink,” and “The Grate Great aMAmerican Novl Novel”. Such transitory and inconsequential expressions do not belong in a notebook so well made that it, and its contents, may be around long after I’ve shuffled off my mortal coil. Besides, do I want the great-grandkids to know that I did manage to fix the sink?
Then I had an AHA! Moment. It would be a tremendous lab notebook. It is durable. At 6”x9” and 80 sheets, it offers plenty of room to write. More, the pages handle fountain pen ink and even heavy pencil with aplomb. This image shows a few lines written with J. Herbin ink and my big Parker, Duofold, which lays down ink like a paint brush. Provided I did my part, the Habana would provide me with a permanent record, a record for the ages. I pictured myself handing it to my patent attorney, to document my claims to my world-shaking discovery, clutching it as I accepted, with suitable humility, my Nobel Prize. I imagined my descendants, many generations removed from now, gazing at it in admiration, in its place of honor beside the Declaration of Independence. But then Reality intruded, reminding me that I haven’t had a science course since high school, where I shared a lab bench with Francis Bacon. My last experiment (an attempt to brew a new ink) produced only bad smells and that I can hardly change a light bulb without running a very risk of electrocuting myself.
Only somewhat daunted, I returned to the conundrum: What does one write in a notebook that cries out to be written in, but which also demands quality content?
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January 20th
Guest blogger John Cullen teaches literature at Ferris State University and has a lot of dogs and horses. He’s been a fountain pen fiend for about thirty years; here are his thoughts on the Habana…
(Image via Writer’s Bloc.)
Well, generally I have gotten pretty cynical about journals over the years. I hate to think how much I have spent only to end up throwing journals away because they will not open flat on the table or the paper inside the journal is so bad it makes the writing experience feel like punishment. Add to that the fact I use a fountain pen and you can see why finding a good journal has been a trial.
Recently I got on a chat board where people discussed these issues in depth and many people recommended I get a Quo Vadis Habana notebook. In fact, people spoke in glowing terms about these journals. Yeah, right, I thought, but then I figured I would give one a try. What a pleasant surprise this journal has been!
The Habana is roughly 5 x 9 inches and comes with 80 pages of Clairefontaine lined paper. The cover looks and feels like leather, and the spacing on the white paper is generous. So from a cosmetic perspective, this is a great journal. There is even a stretchy band to keep the journal closed.
But how would it work when actually put to use?
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January 18th
IT lawyer, fountain pen aficionado, and guest blogger Tom Hall recently took the Journal 21 for a test drive. Here are his thoughts…
“Let me check my calendar.”
The first time I uttered those words, I knew I was no longer young and carefree, with my every moment under my sole control. On the other hand, it meant that I was out of school and gainfully employed. In another moment I realized that I did not HAVE a calendar. Thus I joined professionals worldwide in the Quest for the Perfect Planner.
For a long time I used a simple, pocket-sized planner. It was all I needed to navigate from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting during the work day. More than once it kept me from arriving at the office on a holiday.
Then along came pocket sized, electronic planners. Like most guys, I’m a sucker for gadgets, and this one came with a built in rationalization: it made coordinating my schedule with my secretary far easier. I used it quite happily for several years, until I was asked to give a deposition in a contract dispute. The opposing attorney asked where I had been on a given day, several years earlier. Thanks to the electronic gadget, I was able to tell him. Unhappily, he decided to explore my schedule for that day in detail, and then did the same for every day for the week before and after. Needless to say, I no longer carry around such extensive records of my days.
As time moved forward, the maker of my favorite electronic gadget fell on hard times. They revised their products to keep pace with competition, raised their prices and eliminated the features I valued. When my gadgets wore out, I discovered that there were no adequate successors available. I was, apparently, obsolete. Somewhat bemused, I rejoined the Quest.
About this time, Karen put out a call for volunteers willing to test Exacompta planners. Her timing was exquisite. I had strayed from the True Path, and was attempting, with little success and much frustration, to sync the calendar on my cell phone with an on line service. My brother said it best: “Isn’t pencil and paper faster, easier and more reliable?”
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January 6th
Speaking of ministers, guest blogger David Maliniak recently took one for a test drive… here’s his take on the experience.
The concept of planning inherently implies a disciplined approach to an endeavor; that endeavor can range from something as mundane as a trip to the grocery store to the broader concerns of life itself. Some weeks ago, I took up Exaclair’s Karen Doherty on the gracious 2nd Annual Planner Review offer and received a very nice Minister 2010 Agenda Planning Diary for evaluation. Using it got me thinking about my personal history with planning and how I organize my time and life.
I’ve always liked to think of myself as a relatively organized person. I don’t lose things; my desk is pretty neat. My professional life revolves around deadlines and schedules. I’m an editor for a trade magazine/website that serves electronic design engineers and there’s always an interview to conduct, stories to write, meetings to attend. I manage to juggle it all one way or another. Sure, balls drop from time to time but on balance, I stay on track.
But the dirty little secret that I harbor is this: I’m not really as organized as I seem. I don’t even like to admit it to myself, but the truth is that my organizational skills hang on a very slender thread. What I’ve realized is that I’m not so much organized as I am habitual. Using planners has always hinged on habit for me. If I didn’t forget to write in them, I’d forget to look at them later.
Now that I’m in my fifties, I find that I cannot rely on my memory as I did when I was 20 or 30.
Past efforts at using paper planners, and there have been a few, have petered out due to an inability to develop the habit of using them. Over the years I’ve learned to rely on computer-based organization tools provided by my employer, such as Microsoft Outlook. But should I forget to set alarms and reminders for things, Outlook can quickly devolve into “Look out!” I’ve tried using my cell phone’s calendar function, but entering data on it is just too darned hard.
So upon receiving the Quo Vadis planner, I resolved that this time would be different. “Yeah, sure,” you’re thinking. But I’ve already hit upon some things that I believe will be the keys to success for this undisciplined soul.
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January 5th
Which profession is our illustrious Minister planning format named after? If you’re like me, your thoughts probably turned to a member of the clergy.
But as Karen recently explained, the name takes its cue from the French word for “Secretary” – i.e., Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Education, etc. (We use the word in that sense in English, too, of course, but it’s not as common — at least, not here in the States.)
Inneresting, eh?
