I use a legal... or is it an illegal pad. 8.5 x 11 lined pad. Could I send 20 years worth to you so I can clean up my office?

Michael

The answer from 400 years ago. :-)

Toooooooooooooooo many lines. Impairs creativity!

Start with a blank piece of paper and then draw the prison you are comfortable with.

Michael

What about these two from typotheque: diary sketchbook or multicolor sketchbook?

I bind my own blank books.

Grids are for squares. :¬)
http://typophile.com/node/40188

Personally, I prefer to sketch totally free hand and then formalize things on the computer.

I choose my pads for the paper in them. My all time favourite was chosen for me though.

(Tina - your links aren’t working)

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I’m surprised this forum full of artists didn’t answer with a resounding “MOLESKINE!”

I don’t know how much fun they are, but why don’t you check out FieldNotes. I’ve heard some good stuff from them and I’ve got some on order. Nothing too too special, just nice.

I bind my own blank books.

well that’s just too cool. What kind of binding?

-=®=-

Ah, sorry, I’ll try again:
diary sketchbook
multicolor sketchbook

I generally prefer blank paper, e.g. the Vang Skizzenbuch primo, but this is meanwhile hard to find. So at the moment my favorite is from Muji (there is a search form, but you can search the stationary section as well): the EVA Zipper Double Ringnote. It is available in A5 and A6. There are superfine dots on the paper which don’t distract and the surface is very smooth and a joy to write on. But even better is the integrated semi-opaque plastic zipper bag on the front. Here you can store snippets with notes and even a pencil or whatever use- or playful you fancy. Although I’d wish they’d offer more sizes some day, the A5 is fine to always have in the bag.

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve been through my fair share of moleskines but am not that fond of them. I was trying to research grids for type design that perhaps I could implement into a day to day notebook format also.

What kind of binding?

I started out with three- and five-hole pamphlet-stitched single signatures (making small ones to tuck into my purse), and have recycled almost every blank book I’ve built in a class or as a model also.

My fave is one I’ve learned recently, a two-needle Japanese sewn binding with multiple signatures: the big advantage to it is that it lays flat, which is pretty nifty. Haven’t found a tutorial for it on the ’net, but there must be one somewhere.

(Edit: no tutorial, but a nice diagram of it can be found on http://www.graemedawes.co.uk/ under “Japanese Bookbinding” and thence “Sewn Styles”: scroll to the bottom to find retchoso.)

You might want to check out some French-ruled paper, which have a really fine ruling. For some reason it is hard for me to find on the internet, but if you find an art store that stocks a lot of Clairefontaine/Rhodia/Exacompta notebooks sometimes they will have it.

You can get a glimpse of it here http://www.bloc-rhodia.fr/Divers/Rulings.html

They call it SÉYÈS (grands carreaux)