Review: “Paperstyle” notebooks (Swedish design by Concess)
One of the notebooks that I recently got into my hands - and that I really do not want to let go of anymore - is an A5-size notebook of Concess’ Paperstyle-series. If you now say “Which notebooks?”, you are probably as unaware as I was until most recently; a circumstance that I deeply regret after having now used these notebooks. I do not want to miss them anymore.
Anyway, it is probably also a bit difficult to be aware of the Paperstyle-notebooks, especially if one is located outside of Sweden (which I am not, so shame on me!). One can also hardly find them on the internet - at least not too easy. Here in Stockholm, however, one sees them in many stationery-stores. One can also purchase them on Concess’ own website or on bokus.com, for instance.
Enough prelude, let’s talk Paperstyle-notebooks!
Paperstyle is a brand of a Swedish company called Concess, which is based in Örebro (they do also distribute Leuchtturm-notebooks here in Sweden, for instance). Concess’ Paperstyle-series actually does not only encompass a broad spectrum of notebooks (e.g. A6 with 96 pages, A5 with 128 or 256 pages, A4 with 192 pages, 15x15cm with 192 pages, and a bunch of other formats in wire-binding...), but also calendars, guestbooks, and more.
Having that said, the notebook that I have here is in A5 with 256 pages. The binding is in a massively beautiful black cloth (there are also a number of other tempting colors available), which has an amazing feel to it. Really, once I pick that thing up, I do not wanna let go of it anymore :-). It’s just really nice and the cloth-structure looks great, I think.
The notebook is a pressed metal-binding - like a real high quality hardcover-bookbinding. This gives the notebook a robust feel and nice weight. It just feels like a really well bound book.
As most notebooks of reasonable quality, the branding is to be found on the lower backside of the notebook - embossed.
The paper-journals are thread-bound and the notebook comes with two page-markers, of which one always is grayish, and the other one varies depending on the color of the binding-cloth. The one in the black notebook, in this instance here, is black.
The paper itself is amazing. It is a silky-smooth ivory colored/off-white paper and has edgy corners, which I find really beautiful as an alternative to the rounded corners of the usual suspects’ notebooks. My notebook has slightly grayish lined ruling (lines about 7mm apart), but the notebooks are also available with plain paper.
The paper is 90g/sqm and Swedish quality-manufacturing, non-ageing and FSC-certified.
Another great thing is that the notebook opens totally flat on a table or any other plain surface. So it is really pleasant to write in it that way.
Below is a brief summarizing overview of the notebook’s advantages which, at the same time, shall serve as a test of the paper-quality. I have always indicated the pen used, just below each bullet point.
As you can see, the paper takes all the pens without any problem. The writing always looks brilliant, sharp lines, no feathering whatsoever. But the moment of truth mostly comes upon turning the page. So let’s do just that.
The result is excellent. Even by holding the page up so that light shines through, there is only a little shine-through of all the pens. This is a pretty good result, if you ask me. Can’t be much better.
When not holding the page against light, the result is even better.
Well, does this notebook also has disadvantages, one might wonder? Yes, it does. First of all, it does not have a back-pocket, in case this is important to you. Second, it also has no elastic rubber-band to close it with, which makes it probably not perfect to carry around loose-leaf notes. I do that and it works for me. But those single-sheet notes might well easily fall out.
I think this slogan of Paperstyle - “for the pleasure and comfort of handwriting” - sort of pretty much sums it up for me. It is indeed a great notebook with amazing binding and excellent paper-quality. And the best of it all: depending on where you buy it, you can get it for around 10€! This certainly makes such a sophisticated item a no-brainer and it just gained itself a safe place in my everyday-stationary.
