Black n’ Red is a pretty common brand in many stationery stores, but I haven’t talked about them much on this site, for two reasons. One, that all their notebooks are lined, and I gravitate more towards plain, squared, or dot-grid pages. And two, the Black n’ Red notebooks that I tend to see in stores are always larger sizes, usually with wire-o bindings. They just don’t excite me that much. But I do have two Black n’ Red notebooks in my collection that DO excite me! Let’s take a look…
The first one (shown at left in the photos above) was purchased in London’s Heathrow airport in 2016. The packaging just calls it a “ruled notebook.” It’s a lovely pocket size, hardcover notebook, very similar to a Moleskine. Squared spine, rounded corners, opens pretty flat. It has more cover overhang, so it’s very slightly larger, but otherwise very nice– solid construction, and similar features with a ribbon marker, elastic closure and expanding pocket in the back. The cover is made of a smooth material similar to that found on the Rhodia Webnotebook.
The second one was purchased in early 2018 on Amazon. This one is called a “Business Journal.” It’s like a cross between a Field Notes or Moleskine Cahier notebook and a composition book, but with an extra dose of awesomeness! I LOVE the pebbly textured cover, red stitching on the spine, and the elastic closure and back pocket, which many other softcover notebooks don’t have.
Below are comparison shots with a pocket Moleskine:
Both notebooks share a lot of the same design details inside and out, such as the brand name debossed on the front,
red endpapers, a contents page, a space at the top of each numbered page to note the date, and the same “Optik Paper.”
The paper is great– very smooth, bright white, and great with fountain pens. Show-through is a little better than average, and only a few really wet markers bled through.
Shown with a Hobonichi Techo page below for comparison:
I like both of these enough to add them to my pile for potential daily use someday, despite the lined paper. The Business Journal in particular just feels great in the hand– it’s such a nice balance between flexible pocketability and thicker sturdiness. If it was available with plain or squared or dot-grid pages, I’d really be over the moon! But there are some other options, all with lined pages:Â you can buy it in the pocket size or a 8.25 x 5.75″ size, in black with red accents, or red with black accents. Amazon has a pretty good selection of other Black n’ Red notebooks, but I have not been able to find the pocket size hardcover I bought in London– not sure if it is a UK-only product, or has been discontinued. [Update Dec. 2019: I have now found an Amazon listing for the hardcover!] I hope Black n’ Red will continue to broaden their US offerings. They seem to have focused on business-oriented notebooks up til now, but I’m sure they’d win over some fans on the creative side of the spectrum too!
I really like both of these, especially the softcover one. The Black & Red line were clearly designed as a takeoff on the familiar black and red Chinese notebooks, still made by a number of companies but difficult to find without going to a Chinatown or Japantown (as you point out in “Notebooks from Paris and Amsterdam”, December 18, 2014). For some reason they’re much easier to get in Australia. In the late ’90s, I found a huge stash of them at Kruz Boutique in New Orleans. When I called him in mid-’99 he said his source could no longer get them, but some of his friends were getting theirs from Pearl River in New York. Pearl River still carries them and they are my source now.