Jonze Design

Handmade notebook/organizer

Posted on 10. Sep, 2009 by Jonze in Blog, Featured, Graphic design, Portfolio

This is something I’ve been working on for the past two days.

The reason I wanted to make my own notebook is because a problem I have is that if I get a pretty noteboook, I’m too afraid to write in it! So I wanted something that I could buy a cheapo notebook that I could insert into an awesome cover, and when it was filled up I could take it out and put in another. As well as that, I wanted a notebook that had room for storing other bits and pieces.

I made it from a topshop bag that I got for my birthday, the zipper broke a while ago and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it out, I was too sad about it breaking! I loved that bag :’(

When I was well and truly done with the mourning, I took out the scissors and got to work. I thought I would get enough leather out of it to make a moleskine sized notebook, but when I’d taken all the stitches out, I had a piece that was slightly wider than an a4 page, but longer.

There were a lot holes left from the stitching, and two studs left from the where the handle was attached to the bag. I decided to fill some of the holes with silver embroidery thread. I chose silver because there were already some silver marks on the leather, probably guides from the production of the bag.

I tried to fill in the seams that went all around the edges but they were really uneven, even running off the material completely in places (nice craftsmanship topshop!) and when I put the thread in it just highlighted this, so I scrapped that idea. I also painted the studs with black nail polish.

I did a few sketches of my name and signature to put on it, and then threw all the sketches away and went for the same design as my logo (ahhhh futura ). I embroidered it in black thread. My emboroidery skills aren’t excellent but I really like the way it turned out. By matching the design with my logo I figured that I could use it to put a portfolio in. It might be a bit too small for that but I’ll keep it in mind.

With all that done I got to work on the inside! It was simple really, I got a thick piece of card and covered it with papyrus style paper, then I got some elastic that I cut from a headband and stretched it over the corners. I put some superglue on the back and used clips to hold it down while it dried, I’m not sure if it’s going to stick very well but it will have to do until I find a better way to stick it down!

If I had a better printer I would have tried to cover the card in some pretty patterned paper, like this, the orange pattern would have been perfect! Or if I had some cash then I could have splashed out on some nice wrapping paper.

To keep the whole thing together, I cut a few lengths of thread in grey, black and silver, and plaited them together.

It was kind of a fluke the way the size worked out so well, and even the way the stitches and studs managed to work with the design in the end, even though at the start I was worried they’d make the whole thing look terrible.

I’m going to keep modifying it when I get more ideas and stuff. It was the perfect project to work on when I was sick in bed!

Here’s how it looks with stuff in it:

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and it was so easy! If you have any old bags around that have enough material to make one try it! Or if not you could probably buy a super cheap bag and try that instead.

Tags: Featured, handmade, jonze, note book, organizer