Asbury & Asbury is a design team with some fun notebook projects, among other things. They dropped me a note months ago about their Perpetual Disappointments Diary, which regrettably got lost in my inbox, but when I finally checked out the link I was also happy to see their series of notebooks featuring photos of British roadways, whose numbering happens to be the same as the sizes used for paper in the UK and Europe:

“A6 Notebook is the first in a series of notebooks inspired by the coincidental overlap of standard paper sizes and British road numbering.

The hardback, A6-sized, 156-pp notebook is an invitation to explore your own creative meanderings while notionally following the route of the A6, which runs for 300 miles across England from Luton to Carlisle.

The notebook includes a Foreword by Joe Moran, author of On Roads: A Hidden History and a social historian with a focus on the recent past. This is followed by an introductory essay on the A6, with further information sections at the back. The main body of the notebook is blank for your own notes and doodles, with footnotes marking destinations and points of interest along the way.

The project is a celebration of British A-roads, which were long ago relegated in importance by the arrival of motorways, and have never enjoyed the same mythological status as American highways, but nevertheless play a significant role in the psychogeography of the British Isles. As Joe Moran writes, ‘A-roads serve as the road system’s unconscious, often stretching for miles without being signposted or acknowledged, disappearing into street names and getting caught up in one-way systems but still always there, connecting up different areas of our lives serendipitously.’ “

And here’s the diary, a great gift for your favorite cynic!

“An appointments diary with a series of disappointing twists. Includes a weekly demotivational proverb, notable deaths, contact pages for people who never call, and space for your own pointless doodles. First published as Disappointments Diary 2013, now back in a larger, more cumbersome and non-year-specific format.”

Available for sale online in  Asbury & Asbury’s online shop.