A Notebook Builder

This is aimed at those who would rather use common or re-use materials (as opposed to high-end materials), perhaps because their usage volume is very high.

Perhaps they need notebooks for sketching or visual exploration. The book Drawing Ideas [Amazon affiliate link ] by Mark Baskinger and William Bardel maintains that daily sketching will help designers, visual communicators, and conceptualizers stay sharp in skill.

Maybe they prefer the back-to-paper approach to planning similar to the Bullet Journal  system created by Ryder Carroll.

This solution is aimed at those who would rather make than buy a sketchbook, even if it will take time. They participate in the do-it-yourself stationery movement for notebooks. Rather than finding convenience in purchasing a notebook (regardless of whether it’s cheap or premium), the user would rather make something that can suit their needs exactly, all while engaging in the form of self-expression.

This may be appealing to the budget-conscious. Manufactured notebooks can range from around $15 and up. On the other hand, a ream of 500 sheets of quality paper can cost around the same. Heavy notebook users (100+ pages per month) may not find this affordable.

Finally, this solution is aimed at those who would rather customize than use an off-the-shelf solution.

Below are some examples of customizability:

Page Features & Composition

Some want to choose features and layouts for their pages. For example, the Bullet Journal method can be carried out using any notebook but having certain elements like pre-printed page numbers and indices helps out. (Indeed, as featured in Bullet Journal’s own notebook product.) Also, numbering lines by day of week and day of the month is much more suited for computation, so that could also be a potential feature.

Printed Patterns

The users may want dot-grids (sketching), lines (writing), or even grids (graphing). Or, they may want to change the width of the lines or the pitch of the dots. The user also may want to change the color or darkness of the grids or lines.

Binding

Users are becoming increasingly aware of multiple binding options. One prominent source for information is Sea Lemon’s YouTube channel, where you will find many other binding options.

As examples, two of my favorites are below:

Coptic stitch - handmade: I learned how to do a Coptic stitch  to bind everyday materials into my sketchbooks. The Coptic stitch’s added benefit is that it can lay flat, doesn’t require glue, and has a very high binding strength-per-weight ratio.

Disc binding - reusable and economical: I also became aware of disc binding , which seemed like a modern, sleeker approach to ring binding, working especially well with pages that don’t need to be permanently bound.