Treehugger Bare
January 29, 2008
Back in the summer of 2007, Myndology put out a line of recycle products call the Bare. I mention that this product should have won some prizes. Yesterday, Treehugger took notice of the recycle notebooks! Treehugger is a clean website which gathers information about design, architecture, and every day products which promotes recycling. There is a certain modernist aesthetics to the featured posts and the look of the site. Part of me want to compare it to Uncrate with an environmental conscious bent. Curiously, there’s an icon of a dialog box that one sees in comic book panels with an equal sign. This icon represents Treehugger’s forum. Myndology has use this motif in their products before in the older notebooks. It seems to represent dialogues, discussions, and communications tool. Even the Treehugger’s logo has a simplicity and elegance. It is an * with an extended branch to embrace the whole tree.
The Bare Arrival!
September 6, 2007
Previously:
Ah the long awaited (exactly 3 months!) Bare is here! Just in time for school. About a week ago, Jason – the Mind behind Mynd – sent me package of their new Bare Line via UPS Ground. While I’m still in-doors and don’t have available lights to photograph, I’m just make some quick notes. I’ll use the photo to illustrate later. The Bare line is made from:
- 100% recycled and 30% post consumed products.
- It is printed with soy ink.
- The belly band proudly advertised this fact: The notebook is produced with 100% clean, renewable hydroelectric energy.
- Chlorine free process
- Acid-free paper (I believe this means that it’s archival. Often, recycle paper are not archival.)
- Created with French paper
- In case you didn’t know, the belly band is printed with ‘(RECYCLED) good thinking (RENEWABLE ENERGY) good thinking!
Bravo! There are few companies that make recycle high end paper products. So far I’ve only found one: myndology. This is ‘Good Thinking’! I can’t emphasize enough about recycling of papers. I often indulge in recycle projects myself. I’m guilty of paper waste. So when a acid free recycle paper comes along, I welcome it whole heartily. It makes me feel less guilty using it. I understand that it does cost more to produce such a product, and this is why some companies shy away from it. It takes a shift in different methods of production, I image, to do recycle products. But I think it’s a trend to go organic in the paper industry as well as apparel, foods, and accessories.
Size matters – (at least in the recycle paper world) Cost effectiveness may be one of the reason Myndology produced only two sizes for now, unless there are support and demand for a larger size. There is the Junior size 6.5 x 8.5 inches and the 4 x 3 inches Memo size which has three discs. They are offered in blank or lined pages. The pages has a warm vanilla tone compare to the pure whites. I assume it is because there is no chlorine to bleach the paper pulp to pure white. I like this for several reasons. One, it looks good with brown fountain pen ink. And two, it has less glare. I sit under a fluorescent lights eight hours a day at work, I see that compared side by side, the Bare has a nicer tone. In fact, it has a very similar color and quality to the Moleskine rule paper.
Color – Over all, the designers of Duffy and Partners at Myndology choose a muted earthy tone compare to their more vibrant and wild colors of the previous lines. The plastic cover is replaced by double layer card stock paper folded. The top layer is laser cut with energetic and symbolic arrows alternately pointed at the eight cardinal directions. The whole effect is exotic and alive with the interplay of light and dark as it sits above another layer of the same color paper! This is a very unique design feature. I have not seen laser cut done on any other products. It is an innovative technique to improve our enjoyment of paper.
(For some reason these laser cuts reminded me of Cross’s AutoCross line of steering wheel leather cover which Jack Spade help to popularize.) These muted tones look right at home in a conservative office settings. The cover comes in three colors of Clay, Pine, and Sand. All of these are bound in a disc color of Sand. While I like the disc very much, I can’t help but dream up of new disc colors or maybe even start with the existing color of the cover and matching discs. This way, we would have three possible combinations to play with.
Memo – The Memo pages are still thin like the notebooks. Perhaps it’s hard to make a thick card stock like the 3×5 index cards. The 3×4 doesn’t match the standard 3×5. I wonder why Myndology chose 3×4 size. Perhaps because the paper maybe flimsy if the length extend another inch. Although I like the proportion of it. Myndology has their own size and ideal as to what is a good proportion. In a way, I applaud them for sticking to their guns. This means that the previous note book pages which I have 6.5 x 8.5 fits the Bare! I was worried about this. The backwards compatibility is nice. I think it would be nice to have a Memo with thick card stock paper of their existing covers. The Refill paper comes packaged in a box made of the same card stock as the cover. This is a much welcome improvement to the previous shrink wrapped refills.
Myndology’s Bare line of paper products utilize recycle paper technology to innovate design and improve the enjoyment of paper for the consumers. I would not be surprised that this line of product would win awards and accolades from critics and users alike.
flickr.com/photos/ducly/tags/bare
Coming Up: The Myndology Punch and Disc sold separately!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/myndology.php
http://www.strikethru.net/2008/07/product-review-myndology-bare-notebook.html
tags: Myndology, paper, Bare, recycle, notebooks, good thinking, disc bound
Mynd Bio Roll Out
June 14, 2007
Ah…it’s been hard keeping this secret for a few weeks now. But at last, I’m allowed to reveal at least the prototype design of the new line call Bio from Myndology. I checked in with Jason via email on the progress of the latest developments. We had talked earlier about DIYplanner and the great dedicated forum with many comments on the topic of paper productivities. Now he’s one of the sponsors (it’s nice to see next to Eastgate) and pops in to talk about news the of the Bio line and handing out discounts codes disguised as Potato Salad! I’d read about the Bio line feature whole heartedly on Atoma.be and Myndology has pride it self on being environmentally conscious, so this line is another great evolution of the Mynd product line. Okay enough with the words. I have for you a jpg file:
“It appears as if we will go with the arrow design, we took everybody’s suggestions into consideration and I feel like I better tell people what the new product will be. It seems like there are a lot of people excited about the new “Bare” line. So much so in fact, I thought I better get some information out there or people will think I am making this concept up. Some details:
100% Recycled Stock. Laser cut 3D pattern. 2 sizes, Journal and Hpda. Colors will be Sand, Pine, and Clay. Feel free to post the pic……see what people think.”
- Jason Kinziger
I can’t wait to get my hands on them!
There was a question about the avaibility of the letter size notebook as shown on the picture. 6/15/07 Here’s an update from Jason:
I picked up some of the laser cuts today. I don’t think we will do letter size right off the bat. Though they are earth friendly, we want them to be customer friendly too, and it takes a lot of time to keep productions costs down. Depending on inquiry and demand we will determine when the letter size is released. I’ll keep you in the loop as things develop.
-Jason
tags: Myndology, Duffy & Partners, notebook, paper,
Myndology Arrival
April 12, 2007
I’m so surprised. I was just expecting one notebook but a whole box? Wow. I am already thinking what I can use for each items. I’m learning Polish so the one ring flash cards are very helpful. I got my work cut out for me this weekend of fun!
I spoke with Jason yesterday and learn a little bit about Atoma. The product was first realized in 1948 and it hadn’t caught on in the States until recently. Myndology has been selling the Atoma disc only in the last two years. The back of the cover still bears the Mindbinders which Duffy and Partners later revised to Myndology. The quality of paper and line seems to be very good; on par with Levenger and better then the Rollabind Notebooks from Staples. What I’m amazed is that the ring/disc has a slightly smaller circumference compared to the smallest of the Circa disc 1/2″ and yet it manages to hold the same amount of paper. The ring/disc has a wider band than the Circa Rolla and seems to grip onto the paper more tightly. The mushroom head also seems to latch onto the paper. As with any design, there are give and takes. I would say that the Atoma would fall more towards the Ring spectrum of the design because of the wide band. Where as I see the Circa and Rolla more of a disc, with a narrower band width.
Wow what amazes me is that the Myndology/atoma mushroom shape can fit into the Circa Rolla disc and vice versa. The space between the disc/ring are equal distant but their starting point is not! So it’s like when you button your shirt without checking and see that it is mismatched. (Photo to follow.) This is fixable in the new punch that Myndology will product this summer, I hope that it will align with the Circa Rolla. Myndology letter size (8×10 inches approx.) has ten rings versus the other’s eleven discs. However, both of the junior size of the Circa Rolla and Myndology has eight rings!! So they do align but the Myndology page is slightlywider then the Circa Rolla. Which means that the Circa rolla pages can fit into a Myndology but not the other way around. That being said, I think there are potential for a truly personal notebook in these three or four systems where you can choose, mix and match because the disc/ring is a single unit, not bound by a predetermine length, that is a notebook can be made by the sum of it’s parts. As long as the mushroom shapes are inter- changeable between ring/disc systems, I don’t see why you can’t use a punch from Circa or Rolla right now (until Myndology makes one) and clear pretty color rings of the Myndology/atoma? For example, earlier I had a drawing to modify the Real Simple Orange cover, well now I can use the orange Myndology rings to bind them in matching color. I don’t know if consumers can purchase just the rings from Myndology, but I think this would be very useful because I wouldn’t want to disassemble my Myndology notebook for parts. I’ll go so far as to say that you can even assemble a notebook with alternating ring/disc, one of Atoma and Circa Rolla, as long as they are fairly similar in size. Really, that was one of my main and major concern about these disc/rings. I’ve heard that it’s not compatible many times and didn’t know why. Now I think that their incompatibility is slight and can be over come. It might take a little bit of moding but it should work together. (I will try out this experiment later.)
I spoke with Jason about the punch. Consumers are lamenting over the price of the Circa Rolla punch. And if Myndology is to produce a punch, we all hope that it would be affordable. But in true, there are many metal moving parts to produce on this kind of punch. So take that into consideration when you look at a price of the punch.
Speaking of price, the Myndology line called the Muse has very reasonable price for a designed product. Their index card are about $2-3, comparable to Mead at office supplies. Myndology’s availability in Universities, paper supply store and on-line, give them a competitive edge. The $8 letter size notebook is comparable to Rollabind’s.
The plastic cover is more pliable or malleable, frosted both sides, in brilliant orange, and probably available in several colors like blue and red. The one on the Circa is frosted on the outside cover and smooth on the inside and more rigid. Also available is several muted tones. This is either good or bad. It’s all a matter of preference. The pages are rounded with a larger radius on the Myndology at the left margin side. The orange cover matches perfectly with the paper. Where as the Circa has a smaller radius rounded corner on the cover but on all corners and also slightly larger to accommodate the tab dividers. Again personal preference. I’m just reporting on what I see and you can decide for yourselves.
These are just first impressions. I’ll do a more through look at this later.
notebookism.com/2007/04/myndology arrival
tags: Myndology, Duffy & Partners, notebook, paper,
