Welcome to the Planner of Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I am Jess or Jessie Curran.
And my name is Mark, and I go by Mark your pages.
We are your planner pals. Planner pals favorite podcast.
I stole that from somebody. Can you guess who I stole that
from? Certainly not me, because that
is like a mouthful that I'm not going to be able to say.
Well, let our platter files decide where that one came from.
But first of all, we just wanted to thank you all for all of your
great comments on the last podcast talking about our stacks
for 2025. I had to tell you just how many
people messaged me. And we're like, I love that you
left in the part where you tried to cut Jess off and stop her.
And I was like, I literally didn't think there were could
been anymore notebooks you could have had in your stack.
I swear. My feelings, I'm just like I'm
excuse me bish, I am not done here.
You cannot silence me. I'm just like the everyday
journal is like the most important journal.
It needs to get mentioned last. I mean, I don't know how you
don't start with that journal. You're like, let me talk about
all these little obscure ones I have everywhere.
Not the most important one for your entire day, you know.
Start with the boring one that everybody has.
You always go in with all of the other things that are like, oh,
what's that? Do I need one of these?
Do I need a lineup that's 11 journals deep?
I mean, I definitely about that throughout.
I know a few of the comments on the video too.
They were like, wow, listening to Jess makes me feel like I'm
not doing enough. I was like, well, Jess is
special. She's she's tracking.
It's her life now. This is your life.
You have to have all this fun stuff.
Exactly. Everything is content.
Like if I was not a content
creator, I probably wouldn't have quite as many.
But they do have, you know, their own unique functions and
they do help me get organized in different areas of my life.
So the lineup would probably be a little bit smaller, maybe less
R&D notebooks, but I still like to have a big stack.
No, it definitely is a good one and it perfectly feeds into our
topic today because we are going to be talking about notebooks
specifically. Jess, why don't you go and tell
of our planner pals where we'll be focusing our time?
So as people who have quite a few notebooks, if you haven't
noticed already, we, we do find that there are some things that
are kind of make or breaks things that kind of say, yes,
I'm going to get this. This is going to be one that I
add to my stash and ones that rule the notebooks out
completely. So, thinking about our planning
must haves when it comes to a new notebook, what are those
things? Do we differ on any of our
opinions? I'm eager to get your thoughts
on this mark, but what would be like the first of your must
haves when it comes to a new notebook?
Absolutely. Well, the first thing I do is I
100% judge a book by its cover. When it comes to my notebooks
and my planners and everything else, I want something that
looks good. I will say that that has changed
and have upgraded a little bit over time.
When I first started, I was just like, what's the cheapest thing
out there? I don't care what the cover is.
I think I even had like a pink glitter one at one point I got
from like a dollar bin at a craft store just because it was
like, I don't know anything just yet.
But as I started to learn more about the paper and the notebook
and the makes and the brands and the quality, it really has made
a big difference. And I think for me personally,
the covers really help show your personality and especially if
it's something that you're carrying around with you if you
go to work or even if you're at home, in our case, taking
pictures of our notebooks and talking about them, there has to
be something that you're excited about.
And I definitely think the covers and the quality of them
are very cool. So I would just say for myself,
you know, Archer and Olive has been one that I've been a big
fan of over the years. I think when I first started
collecting their notebooks and using their notebooks, I was the
plain Jane. But this also was before they
started putting out more masculine, less designer leak.
I'll say designer leak, less floral, not things that I'm
necessarily looking. I want to be careful around this
because when I start describing journals with like gender
themes, people get upset. I also don't personally like to
do that, but it's just like the thing that we've always kind of
known. Like I just don't really prefer
more feminine floral kind of cover.
And earlier when Archer and all was doing that, that was kind of
their thing. So I would go for or they're
just blank journals that were blue or black or whatever.
But now the Halloween one they just came out with with like the
red moon and the bats. Like that's the kind of stuff
I'm looking for. That's why I think I love their
Halloween collections so much. No, that's very fair.
I think that Halloween collections are always one to
look out for. I have been really enjoying
their full cover designs. I am completely a sucker for
full cover designs. The one thing that I've started
really paying attention to, weirdly, is spine design.
Just getting very excited about the idea of like, oh, you spent
time, effort and energy to decorate the spine of the
notebook? Because when you display it on
the shelf, most of the time that's kind of what you see.
So it is nice to have some decoration there.
I wouldn't say it's necessarily like a make or break like oh
God, I'm only going to buy your notebook if it has spine design,
but it is very much a nice to have.
I was very much like you as well.
Started off in my kind of notebook journey and being like
very plain Jane, as you said, I like the simple colors, just one
standard color, no kind of iconography on the front or
anything like that. I was only when I guess getting
introduced to Archer and Olive. I think my what my first journal
from them was a black linen cover with the Crescent moon
design with the little stars. And I'm like, I'm a sucker for
stars and sparkles And it was kind of like simple enough that
I could trick myself into being like, this is fine, you know,
it's only something a little bit of decoration.
It's not going to be too like gaudy or out there or anything.
Since then, Haha, yeah, Nope. I much, much more prefer having
notebooks that do have those full cover designs.
I think they, the artistry that goes into it is just so
gorgeous. Having said that though, I'm not
just going to get a notebook because it has a full cover
design. I am a bit of a persnickety
biscuit with this. I think that that's fine when
you've got as many notebooks as we have, It does pay to have
some points that you're a little bit more picky on.
Otherwise your house gets overrun with notebooks and then
your partner leaves you and says Nope, it's me, all the notebooks
and all this. Your partner sets up a stack of
notebooks and they stand on the other side of the room and you
have to choose. You're like, I mean, could I
take a handful of notebooks over with you or is it all or nothing
here? You're right, it's like an
intervention. They pull the banner down.
It's just like you need to stop. It's just like the letter.
Like Jess, I'm very worried about your lifestyle that you've
chosen for yourself. You spend absorbent amounts of
money on paper. Think about our family first.
I think that's the thing because every soft and Vogel and I will
have a conversation about, you know, finances and stuff,
running a household, whatever. And he'll be like, oh, I don't
know, you know, how much did you spend on notebooks?
I'm like, haha, like nothing. Because that's the thing.
We work with a lot of brands that do send us free product.
So yes, I have quite a few notebooks, but in terms of how
much I spent on them, significantly less than I think
people would probably assume. It's been something I pay
attention to now whenever I'm looking at different notebooks,
whether again, it's something a brand that we're working with or
not. When you're a creator and a
content creator and people do want to send you stuff, I do pay
attention to that. I don't just like accept
anything if it really doesn't fit into my general aesthetic,
which is kind of all over the place.
But if it's like overly one way or the other, I just don't want
to have to like start a video and be like, here's this ultra
floral design that I would never ever use just to be like, oh, I
have a notebook. I definitely pay attention to
the style, the design that's really important to me.
And even when I was designing the notebook for Archer and all
of that I did earlier this year, I mean, I spent a lot of time, I
did a whole video talking about like all the different
directions that I could have went with it.
But I think the cover is such an important part of a notebook,
like I said, to really show off your personality and not just
our turn out, but other brands are doing a lot of really cool
things. The notebook covers now too.
I was looking back through some of my collection as well, and I
have one that had almost like a cushy cover a little bit.
It was like a really cool like Botanical had a lot of like
succulents and monsteras on it, but it was like a does she
cover? I don't know what else to really
call it, but I was like this was really cool.
This was something a little bit different in that that tactile
miss of it, or again, if something's raised or if it's
embossed or debossed like that just is really awesome to me.
Now that good point about the tactile thing because there are
certain cover materials that I just preferred not to have any
of the covers that have like fluffy covers on them.
I like, I just feel like it's a dust trap.
I don't want a sham wow as a notebook but like.
I think I I know what notebooks you're talking about.
Yeah, but it seems to be coming more common as well because, you
know, we had a certain brand that was producing them and now
I'm seeing a couple more pop up. That's really not my preferred.
I know that some people have real issues with the velvet
style covers, like just the feel of them gives them the ick,
which is fair. I don't necessarily get the ick
from it, but it's not my preferred because it will pick
up dust, it will get dirty and start looking a little manky.
I don't really want my journal to look a manky.
I'm also kind of picking with different types of the vegan
leather. I I like to call it faux
leather. Vegan leather sounds Ponzi.
I mean, that's the purpose, especially with the luxury
brand, at least like Archer and Oliver's always saying that and
people are like, that's not faux leather.
That's plasticide to sell equal Gee, and I'm like, it's
whatever. It's it's not actual real
leather. Comment down.
I think that just having the different types of faux leather
as well is also kind of a a bit tricky because some of them are
a little bit hit and miss. Some of them do hold up quite
well to, you know, increase amounts of use, where some of
them it's like, oh, I opened this notebook twice and now it's
kind of like ripping at the seams a little bit.
I also know what notebook you're talking about as well because we
both have that notebook and both of the covers are the only
notebook I have that the notebook cover is falling off.
I know what you're saying. I also am not a huge fan now of
the old lending covers from Archer and Olive because they
are so grimy. Or what word did you use about
it? I spiked your word better.
Manky. Manky yes, Manky.
That's such a good dude. They're so manky and I was just,
I was doing something the other day when I was recording and I
pulled out one of my my very first square notebook and it's
just not very nice on the covers or where you touch it all the
time. I love the new like Berkram.
I love the faux leather because they don't get like that and my
fingers get grimy and and it just discolors because of that.
I don't know if they have dirty hands.
It's just like the oils on your hands even were transferring.
So that's why now as I'm taking a look at everything, I do pay
attention to it now. I actually ask like what is the
cover made out of because I don't want to have a notebook
with all my manky fingerprints all over it.
Now I have one notebook that was a linen cover and I don't even
know how it happened, but it has a food stain on the back of it.
What was I eating? Where was I eating?
You don't leave my desk. So it was a little odd, but
especially on those kind of like paler colored notebooks, which
is usually not what I tend towards anyways.
And that's why this notebook in particular got used as an R&D
journal because I'm like, I still want to use you.
It's just that I'm not going to use you for my everyday carry
type deal. But those ones, they tend to get
kind of like grayish around the outside.
It's like, you know, you do pencil erasings or whatever and
it just kind of like scuffs around on your desk and whatnot.
You don't even need to be a particularly messy person, but
it just kind of happens. But what would be your next big
consideration? Your next kind of must have for
a new notebook? Yeah.
So it's similar type of ideas that I've come to learn about
different notebooks is the type of paper that is in those
notebooks. So again, when I was buying that
dollar bin paper, I had no idea what that meant.
And it was like you would write with a regular gel pen on and it
would just like bleed through 6 pages, you know, like it was
just, I don't even know why they make those notebooks.
There is no point in those notebooks.
But over time I definitely have learned a lot about it.
I can understand, you know, there could be a lower GSM paper
and still handle products very well.
I think about like Tama River papers always people always
talking about and it was just like, yeah, that holds on the
ink and all really well. But that is paper thin, you
know, like there is paper thin paper.
You can only really write on one side of that type of page.
So for me, going from something like a loystrom, which I don't
know what loystroms are, if they're 7075 or 80GSM.
I think they were 80 and they now sell 120 as well, so it
depends on which one you get. We probably use the 80 though.
Yeah, the very first ones that we got were before I even knew
what any of that was. And then I think all of them now
are 120 or at least the bulletjournal.com Loystroms that
they partner with. I know we're all 120 now too,
but to be very honest with you, I don't see a huge difference
between the original Loystrom and the 120.
Maybe with a handful of pens, but honestly I don't.
And the ghosting for me is just a no no.
I can't help it. I think we were talking about
that on a previous episode. Like I get the ick, whatever.
I see it where I don't want to see it again.
If I'm buying, you know, a Hobonichi or Night Owl planner
or something like that, I know what I'm going to expect from
that because I know the type of paper.
But for a regular journal I'm using all the time.
I just need something thicker. And the 160 GSM from Archer and
Olive has always worked well for me for the different things I'm
throwing at it. But now I'm starting to pay a
little bit more attention to if it's coated paper or if it's
not, because now that I'm including fountain pens more,
that does make a difference. And also, I know it doesn't
always have to be 160 GSM to still be good paper, because I
know there are other types of like lower GSM's, but they're
just made differently. I that's the other thing too,
Jess. Like I didn't know how many
different paper types there were until you start looking into
different type of notebooks and companies and papers and stuff
like that and it gets kind of wild.
So for me, it's becoming really important to make sure that my
paper can hold on to the materials that I'm actually
using now. And after bullet journaling
since 2017, I know the products that I like to use.
I know what I'm going to use in it.
And therefore I don't have to worry too much about like, well,
what if I want to use an alcohol marker?
I know you don't do that in any type of paper now.
So it's not a problem to be like, let's test to see if it
works. It doesn't work.
Can it handle fountain pen ink? And can it handle mild liners
and every now and again like a highlighter or maybe watercolor
if I'm feeling fancy? Yeah, I think the paper
considerations, it's always like, what are you actually
going to be using in here? Because like you said, if you
want to use your fountain pens, then something coated is
probably going to be better. I don't use fountain pens so I
don't really give a toss. But if you're doing
watercolouring, it also can be nice to use some coated paper
because then it doesn't sink into the page so readily.
Means you have time to like blend colours and stuff like
that. So for me, I kind of like you
said, very kind of set in my ways when it comes to which
materials I do tend to use. And I find that 160 GSM does
work quite well for that. Uncoated paper means my pens dry
faster. So I have come to appreciate
that. I don't I can't with ghosting.
I really can't. But I think that's mainly
because I make content. So it's like when I was, you
know, taking pictures for Instagram or whatever and 1st
trying to like make my videos and stuff.
You don't really want to see through to the other side of the
page because you want to show what you're working on on the
current spread. So that was kind of one of the
deciding factors for me moving away from the LT19 Seventeens
because I just could not get over the fact that everything
would show through to the other side.
If I was just using black pen in a notebook, I'd probably be fine
with it. But because I do like to do, you
know, a bit of decoration with Tombos or like second line
highlights or whatever and stuff like that.
I'd like it to be decorative. I'd like it to be pretty and I
don't want to see kind of like duplicates of these different
designs that I've put in the notebook.
I think a big consideration for me is going to be like not
necessarily like the type of the paper, but what's actually
printed on to the paper. I like my dot grid.
I don't use lined notebooks. I needed to have the dots though
so I have some kind of reference.
Otherwise everything would be very skew with caddywhompus.
Like Can you imagine trying to rule up a calendar grid without
any dot references? I did it one time.
I was experimenting with a line journal to see if I could make
it work. And essentially what I ended up
doing was just making tick marks with the ruler to like break it
down into like millimeters anyway.
But I was like, well, I, you know, let's see if he could do
this. And I was like, this is not
worth it. I could not draw a straight line
for the life of me. Even though I was lining things
up. It wasn't a good experience for
me. I was like, I'm going to have to
print out a dot grid essentially to paste inside of here to use
or just don't use that type of notebook.
Yeah, I think like it's certainly doable, but the amount
of time, effort, energy that is then spend, like just just
trying to set up a calendar, I'm like, Nah, I'm going to do the
dot grid because then you've got your vertical reference and your
horizontal reference, but it's not so like, you know, in your
face that you can't do kind of like doodles decorations over
the top. I guess that's also another
consideration is what the dots actually look like.
There have been some notebooks that I've gotten which I
certainly will not purchase again because the dots are
either like they're too big or they're too small or they're too
dark or they're too faint or like it's very much like the
Goldilocks dot. Where's that at?
Well, yeah, when you buy an off brand notebook, I have a pocket
notebook that was like that and I was, I looked at it and I was
like there are maybe 6 squares on this piece of paper because
they were so big and so spaced out.
I was like there is no point to this.
I do have a question for you though about the doc grid or the
grid. Have you ever used a notebook or
no brands that have the line grid?
Because I'm interested in trying that as like a full time
notebook, not as like I think Kobenichi does that.
I love the Tama River paper or at least the planners we get
have the line grid. But have you seen any like more
like it's not a bullet journal unless you're doing the bullet
journal method. I know that but does other do
other brands do that? I know that scribbles that
matter does. I'm currently using this what
kokuyo or whatever. This is a scribble book though
this isn't like a proper bullet journal, but scribbles that
matter I think does do a grid notebook.
Except they don't ship to New Zealand, so oh.
You know who else does? Actually, I was just thinking
about that. I don't know if there's, I think
they're still around. Dingbats also does a grid one.
I think I tried out one of theirs.
Nice. Yeah, The thing that I have with
Dingbats, and this is not like an actual issue because like I'm
all for dingbats and the reasoning behind their brand and
all of this kind of thing. It's just the papers aren't
bright white. And that's another consideration
that I have for the paper because I want my inks to show
up in their kind of like truest color.
So if I don't have bright white, that it always ends up being
like a little bit more like tinted or it just feels a little
more subdued because you don't have that kind of like punchy
contrast between your like bright colors and the white or
very like dark black and the white.
I feel that way with the craft paper notebooks.
As much as I absolutely love the way things look on there, you do
have to almost expect it to look totally different.
Especially I was using colored pencils for a while.
I got into for like a hot 2nd and I was using them inside of
there to do something and I was like, and I'm already color
deficient as is. And then they added like this
warm hue to it. And I was like, I don't even
know what this, what is this, this color?
It looks totally different, but it's you have to kind of expect
it. I do love the way things look on
craft paper though, but I've never used a craft paper
notebook as a full time notebook.
It's always been like an R&D journal.
Same thing for a blackout as well.
I think it looks cool for fun projects but I haven't I think.
Didn't Erica one time craffinator?
Didn't she use a blackout notebook for a whole year?
I'm not sure. I know Aaron Flodo used like one
for six months, like an on off type thing, and I know that
Savannah Scribbles has been using a blackout and her work is
Oh my God, so beautiful. I was actually quite tempted to
try a Neapolitan again for next year, but I know in my heart of
hearts the blackout paper is not what I should be working on.
But I still want to experiment with it.
Well, I feel like you being at home though and working though
you have a little bit more opportunity to make sure you
have the materials that you need and I do too.
I mean, working remote, technically I have all the
materials here that could use it.
But I just think that if you were on the go or if you have to
go into the office, you just have to be so prepared.
Because if you're using the Neapolitan and you just have to
flip the next available page and you're on a white page and the
next available 1 is tan or black, it's like, well, do I
have the right pen to be able to write on this paper?
And if you don't, you're kind of screwed.
Yeah, I just find that like the dry time for gel pens in general
and not like gel ink pens, but I'm thinking like, you know,
Jelly roll, like you know, colored pop thing, whatever the
dry time for that. And then also the transfer that
I was getting. Just the heebie jeebies.
Do not like it. Yeah.
You're absolutely right, I didn't think about that for the
blackout paper, it does transfer a lot.
Yeah, And then you just again, it's it's effectively like a
ghosting 2.0. It's like you're not seeing
through the page, you're just seeing a transfer of what was on
one side to the other. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, I
drew out my design. I don't want all this extra
stuff all over it, but. What is that?
Like an opaque transfer? Like a opaque ghosting.
Either way, it's not something I want in my notebook.
So yeah, I want to make sure that my paper bright white so
that I can use the pens that I want to.
It's not going to do any transfer.
It's not going to do any ghosting or bleeding.
And it has dots that just make sense.
I think another one for me like kind of a must have more than
just a nice to have would be an elastic closure.
Like I don't have a tendency to use bookmarks.
Oftentimes I get like caught under my foot when I'm sitting
cross legged on the couch and I'm ripping them out
accidentally. OK, as as a side note that
happened in the one notebook that I actually use the bookmark
in Devastator, but it is quick. But no in terms of the
bookmarks, I don't really typically use them.
It the elastic closure though is quite important.
I do like to have my notebook closed.
I also have a tendency to know have little like slips of paper
that I've stuck in there, not like in the back pocket just
slid into the notebook. And by having the elastic
closure, it keeps the notebook closed enough so that those
things don't fall out. That's a really good point
there. Yeah.
I don't know that I that could be Baker break for me, to be
honest with you. But I definitely think the page
ribbons. I do use those and I agree with
you, devastation when they fall out.
Sometimes I don't even know how they fall.
Clearly it's getting stuck on something and ripping out.
One of the things I am a big fan of in the bullet journal
notebooks is that they have three of them in there.
And I really like that because I tend to use a lot of them
because usually I'll have one of the page holders on like my
current page. And then because I'm using my
bullet journal at work, I'm using it for a lot of like
what's my next meeting to easily get to that.
And then I'll also have like the third one, not always in my
future low, but maybe like a monthly overview or a tracker
page is like almost like consistent for that month.
And I also really like that they don't add charms to their page
holders as well because I know that while some people love
that, I just really don't like it.
And it also gives something else to like grab on to something,
you know, like if it's going to hook onto your leg or whatever,
a solid piece of ribbon isn't likely going to do that unless
you have like, I don't know, super strong leg grips.
But otherwise, if you get a little charm hooked onto
something, it's definitely pulling out.
Yeah, no, I find that those ones do have a tendency to fall out
more often than the ones that don't have a charm.
I quite like the charm. I think it's cute.
But I also wish that the charms would match, like, the theme of
the notebook. And I understand it's a branding
thing. Like, I get it, but I just think
it would be kind of cute if, like, you know, you have your
snowflake journal with a little snowflake charm or something
like that. I think that would be kind of
cool. It would be a lot more, I don't
know, effort, cost, that kind of stuff, but.
Definitely cost. So I don't know that I talked
about it in my video or not, but I tried to change the charm for
the notebook that I did for the March notebook because I had
talked before about not thinking that the ampersand was like
super professional, like having a charm like that.
So what I wanted to do was to replace it and do a flat version
of like what's on the end of a shoestring, right?
So like that it doesn't fray, but it would have been flat.
And I asked them if they would like have hammer stamped, metal
stamped the ampersand into like the flat rectangle.
I don't know if I'm describing that the right way or not, but
that's what I had asked for. And I remember going back and
forth, they were like, well, that's a lot of money and all of
these things. And then we were going to go for
it. But then we ran out of time.
And I was like, but use it on something though.
Like I think that would be so cool because it is, if you're
not a fan of that ampersand, I think you could do like a metal
cap essentially is what it would be on the end and still have the
branding on it. But I personally just feel like
it would have a very different feeling to it.
And I also feel like it would be slightly more professional.
Again, if you're worried you're a place of business and you're
still want to use your arch and all of notebooks because it's
the best one out there for you because of all the cool covers
and the paper. And you know, you get your
marked notebook and it has page numbers in it.
You don't necessarily want to dangly ampersand.
I'd rather just have a flat stamp piece of metal personally.
That's fair. I mean, you know, that's the
thing. These are all kind of personal
preference type things because I would never even think that it
was an like a not professional thing.
Quote, quote, quote. Magquote marks everywhere here.
But I I find that having a charm on the end of it does make the
tactile feeling of the bookmark nicer because it weighs the
bookmark down. So it actually kind of feels
like it's, you know, being pulled to the end of the page.
I feel like I'm explaining this poorly.
Hopefully you kind of get what I mean.
I definitely understand what you're saying.
I see the value in that. You're saying that because it's
not just kind of migrating on its own because it doesn't have
a weight. If you're really gonna hold it
on your page, let it hold it down.
I get it. Yeah, exactly.
It's like a kind of like an anchor.
It would be really cute if there was a little anchor on one of
them. Just saying, But I find that one
of the issues that I've had previously in some notebooks is
actually just the bookmarks not being long enough.
Like literally, they did not poke out the bottom of the page.
Like you'd put them onto the page and there's nothing to grab
onto to actually flip to that page.
I'm like, your bookmark is literally pointless and why is
it here? There is no point to a bookmark
that you can. That's the whole.
Yeah. The whole idea is take it, lift
it, get to your pages. Lee, I'd have to have to like,
fish to the top of my notebook to find out where that ribbon
is. So that is definitely something
that I check anytime I go to look at a new notebook, like in
particular one that I have received.
It's kind of hard to see these things online like before you
purchase them. But yeah.
In terms of your next consideration though, what would
be another make or break kind of thing for your notebooks?
Yeah. So again, as I've gotten to know
more brands out there and see kind of what is out there when
it comes to notebook and stationery, something that's
really important to me now a lot more now than maybe it was
several years ago when I started, is the brand that I'm
buying it from and very much aligning myself with.
Maybe not 100% because I know not every brand is going to do
everything that you like. And I think if they're doing
something that you don't like, you have to make that moral
decision on whether or not you align to that.
But for the most part, if they're out there and they very
much align with just like your design style or your aesthetic,
or especially if they're a small business and you want to support
someone like that, I think it's really cool.
Like, for instance, there is a creator, Lela Journals, who has
been in the journal community for a very long time, and she
started to make her own notebooks.
I mean she just released them. Not that they're exactly my
aesthetic, but like they are really cool looking.
Oh my gosh, they are so beautiful.
Like I came across a reading journal video that somebody put
up on YouTube or whatever and you know, they showing off the
notebook at the start of the video and I'm just like, no,
shut up. I don't care about what you're
doing today. I just need to know where this
notebook is from because she's done such a beautiful job
designing them. In particular, it was one that
had like this kind of very intricate framing and had like a
ribbon or something. And like you said, it's not
necessarily my style or typical style, but I was very tempted.
Absolutely gorgeous. She's also one of the people
that I think has been doing one of those fluffy covers.
I think she has a fluffy cover now.
Yeah, hers are all very, like, very cute.
See, right. I don't know if that's how I
exactly say it, but they are very aesthetic.
They're very beautiful. Very demure, very mindful.
Yeah, exactly that. And they just very much align
with her as a brand. It's like if I'm going to
purchase this notebook from you, I know exactly what I'm going to
get. And I think, you know, even
someone like Amanda Rachely who does have a fluffy notebook,
let's just go ahead and just say that's the fluffy notebook that
at least I was thinking of when I saw because it's the only
fluffy notebook I've ever seen. But that is something too.
When you're buying that from her, you're like, oh, this
absolutely fits with her whole vibe.
You know exactly what you're getting from that.
And that's how I feel with the other brands that I'm purchasing
from. Sometimes they will explore, but
I feel like when Archer and Olive explorers, it's still an
Archer and Olive notebook. All of those core features of
the notebook are there. They're exploring things within
their cover usually, right? That's where they feel like they
play the most. And then you have someone like
Bullet Journal, and I'm only naming these because these are
the ones I buy or get the most, right?
But they for the most part were always very straightforward.
They were a color of the year and then even then now though,
they're starting to play around a little bit with different
creators and making those. I think the last one last year
had more of a botanical flower or something on it.
And then the one this year is like a foiled star pattern that
they have on there. And even with that one, I'm a
little funny about like because again, I wouldn't normally
expect that from Bullet Journal because everything before this
has been very minimal and very just a color.
But I am OK with the fact that they're exploring and doing a
little bit more with that because I also think from a a
brand perspective, and I very much respect this, having worked
in marketing and digital marketing and a little bit of
product marketing back in the day.
You want to invite more people into your brand.
They benefit more if people start to go that.
So if you like this cool star foil look and you're not just
about the basic boring flat style that has been there
before, you do start to invite more people into your brand.
And again, on the opposite side, I feel like Archer and Olive,
it's not just because I've been yelling about it for years, but
they have put out less flowery, flowery kind of covers.
And then I can very much align with that and be like, yeah, I'm
gonna buy that notebook now because it is something that I
want to have. I think that's a nice part about
the bullet journal notebooks as well is just that you know
internally what you're gonna get, you're always gonna get
those elements that are very bullet journal esque.
You're gonna get like you know your grid spacing guide, you're
gonna get the overlapping circles for their branding.
You're gonna get the little reference booklet that tells you
like how to bullet journal and stuff because they have designed
their notebook. So it is specifically for bullet
journaling. That's why I say that you can't
use it for other stuff. Like you can put whatever you
want in a notebook. We're not like the notebook
police or anything. But in terms of internally, you
know what you're getting. It's just that outside packaging
that's changing up a little. I think that the holographic
foiling is so beautiful, but I don't, I'm not going to use the
paper. I can't.
I'm not going to use. You're like, can I take off the
cover of this notebook, put other paper inside of it So you,
I know people do that with Archer and Olive notebooks.
I've had people offer it to me before because I was like I
really love this cover but it has lined paper in it.
I remember someone was like I do this for a living.
I cut out books and redo whatever and I was like I like
it but I'm not going to pay someone to to rebind find
notebook for me. Yeah, I need some bujo surgery
type deal. Like I'm not, I'm not going to
do it. I'd like to just have an all in
But I did like your point about in terms of selecting your
brands, you know, that you're going to support and whatever,
thinking about the kind of maybe like mission or morals behind
those brands. Like, you know, what is it those
brands stand for and what do they support type of a thing?
Because although it might not necessarily be like a conscious
choice when you're going to buy these things, by putting, you
know, your money into that brand, you are in some way
supporting what they stand for, if that kind of makes sense.
Like I'm not saying that like, oh, you know, if you go and pick
the wrong notebook brand to support, you're like a terrible
person or anything like that. No, it's just, you know, drawing
our own personal lines in terms of what we are OK with spending
our money on, on versus not when it comes to what brands kind of
stand for, if that kind of makes sense.
It does. I think some areas where it
starts to get a little bit shady.
And I've seen this a handful of times where other brands will
copy kind of a look of a different one.
And it's always hard, I personally feel like to point to
certain things, right. But I know that there are brands
that have kind of copy or duped what Archer and Olive has done.
But I also feel like you can't be like, I have a copyright.
We're putting a little icon in the top center of my notebook,
right? There are 1,000,000 different
versions. I remember years ago there was
like the bee icon they had. There was another brand that did
another bee that looked similar. It wasn't exact, but that was
like a thing. I think now too, there's this
whole conversation around like AI art and other things like
that that start to come into the picture too, where there's a lot
of people, especially in the artist creative community that
is very much against AI art and creation.
And they are basically like, I want nothing to do with that
because that's not supporting other artists or it's stealing
from other artists to make its own thing.
That's just another area too where it's like if a brand was
to start to do that, you would just make that decision on
whether or not you like the look of the cover.
And if you're really hardcore pressed about not supporting AI
art. But I agree, I wouldn't hold
that against somebody and be like, I'm following you because
you bought a notebook from this company.
I don't know. Are there other ones you can
think of, Jess? And again, we don't like call
specific names, but I'm sure the planner pals would love us too
because y'all love some tea that have maybe kind of been on
there. There was a notebook years ago I
think that a lot of people like just turned against, but I can't
remember the name of the brand. No, I know that we've had
previously brands using user created content in their
advertising without permission. That's been an issue we have had
like, I don't know, keep wanting to say scrap lifting, but I
think that's like the nice term for it.
There's not shoplifting. The idea of like, you know,
stealing or mimicking designs. Obviously, the one that kind of
gets me, which is like, it's, it's a weird pet peeve, but like
it's still there is when a brand puts out notebook designs
without kind of suggesting that they weren't actually designed
in house. Like not to say that everything
has to be designed in house because you do have people or
like brands that you know, work with creators, do
collaborations, make kind of like creator LED notebooks and
all of that kind of stuff. But typically speaking, when
they do that, they put the person's name on it because
that's also a way to like, you know, market or advertise and
stuff like that. But it's more so when I think
companies are like marketing the notebook as like, Hey, this is
like our notebook, but actually it's just like a generic one
that they've gotten off Alibaba without any kind of like design
input or whatever. It's just kind of like a stock
standard one they've purchased off that website and now a
reselling under their own name. That always makes me feel a
little strange. And that's not to say that the
notebook is in good quality. That's not to say that the
notebook can't be like, you know exactly what you're looking for.
It just feels weird to say like I got this notebook from X but
actually it came from Y and it's being drop shipped and a whole
bunch of other brands have it as well.
Yeah, I think is it called white labeling?
I know that some brands do that where it's like you have a
general thing, but then you're just putting your own brand name
on it. But I think the planner notebook
community, like we're very aware of those type of things.
Like I said, the fact that a community would go against
another brand because it's like you swipe this from this company
because it looks exactly like that.
There are definitely some specific items, ways things are
produced, like you said, the insides of a notebook that are
similar to others. I mean, I'll go ahead out just
say like I was very inspired by other notebooks when I was
designing the one with arch and olive, like the page marks or
the smart marks that I call them on the bottom.
That is not an idea of my own. The way that I put them on there
though, it's like other brands do that as well.
But I thought let's integrate it into the actual grid versus it
being outside of like, again, not a new idea, but something
that I find very, very helpful. But I think things like that,
there aren't any brands. I think that where it was like
This Is Us. You can't find this anywhere
else because I know for a fact other brands have been doing
that. But there are some of those
qualities of like you just mentioned that you very much
look for and you kind of know, especially if you are a
connoisseur of notebooks. Connoisseur of notebooks?
There's a nicer way of saying a hoarder.
I think that another consideration that I I know that
I would personally have if I didn't get sent as much from
brands and stuff would just be price honestly, because while
there are some very beautiful notebooks out there, they are
kind of a pricey item a lot of the time.
So I can totally understand people who are getting these
notebooks that are, you know, these white label whatever ones
because they have all the features that they want at a
much lower price. So like totally fair.
I know that, like U KB UKEI think they are ones that like
100 and 60 GSM bright white dot grid pages, elastic closure, you
know all the stuff that I'm looking for, but at a much
cheaper price, because they are kind of like those mass produced
sold to many companies type notebooks.
I'd be, I'd be curious to try it actually because I think that it
would be possibly a really good notebook for people who do want
160 GSM but don't want to pay like you know, 30 five U.S.
dollars or more at some of these like larger brands.
It's something that I did think about earlier.
And I remember when I bought the very first Lt. 1917, I felt like
I was splurging and I think that notebook was maybe 20 or $25.00.
But at that point in time, I could not comprehend why a
notebook would cost more money than like 7 or $8.
But then after using different ones, because I used the LTS for
like my first two and the third one, I went to Walmart and I was
like, I'm getting this notebook, it's $7.00.
It was that's the worst notebook ever that I've ever used.
Talk about hating ghosting and getting the ick like that was
toilet paper paper I think on there.
But as you start to realize that so much goes into that you do
enjoy kind of the artistry of it.
I look at it very similar to fountain pens, right?
There's a lot of people out there who would be like, oh, I
would never pay more than $8 for a fountain pen.
I just bought a fountain pen the other day that was over $200.00.
But the difference is that it is custom made.
I know the person who's making it.
I've watched the entire process go through.
He's a small creator. Gravitas Pens is where I bought
it from just but I'll shut him out because I love him so much.
But I really felt that it was worth every penny because I know
what had gone into the making of that and I have a completely
different respect for that versus other companies who are
selling. Let me get myself in trouble on
this one that definitely are not custom made for them and they
are just purchasing them generically.
Don't hate me off of wherever and then selling them.
You know, it's kind of that white labeled deal.
You know, I get it. You don't have to love
everything about a brand. Right.
I was just like, I'm surprised that it didn't come up.
The feathering. Oh my God, the heebie jeebie X
no. Well, before we get ourselves in
any more trouble, Jess, I think that we could say to our planner
pals, we would love to hear from you and let us know what are
your must haves, your make or break.
It's for the notebooks and the planners that you're looking
for. And I say planners because there
are a lot of other predated or undated planners out there from
different companies that we know are planning pals are using.
We know it's not just bullet journal and blank dot grid
notebooks. While we have an affinity for
those, we want to hear about all the different types of planners
and things that you're using. So let us know down in the
comments of this video. Let us know in the comments of
the podcast. You could also e-mail us.
We got some emails last time Jess and I felt like it was a
personal 1 to one note for us. But you can e-mail us Planner
pals podcast@gmail.com. And of course, drop comments
over on Instagram The Planner Pals podcast.
I'm very interested to hear what other people have to say about
their make or breaks and must haves because obviously like I'm
just surprised Mark didn't mention page numbers.
Yes, I know they're nice to have, not a make or break, but
still. Yeah, if this was a different
type of video I would have harped on that forever.
But you know what? If you want all of my make or
breaks plus page numbers, go buy the rest of the notebooks over
an Archer Lala for the Marks and notebooks because I wanted them
to sell. Out they will, they will.
I had somebody hit me up the other day be like, Oh my God,
that one's beautiful. Where did you get it from?
Like, haha, well, that's actually a mark your page as
original type deal. But it's still very cool that
you got to work with them and make something that's like, you
know, it's like your baby. It's like, you know, you
tailored the items and pieces of a notebook that you were like
you wanted your your nice to haves and now like haves because
they're in that. I'm very eager to see your new
year set up. So in our next episode, we are
going to have even more fun talking about planners and
notebooks and just the planning community as a whole because we
are going to come up with our 2025 planner trend predictions.
I don't know how good I'm going to be at this jest because I'm
not really. Really good at like thinking
beyond a week from now. But we'll have fun with this
episode. I'm really pumped up about it
because I've never done this before.
Yeah, it's just going to be us spouting a whole bunch of
honestly bullshit and slander about what the journal community
is going to be doing next year. But I'm for it.
I'm so excited. If you have any predictions that
you, you know, think might be up on the horizon, let us know
about those. But for now, team, thank you for
watching.