Archive for January, 2007
Notebooks and Wine
Rhodia notebooks at the Copolla Winery gift store in Northern CaliforniaFrancis Ford Coppola has been making movies for more than 30 years, and wines at his Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery (now known as the Rubicon estate) in the Napa Valley for almost 20.
The Copollas, an Italian-American family who pursued an American dream in the arts, primarily music and film, together with the Niebaums–who founded the Napa Valley estate–maintain the Centennial Museum at the Inglenook Chateau.
Visitors to the Centennial Museum will see documents and artifacts from Inglenook’s glory days and memorabilia from many of Copolla’s films.
Album cover sketchbook
Don’t throw that vinyl away! Designer Cameron Moll walks you through the making of an album cover notebook/ sketchbook. Retro coolness.
Visit his website.
The first spiral notebooks
The first spiral notebooks featured in Popular Mechanics’ September 1934 issue.
Via Modern Mechanix.
Paper Mechas
Readymechs are free, flatpack toys for you to print and build. They are designed to fit on an 8.5″x11″ page and printed with any printer. You’ll need double-sided tape, thick matte paper, and 10-15 minutes for build time.
Build your mecha at Readymech.
The lost art of the letter
The Internet is affecting not only how scientists communicate, but also how future science historians will have to work.
Until quite recently, letters were the most common way – and often the only way – for scientists to communicate informally with each other. It is not surprising therefore that science historians have long relied on letters as invaluable sources of information.
Now that e-mail has replaced letter writing as the principal means of informal communication, one has to feel sorry for future science historians, who will be unable to use letters and telegrams to establish facts and gauge reactions to events.
Robert P. Crease reports at Physicsweb
Paper prototyping
Image copyright © A List Apart. All rights reserved.
As interfaces become ever more complex and development schedules seem to get shorter and shorter, you may find it useful to give up your user-interface modeling software for awhile in favor of something simpler. All you need is paper, pens, scissors, and your imagination.
Shawn Medero shows us how at A List Apart.
The Surprising Process of Writing
Amelia, a university sophomore, scores a 60 on her first academic paper. On her second she scores a 60 again. On her third paper, she pulls up to an 80 — mostly due to extensive rewrites. Yet on her midterm and final, she received an astounding 90 and 85. Not only was her paragraph structure and use of quotations significantly better, but her ability to sequence ideas and support claims had taken a leap. Even her mechanics (grammar, sentence structure and punctuation) had improved.
I’d like to say that these two high scores came at the end of the semester; this would prove what an effective instructor I was. Instead, they came at odd times — the first A came just after the second paper (which scored a D). The solid B paper did come at the end of the semester. The difference was in how the papers were produced. Both the 90 and 85 papers were handwritten in-class timed essays that constituted the midterm and final. The much lower scores were for computer-generated papers that she produced out of class. These, of course, could be rewritten over and over before the due dates.
Shari Wilson writes at Inside Higher Ed.
Rhodia note cases
Geneviéve Gauckler : HAPPY CHICKPEAS
Will Sweeney : METAL STORM
Adapter : DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Tomo Painting and Dyeing Art : GOLD FISH
Labline.tv : LABLINE-STAR
Size: W 200mm × H 120mm
Cover: 100 % COTTON
Lining: 100 % NYLON
Price: 各￥3,990
Spotted at MedicomToy
Paper and Pencil
The Rhodia pad is an icon for many. The classic pad is easily recognizable by the famous orange cover. It’s a model of efficiency and design – the front cover has three designated folding points, known as scores, which allow the cover to be neatly folded over the back.
I first discovered these pads when I saw the No. 38 (the giant 12.5″x16.5″ pad) at a local fountain pen shop a few years ago. It just looked awesome to me. I had never seen such a giant pad of graph paper. I like to draw charts and figure things out on paper, and it just seemed like a very useful aid. Also, the paper itself is much nicer than found in the writing pads at typical office supply stores.
Visit Paper and Pencil
The story of Rhodia
The stationers known as the “Papeteries Verilhac freres” was founded in Lyon in 1932 by two brothers, Henri and Robert Verilhac. They came from a family of paper merchants, with two brothers from the previous generation having set up a family business selling paper mainly to the southern part of France and the French overseas departments in North Africa.
From 1932 onwards, they concentrated on producing and selling stationery, exercise books, and, later on, the Rhodia notebook.
In September 1934, the company, originally located in Lyon, moved to Sechilienne near Grenoble in the Romanche Valley because of size, labor costs and its proximity to the paper factories.
In the 1950s, a production unit was set up in southern Algiers. This unit used paper produced locally, and supplied the substantial North African market.
Loss of the North African market in the 1960s forced the company to continue expansion in Northern France and internationally.
In 1968, catastrophic flooding in the Romanche valley destroyed 50% of the Sechilienne plant. The factory was rebuilt and extended, with premises erected on a new site in Vizille. In 1997, the company was bought by the Clairefontaine Group, production was transferred to Mulhouse (department number 68) and the new group Clairefontaine Rhodia was born.
The RHODIA trademark
The Rhodia trademark dates back to 1932 and points to the group’s Rhodian origins. It predates the other similar trademarks (such as Chimie). Legend has it that the two Rhodia fir trees symbolize the two founding brothers.
The RHODIA notebook
The Rhodia notebook, originally a sideline for Rhodia, was to become its leading light. It was designed to provide a high quality notebook for note taking and immediately overshadowed other notebooks of the period because of its quality materials and original design (its scored folding front cover). Over the course of time, it has come to symbolize a notebook of quality.
The orange cover dates back to the standard colors in use at the time of its creation, and remains unchanged to this day.
My Rhodia Drive
Rhodia Drive is a personal blog about Rhodia notebooks, writing accessories and journaling in general. It features articles, tips, tricks, links on the latest tools and general notebook-related news items or about this “French orange notebook with a cult following.”
Rhodia notebooks go a long way, and the story behind the covers is only one of the many reasons why I’m fascinated enough to put up a blog about it.
I’d also like this online slate to be a starting point to explore how people use and take pride of their notebooks. I hope to trace how this fascination has rekindled a passion for bound things and the contents that keep them close to one’s heart. There won’t be any claims to authority other than being a notebook owner.
And having just moved from Asia to America, perhaps the same notebook can document this personal journey from my islander beginnings into this brave New World.
Palm Rhodia
Leave it to a fan to cook up a new Rhodia invention. True to his roots, our enigmatic friend from Japan, Kerogun, posted a rather ingenious application of “the orange notebook with a cult following.” And thanks to YouTube, we get to enjoy his simple yet imaginative work. And it is such a utilitarian novelty, in the sense that the notebook’s cover is used (re-used and recycled for that matter) with a purpose, of serving as a protective gear for a technological gadget that’s centuries ahead of it’s papyrus counterpart. Yet, they’re a perfect fit. Kerogun’s creativity speaks volumes, about how communication must stay the same, despite the rapid advancement in technology.Via Kerogunon Youtube.
