Australia Travel Notebook Published

Things always get a bit chaotic here at Journey Jottings when we’re putting out a new product.

Once the design is sorted, the practicalities of getting the artwork to press becomes all consuming.

Paper samples are fondled and folded and felt for the right feel.
Notebooks are for writing so the feel of the pen as it strokes the paper is more than an important consideration if you want a gorgeous notebook – not just any old notebook!

I therefore go for an un-coated paper where the ink can cling and sink into the fibers rather than sit on the top of a glossy coated surface, which smudges at the slightest touch.

I also like some thickness and texture to my paper – I’m not keen on stationery where the paper is so wafer thin you can virtually see through it and can only write on one side due to its translucency.

I use a 120gsm thickness – The paper has some weight to it.

I also insist my papers be Eco-labeled, and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified.
It’s not always possible to get the quality suitable for a notebook in 100% recycled (like the envelopes we use with the Mail-It Maps) but my favourite paper is happily 40% recycled – and that’s 40% post consumer waste recycled, not just claiming a recycled label by re-pulping off cuts from their manufacturing process.

With a potential selection of papers picked out, printers quotes are acquired, queried and compared.

While in the background my pre-press guy quietly converts my pen and ink drawings, tinted with watercolour, into a format from which metal plates can be cast.

The job is ready for the printing press.

The selected sumptuous paper is ordered, proofs are checked and then it’s in the hands of the printer.

Primed, the printer applies the cyan, magenta, yellow and black soya based (vegetable) inks to the rollers and he watches attentively as the first sheets of paper are taken up and pass through the machine’s length. As they slip off the end of the press they fall under his diligent eye where, with spy glass in hand, he inspects the new born for imperfections.

Our little travel notebook is A6 landscape format

When it comes to travel memories – little notebooks are perfect.
I’ve heard far too many tales of travellers carting off their big new travel journal and being struck by page fright on page 1 when the journal they thought they were going to start doesn’t get started and it’s left to languish blank – Void of experiences and memories lost.

Our little A6 travel notebook is 14.8cm wide and 10.5cm high…

…with 28 pages each featuring one of my drawings of either Australian plants, animals or one of eight mini-maps.

There are seven different covers.

One Journey Jottings Notebook shows the whole of Australia on the front cover, for those who like the big picture.

Australia Travel Notebook

And for those who prefer the detail, the other six notebook covers zoom in on regional sections taken from my hand drawn pictorial journal map, so each covers one of six regions within Australia.

South East Australia Travel Notebook

 

The Centre of Australia Notebook cover

 

The Top End and Kimberley region Notebook cover

Ningaloo and the Pilbara, North West Australia Travel Notebook cover

The South-West of Western Australia Notebook cover

The Nullarbor and South Australia Notebook cover

Which is your favourite?

Want to try one now?

Here’s the Travel Notebook Stationery page 🙂