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Notem, UMA Large Notebooks.

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While all three of the beauties are, indeed, beautiful, the pink one was my first, true, Notem love. These minimalist grid large notebooks are aesthetically pleasing. I picked up the pink one at a small, curated giftshop in Paris, in the Montmartre neighborhood (you know, Amelie’s hood). It was called Le Rocketship, and the shopkeeper was legit friendly–a rare thing in Paris. And as somebody whose French is really rusty, perhaps awful, I was both relieved and grateful to talk to somebody about stationery in English. I gravitated toward the pink Notem grid notebook immediately, and he was very excited to let me know it was a new acquisition from Denmark. His enthusiasm was infectious, and I couldn’t pass up getting this slightly spendy, but completely worth-it notebook.

What is particularly special about these pieces is their absolute paper-i-ness. Is that a word? It is now, haha. The covers are a thicker paper, akin to a light cardboard, but bendable and dependable. The lined pages appear on one side while blank on the other, and the notebooks open flat. It will make an ideal place for a large-scale project, whenever I can decide to actually put pen to paper–but maybe I’ll save the pink version and use the gray or blue instead !

Poketo, Notebook, Confetti

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Gold always gets me, can’t help it. Poketo’s festive design with this confetti notebook is fun and smart with its playful minimalism. This piece was picked up at the Poketo shop in 2018 in the Culver City area of LA. It was really difficult to pick out just some stuff at Poketo, and it also helps when you know you’re supporting fellow Asian Americans ! What is especially nice about the brand is how bright their products are, and how they embrace color and varied geometric shapes to great effect. They are not just a stationery brand, in many ways the varied products from combs and pocket mirrors to plates and bento boxes cater to creative folks who desire something outside of the muted neutrals that dominate most social media feeds. Don’t ever change, Poketo.

In terms of this particular notebook, I was drawn to the gold edged pages at first. Normally I avoid white, but the starkness of it with the brightly colored confetti was perfectly done. The confetti colors, too, are not at all excessive or overdone, maintaining a specific palette without being dull about it. The pages themselves are blank, which is the hardest for me to use, as I’m rather rigid in my need for lines or grids, preferably. Given that its pages are blank, though, makes it perfect as a gift itself, or as a treasured sketchbook. Its a delightful hardcover, sturdy in its composition, but size-wise perfect for a smaller tote. And once you take it out of your bag, bam! the fancy gold and fun confetti cover is ‘bound’ to impress (notebook pun alert!)!