Moleskine has been introducing so many new products lately, they’re hard to keep up with. But here’s one I had to try:
This 3-piece set includes a 2-pocket envelope, a 2012 week-to-page planner, and an undated day-per-page notebook.
First of all, I love the colors. The neutral brown and grey shades are very attractive in an understated way. The other Cahier planners also come in nice shades. I’m really glad they’ve introduced Cahier planners in general, as they’re a nice minimalist alternative to the bulkier hardcover planners. I hope they expand these color choices to some other products.
I also love the 2-part envelope– it holds a bit more than the pockets in the back of the notebooks themselves would ever hold, without the bulk of the multi-section memo pockets. It could make a handy little wallet.
The undated daily notebook is a good idea– the pages are perforated so you could insert them in another planner. It makes a lot of sense to combine this with a week-to-page notebook, as a lot of people probably don’t need to write longer notes every single day. The weekly planner notebook is nice and stripped-down– no extra pages to add bulk, just a very slim planner with a few extra notes pages at the end. The cahiers each have the usual pocket in the back.
This combination is sort of what I’d envisioned as an improvement to the Color-a-Month Volant planner. But the problem is that the 3 pieces aren’t really designed to stay together as a unit– the elastic will hold them together on one side, but it’s not secure at all– the other side is loose and I don’t think they’d stay together very long if they were tossed around in a bag with other items. I found it easy to shake the notebooks apart– and this is despite the elastic being tight enough to warp the notebooks somewhat.
I would have made the pockets with a bigger cover fold so the 2 notebooks could have been tucked inside– this would also allow the pockets to accommodate thicker items within.
All in all, this isn’t a product I’ll be actively using at the moment, though I may use the daily notebook and pocket envelope at some point. And I’ll continue to hope that Moleskine will think through the useability of these new products a bit more!
Interesting. I hadn’t seent hat at all. I really like it.
I bought one of these because I really liked the idea of the envelope/wallet.
It has served me well in sorting my receipts – but sadly after some time in my pocket with my keys it has suffered a fatal erosion of the bottom edge.
Anyone know of a similar thing in a slightly more robust form?
> Anyone know of a similar thing in a slightly more robust form?<
Duct tape.
Moleskine continues to add new products. Do they diminish the brand? I think so but I have no clue what kind of metric the Moleskine marketing people work from. There is ONE product I wish for: a molie bike jersey. But I wouldn't pay $90 for one. I'd pay $45 for it and assume they're paying ME to be their advertising vehicle. I'd wear it.
I like the new colors., but can’t see what I’d use these these for.
I’ve also been intrigued with the color-a-month Volant planners. I thought about using them for monthly project tracking. But when I looked into them I concluded they have too many pgs used up by unnecessary info, like time zones, etc. I figured it was more convenient & cheaper just to customize a small blank notebook.
How bizarre, when I first saw these I expected the envelope would have a pocket on each side so the covers of each planner could slip in, holding both together kind of like a Filofax Flex or similar thing. It makes no sense that the envelope doesn’t hold the books! So that’s 3 separate books flapping around in your bag. They really missed an opportunity to allow you to tuck everything into one slim unit. Like you said, I hope they rethink this design!
Is the elastic tight without the other two notebooks?
Yes, the elastic was still pretty tight, not loose and floppy.