iA Author in Paper
This vacation season, we’re excited to introduce the latest addition to the iA household: iAノートブック, the Pocket book for Writers.
Watermark traces information your pen. As your phrases come into focus, the traces fade into the background. The iA Pocket book has been a labor of affection, spanning a number of years of trials and fails and deeply partaking our designer crew.
If iA Author Was a Pocket book
All of it started with a easy query: What if iA Author took the type of a bodily pocket book? Ten years within the making, we doubled our efforts in occasions of exponentially rising synthetic textual content.
Within the iA Pocket book, each aspect is crafted to reduce distractions and improve the enjoyment of writing, mirroring the philosophy of iA Author. Our aim was to increase the immersive focus expertise loved on our app to the offline realm.
Performance was a key consideration in our design course of. We fastidiously chosen the paper thickness and colour; the binding methodology was chosen to make sure the books lay flat, for an unbothered writing expertise. The idea of transparency additionally influenced the design: you can see it within the delicate watermarking on the band and the clear wrapping paper.
Fading Watermark Pointers
We wished tips within the pocket book, serving as a short lived scaffold to help your writing with out inflicting distraction. The design needed to replicate the core spirit of iA Author: easy, clear, uncluttered. The usage of ink needed to be solely reserved for the proprietor’s handwritten textual content. After exploring totally different approaches, the choice to undertake delicate watermark tips turned clear, despite the fact that its implementation calls for excessive technical experience and a spotlight to element.
These watermark tips are delicate and unobtrusive, providing route with out overpowering the web page. The excessive distinction between the discreet tips and the ink out of your pen creates an optical phantasm: the traces appear to fade regularly as you write.
As soon as your ideas have taken form on the web page, the traces fade into the background, permitting your textual content to take middle stage. It’s an optical phantasm, primarily based on the way in which our eyes work. We give attention to the very best distinction. For the reason that ink is stronger than the watermark traces, the watermarks look like invisible.
Japanese Craftsmanship Extraordinaire
Bringing this small undertaking to life required a printing firm with dedication, consideration to element, and a deep dedication to their craft. Within the cultural context of Japanese corporations, endurance and continuous enchancment till reaching a excessive normal are extremely valued.
Our bookbinding companion, positioned in Tokyo not removed from our workplace, was chosen for the excellence of their previous work and their real curiosity in product design. What units them aside is not only their position as a provider however as a real companion, actively contributing concepts to boost the collaborative course of.
Need? Nicely…
Following quite a few prototypes and years of steady collaboration, we take nice delight within the remaining consequence we are able to share with you in the present day. A primary batch as a Christmas reward for family and friends is underway.
We have to simplify the manufacturing and determine the logistics. The value relies upon a bit on how a lot curiosity we get.
In case you’d like one, ship us a sign. Merely signal as much as our iA Pocket book e-newsletter to point out your curiosity. We’ll ship out a preorder, early subsequent yr.
As a bit of gesture for Christmas this yr, we’ve put aside three prototypes to be gifted to fortunate raffle individuals. Signal-ups are open till December twenty fifth, and the winners shall be revealed on January fifteenth. Oh, and we’ve three extra surprises coming on this yr’s iA Winterfest so head over there to hitch the raffle and get hints of what else is ready below the tree.