16 Famous Designers Show Us Their Favorite Notebooks by John Brownlee.
From the post:
Sure, digital design apps might be finally coming into their own, but there’s still nothing better than pen and paper. Here at Co.Design, we’re notebook fetishists, so we recently asked a slew of designers about their favorites—and whether they would mind giving us a look inside.
It turns out they didn’t. Across multiple disciplines, almost every designer we asked was thrilled to tell us about their notebook of choice and give us a look at how they use it. Our operating assumption going in was that most designers would probably be pretty picky about their notebooks, but this turned out not to be true: While Muji and Moleskine notebooks were the common favorites, some even preferred loose paper.
But what makes the notebooks of designers special isn’t so much what notebook they use, as how they use them. Below, enjoy a peek inside the working notebooks of some of the most prolific designers today—as well as their thoughts on what makes a great one.
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Images of analog notebooks with links to sources!
I met a chief research scientist at a conference who had a small pad of paper for notes, contact information, etc. Could have had the latest gadget, etc., but chose not to.
That experience wasn’t unique as you will find from reading John’s post.
Notebooks, analog ones, have fewer presumptions and limitations than any digital notebook.
Albert Einstein had pen/pencil and paper.
Same was true for John McCarty.
Not to mention Donald Knuth.
So, what have you done with your pen and paper lately?*
* I’m as guilty as anyone in thinking that pounding a keyboard = being productive. But the question: So, what have you done with your pen and paper lately? remains a valid one.