I spotted Wild & Wolf’s Qwerty line of products in a local store and just loved the idea: notebooks and other products with old style typewriter motifs! I contacted the company and they were kind enough to send me not only a sample Qwerty journal, but another funky notebook as well. Let’s take a look:

The Qwerty Journal looks at first like your standard moleskine-type notebook– black hardcover, 3.5 x 5.5″ size, elastic closure, ribbon marker. But you have only to look at it the right way to see what makes it unique. The cover material is smoother than a Moleskine, and it’s etched with a typewriter keyboard design that wraps around the front and back covers and spine. I love the black-on-black design.

When you open the notebook, it gets even better: colorful endpapers with retro typewriter images!

The ribbon marker is red and reads “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Other than these features, the notebook is very similar to others out there. It feels slightly larger and chunkier than a pocket Moleskine (shown for comparison below)– it’s more similar to the heft of a Rhodia Webnotebook.

The binding opens nice and flat. The lined paper feels good with all my usual pens, but my Pilot Varsity fountain pen bled and feathered a bit. In general, bleed-through and show-through were slightly worse than average.

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So this notebook isn’t for the fountain pen stickler, but it would make a great gift, especially if paired with some of the matching accessories, which include bags and pencil cases (at least I’ve seen these in stores– they don’t seem to be available on the company’s website as of this writing).

The other notebook I got was the Rob Ryan “I Am The Notebook Of…” journal. Again, I love the design– no black on black this time, instead it’s a light-hearted whimsical look in turquoise, white and yellow.

The art is based on intricately cut paper– charming and technically impressive! I didn’t test the paper in this one but it’s unlined, with a nice creamy tone to it. The cover is cardboard boards with the colored artwork pasted over it. And there are beautiful endpapers too! The size is a bit larger than a pocket Moleskine.

It’s very lovely and I’m tempted to keep it, but instead I’m going to give it away to some lucky, randomly selected winner who enters in one of the ways below:

On Twitter, tweet something containing “Wild & Wolf” and follow and “@NotebookStories.”

On Facebook, “like” the  Notebook Stories page and post something containing the words “Wild & Wolf” on my wall.

On your blog, post something containing the words “Wild & Wolf” and “NotebookStories” and link back to this post.

The deadline for entry is Friday Jan. 6 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!