I recently received a selection of goodies from Origin One, a company based in India. Founded in 2015, Origin One describes themselves as “a collection of everyday stationery, handmade rugs, and elevated basics made for the design loving global nomad.” Their website very attractively presents a wide variety of notebooks, planners, stickers, stamps and other stationery, as well as housewares such as table linens, kitchenware, and framed art.

The Origin One notebooks I received are blank, lined, and squared notebooks in a variety of sizes. These are all single-signature notebooks, with either stitched or stapled spines. The materials all have a nice feel– substantial card stock covers in different colors and textures and smooth, creamy 112 GSM paper.

The designs vary: some just have the Origin One logo on the front, and some have other logos that say Global Nomad, or are a more elaborate Origin One logo with the tagline “Everyday Objects for the Design Loving Global Nomads.” I personally prefer a cleaner front cover, with one subtle logo or none at all. But that’s a matter of individual taste, as the person I live with came in and said “ooh, those are cute!” while I was photographing these samples!

The back covers have even more going on, with product details, brand info and other verbiage and design elements. I’m not sure why they have all these warnings about bending and pressing! Like any notebook, they’ll get creased if you bend them in certain ways, but what’s the big deal? It’s a sturdy notebook, so it should survive normal wear and tear perfectly well. The “caution” and “handle with care” warnings just seem a bit silly. I like the little tree and campfire graphics, though!

There’s no branding inside the Origin One notebooks. The lined and squared versions have quite wide margins around the lined/squared areas. It’s a bit unusual but it will be a matter of personal preference whether you consider this a good or bad thing.

One of the large notebooks I received is Origin One’s “Multi Use Notebook.” This has an interesting layout I’ve never seen before, with the left page half dotted and half plain, and the right page all lined, with months and dates at the top so you can circle them (similar to Stalogy notebooks). At the bottom of both pages, you get a ruler– centimeters on the left and inches on the right. I could see this being a really handy layout for designers or anyone who needs to sketch and take meeting notes, perhaps. Or it could be used for a daily journal that incorporates both writing and drawing, or just some fun space for doodling. Though as you can see, there is some show-through of the alternate layout from the back of the page.

I tested the paper in one of the passport-sized notebooks. It feels really smooth and nice to write on, especially with gel ink pens. With fountain pens, colors look vibrant and drying time is very fast. But there is a little feathering and some bleed-through. Show-through is about average. There’s a lot to like about this paper, but you might not want to be using both sides if you use a lot of juicy fountain pens.

So will these Origin One notebooks truly appeal to design-loving global nomads? There is definitely a lot of design going on– maybe a little too much, with all those logos and warnings everywhere! And if you’re a global nomad, it’s quite likely that your notebook will get pressed or bent from time to time while stuffed in your luggage. But on the whole, I think these are attractive, good-quality notebooks, and if you use either of the standard sizes of Travelers Notebooks, these are a nice option for refills.

If you want to try some Origin One notebooks yourself, they ship internationally, but depending on where you live, the cost may be high in relation to the notebooks. For example, two A5 notebooks costing approximately $9 USD each would cost about $30 to ship to the US.

You can also enter my giveaway! I will select two random winners and each will receive a selection of Origin One samples. Please note that I will only ship to US addresses. I haven’t done a giveaway in a while and I’m feeling lazy about all the social media stuff, so all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post no later than 11:59pm EST on Sunday October 29, 2023! Make sure you include your email address in the comment form so I can contact you if you win.

I received these samples for free, but was not compensated in any other way for this review, and all opinions are my own.