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Sketchbook Overkill: Removable Brass Rings for Bindings, So You Can Replace, Re-Order or Remove Pages

Also: Is off-size computer-setup-friendly sketchbook designs officially a trend?

By Rain Noe - August 5, 2020

in Sketching

It was just yesterday that I wrote about Studio Neat, designers of the off-sized Panobook, getting knocked off; Orangered copied their design with their BetterBook.

Just now I was e-mailed by a rep for Grovemade, a Portland-based home office goods company. They, too have come out with an odd-sized sketchpad/notebook meant to fit above or below a keyboard, and thankfully this one's not a direct copy of Studio Neat's work. Here's Grovemade's Slim Leather Notebook:

These ring in at $50 a pop. Why so pricey? The notebooks use Grovemade's system of brass discs for removable bindings (so you can replace, remove or re-order pages), the covers are veg-tanned leather, and the thing is made in the U.S.A.

I myself would never use Orangered's BetterBook, even if one was given to me for free; I can't knowingly support design piracy. I could swallow the $19 for Studio Neat's Panobook because I've got a thing for small, plucky design firms. But I could never spend $50 on a sketchbook for myself; I consider them consumable tools rather than keepsakes.

I would, however, spend $50 on the Grovemade book if I was buying it as a gift for someone else. Brass and leather are too fancy for me, but I know others with elevated tastes who'd appreciate it, and maybe that year I'd win the holiday gift-giving arms race that we all engage in.

One thing's for sure: Studio Neat presciently realized that people want, and are willing to pay for, sketchpads that fit on desks with computer set-ups.

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Zach W

4 years ago

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Why do you keep saying that Studio Neat invented the extra-wide (or long) sketchbook? The Panobook is just a riff off any skinny spiral-bound sketchbook. I have several extra-wide sketchbooks from school 20 years ago that Studio Neat did not invent.... Is your argument that they patented this exact size notebook? You could easily argue that their pen is a rip-off of a previous pen design....... where does the "copy-cat" mentality stop?

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  Zach W
  
  4 years ago
  
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  I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday when I read it.
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Scott T

4 years ago

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When I sketch I turn the paper to fit with the sweep of my arm. I think I would find these long sizes frustrating because it would run into other things on my desk like keyboard, pens, and others. I know my space is not anywhere as clean as shown in the pictures above.

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