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How Resizing a Sketchbook Led to Crowdfunding Success [UPDATE: This Design is a Knock-Off of Studio Neat's Work]

By Rain Noe - July 31, 2020

in Sketching

UPDATE: It's come to light that the design listed here, Orangered's BetterBook, is a knock-off of Studio Neat's Panobook, released in 2017. Read the full story here.

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Sketchbooks come in standard sizes: 4"x6", 5"x7", 7"x10", 8.5"x11", 9"x12", and 11"x14" for perfect-bound, and 14"x17", 18"x24", and 24"x36" for spiral-bound. All of those sizes are vestiges of when paper was made by hand; the standard 8.5" x 11", for instance, is related to the arm reach of the average Dutch paper mill worker in the 1600s.

"Many molds at that time were around 17" front to back" to accommodate their reach, according to the American Forest & Paper Assocation. "To maximize the efficiency of paper making, a sheet this big was made, and then quartered, forming four 8.5" x 11" pieces."

In this day and age, however, we're as likely as not to sketch at our desk--where a keyboard or laptop take up much of the available real estate--and scan the sketch into digital form. Thus a London-based group of designers calling themselves Orangered Life resized the sketchbook to fit in that space between keyboard and desk's edge, resulting in the BetterBook:

By sizing it in this manner, the team not only aimed to make it fit handily on a desk primarily used for a computer, but also chose an aspect ratio that they reckon best matches a monitor or smartphone screen.

They also inset the paper so that the larger cover would leave a black border around the sketch. This was done to maximize ease of using a scanning app.

When the BetterBook's Kickstarter launched last month, I dismissed it as a gimmick and figured demand would be weak. I was wrong. I just checked the Kickstarter campaign, and it was successfully crowdfunded with £59,090 (USD $77,617) in pledges.

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While the campaign is over, interested buyers can still pre-order one here.

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Michael DiTullo

4 years ago

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Hack tip, just cut a sketchbook in half on the band saw. We used to do this when I was in design school in the 90s to get longer drawing pages, usually with large pads like 24" x 36"

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Nathan D.

4 years ago

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Finally, a way for people who buy short sleeved button-ups two sizes too small and salmon colored skinny jeans to let the world know that they have a Dribbble account which costs less than a class A headphone amplifier clad in hand-hewn walnut.

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Ross V

4 years ago

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The black border is an interesting idea but I'll stick with the tried and true Panobook. Cheaper and doesn't have a weird camera icon on every page.

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