Duc N. Ly

“Aluminum, tastes like fear”-Michael Stipe

Atoma.be has the wood discs, Myndology has a larger size discs 3/4″ aluminum discs. They can hold: 75 sheets of the white paper; and 60 sheets of recycle post consumer paper. The discs are made of aluminum and comes in two sizes: 3/4″ and 5/8″. I have a color coded two subject book. I like the thick and hefty feel of it. The aluminum has been in store and on the website for a while now. I finally got my hands on a few of them. I’m planning to make an aluminum cover for it. Wish me luck.

Update:  Myndology.com has just created a new feature where you can sign up for the emailing list and receive a 15% discount code!  

http://www.diyplanner.com/search/node/aluminum+discs

tags: myndology, aluminum disc, disc bound, notebook, paper

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.

Mynd GridOriginally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

This year, I started off reading “The Now Habit” by Neil Fiores. It had been on my Amazon wish-list for sometime and during Christmas, I emailed it to my siblings. So I got it as a Christmas present. This book kicked my butt motivated me into taking up the study of architecture again. I have challenged myself to re-take some of my exams again. Some of the tools I use for study is the myndology grid notebook for sketches like this accessibility clearances for exits. The grid is dotted and small enough to carry around with me for quick references. They are in the junior size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ducly/tags/myndology/

facebook.com/group myndology cooperative

http://www.squidoo.com/myndology 

tags: myndology, grid paper, accessibility clearance,

Photosource:  myndology.com/disc.php

Jason Posted the following note in Myndology Cooperative, a Facebook group:  Starting tonight at 07:00pm CST, Myndology will begin selling it’s very own Punch! That’s right! Finally, after months of waiting, our ship arrived and our punches unloaded.

Along with the punch, we will also be offering up several disc packs to allow for additional customization. Two versions of discs will be made available; our current polypropylene design and an all new aluminum design!

Both the punch and disc packs will be made available tonight at 7pm at our website. You can visit us here:

http://www.myndology.com

You can also read more on our official DIYPlanner.com punch release post here:

http://www.diyplanner.com/node/4879

I have a lot of index cards of different sizes and color coded too. Some times I don’t know what I’ll use them for. But this year, I’ve been tracking my monthly bills on the 4 x 6 horizontal cards. My goal is to reduce the bill into the 3 x 5 size.  Something like the above photo would do.  Both, the Myndology and RealSimple, have horizontal lines and comes in a 3×5 size.  The horizontal or landscape orientation is good because it has a longer line to note the date, amount and confirmation numbers.  Although the Real Simple has the 4×6 size also.  I put the month and year on the top line. Then I alphabetized the bill names. I write down one line for each bill. One can skip a line for clarity. I usually put the date paid or due and the amount and any confirmations numbers to keep track. At the bottom, I add all of the items up and I can see the total spent for the month and anticipate my budget for next month.

That’s your tip of the Week!

Here’s a little story from Kawaii-cat, my editor-in-chief, Da-Big-Cheese. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have:

One day [yesterday] 2nd period in French class, we were reviewing what we learned last year. Madam had us pick 14 index cards and punch holes in them and put a metal ring to hold them together. There were 3 hole punchers to go around about 20 people and the line went on for miles. So I then remembered I had my own index cards with a metal ring in my locker. http://www.myndology.com/ring.php it looked like the last one with all the different colors. So while the people in line were anxious to get their greedy hands on a mere hole punch, I asked Madam if I could go to my locker to get my Myndology index cards. She said sure and I brought the hall pass.

I came back with my awesome Myndology ring bound small index cards in assorted colors. So I sat at my desk, note cards in hand waiting for the next direction. Madam came to my desk to check out my cute note cards, she thought they were very cute and asked where I got them (très mignon ! où vous obtenir que? )
I didn’t know where I got these cards since tha-cho-cho [Duc N. Ly, 'tha-cho-cho' is Chinese for Big Uncle] got them for me. So I said staples. But I wasn’t sure. So then I used them as flash cards to say things like Ca va? (how are you?) and what is your name and stuffs.

2007/08/30/kawii-cats-circa/

tags: Myndology, paper, Bare, recycle, notebooks, good thinking, disc bound

Previously:

mynd-bio-roll-out

2007/04/12/myndology-arrival

2007/08/20/the-bare-the-bio

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

duffy.com/duffy/

Coming Up: The Myndology Punch and Disc sold separately!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/myndology.php 

tags: Myndology, paper, Bare, recycle, notebooks, good thinking, disc bound

Earlier, I had the privillage to unveil the Mynd-bio-roll-out pictures. Now the actural product is available!

I got a very exciting message from Jason on Face book:

Hey Duc!

Just thought I would pass along a note to let you know that we just officially released our new products this week. Here’s the URL to our official DIY post:

http://www.diyplanner.com/node/4603

They’re all available on the Disc Bound Page here:

http://www.myndology.com/disc.php

And FYI, I’m working on getting you the samples too…I should get them to you shortly!

Jason

tags: Myndology, Duffy & Partners, notebook, paper,

Simple Mynd Hack

Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

flickr photos

Previously on ToW

Ah…it’s been a while since I worked on a hack. Back a few centuries ago…I mean months, I had a hankering for a note book in orange color. (So much for ‘fast-prototyping’. Remember, it isn’t fast if one doesn’t implement it.) My wife and I had been watching a lot of ‘Ugly Betty’. The Mode office color scheme is White with most of the office products in orange. I found a Real Simple index card set with an orange cover. Then I was given a Myndology index card set bound with the Atoma disc in several colors. This happens to be orange and it’s a perfect match made in heaven. Here is an example of combining several products together. The disc is from Myndology. The Cover is from Real Simple. And the third is from plastic box from White Barn scented air freshener. I forgot to mention that I used the Portable Rollabind Puncher which the Atoma disc accommodated amazingly well. I plan to order some book binding tape from Highsmith.com. Maybe they have some orange tape?!?

And that’s your Tip of the Week (ToW).

Other ToW related projects:

• ducly.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/real-simple

• ducly.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/circa-manila-folder-3

tags: Real Simple, Myndology, hack, hpda, disc-bound, notebook, paper

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

2007/09/06/the-bare-arrival

tags: Myndology, Duffy & Partners, notebook, paper,