November 4th Philofaxy meetup at Letts/ Filofax!!!

I was absolutely thrilled to visit the Filofax/ Letts office and factory in Dalkeith, Scotland last Monday, November 4^th!! Steve did an excellent post on the visit on Philofaxy, so I’ll try not to duplicate what he has already written and add my own perspective.

It was wonderful to see Steve, Margaret Rennie (of WriteAtHome.co.uk) and Natalie (of TheYarnYard.co.uk) again, I met Margaret and Natalie last year at the Edinburgh meetup and have met with Steve several times now. I also got to meet Margaret-Ann for the first time, which was very nice. And, I was especially thrilled to finally get to meet Nan of Philofaxy, who had flown all the way over from the US!! I got to thank her in person for inviting me to be a contributing writer on Philofaxy after I had been a longtime fan and commenter!

I had no idea what to expect at the Letts office so imagine my thrilled surprise when we got to meet the Group Chief Executive himself, Gordon Presly! He spent a lot of time with us telling us about the company and its history, which was great to learn about. Steve covered this meeting in detail in his post so I won't duplicate it here.

After our meeting with Gordon Presly we had an excellent factory tour, guided by Scott the production manager. First he took us to the room where it all begins: gathering the data for holidays and special dates all over the world. It's a high-pressure job because you don't want to get any information wrong in the dated products! We also got to see the aluminum plates the diary pages are printed from.

When Scott led us into the production area and I saw all the pallets stacked with planners, I wanted to go skipping through the place! It was a diary dream come true!

Steve took more photos than I did, but here are the ones I managed to snap when I wasn’t busy asking questions and yapping about planners:

Planners as far as the eye can see!!!!

Machine that prints diary pages

Bound diary pages are printed on size A0 paper and cut

Uncut diary pages

Filofax pages are printed on rolls of paper

Rolls of printed paper, heat-fixing the ink

Filofax diary pages

Filofax diary pages

The machine that punches the holes in personal size Filofax pages!

Our tour guide and production manager, Scott

I was too busy gawking and asking questions but now I wish I'd taken photos of the page guilding process. Rolls of actual silver and gold leaf are heat-fixed to the page edges and the result is beautiful!

Also, Steve got a photo of the stacks of leather for covers. The leather is cut, prepared and stitched right there, and fixed to the bound diary pages. I really wanted one of those leather-cover diaries!

I didn't get any photos of Alan, the quality control guy but we had an excellent conversation with him about Filofax standards. He was very nice and answered all of our questions. Filofax has very strict quality control standards and random samples are checked, and if they are outside of specifications for any reason they are rejected!

The tour moved onward where we got to see finished diaries being readied for shipping:

A diary in English and Arabic!

Something else I wish I'd taken a photo of is the name-embossing of custom diaries. Letts makes custom diaries for loads of companies, with personal touches like custom maps, names embossed on the covers, and specialty pages. They were beautiful!

This is the photo I was taking when Steve took his photo of me taking a photo of diaries! I really liked the colors and smooth covers of these diaries.

These diaries really caught my eye!

I took a photo of the product code on the back hoping I could find these on the Letts website and order one, but I can't find it anywhere. :(

1BG D9A

Our tour ended at the warehouse, where orders are held briefly before being shipped all over the world!

The warehouse!

An order being prepared for shipment

After our excellent tour we went back into the conference room where Gordon Presly met us again, along with Charles Letts, sales and marketing director of Letts diaries and 7^th generation in the Letts family business! It was great to meet with him as well, and I’m afraid I interrogated them a little bit about their marketing strategies and products. I didn’t know before that Letts makes Paperchase and WH Smith brand diary products, which I found very interesting. I enjoyed hearing about emerging markets like Russia and the Middle East. (See photo above of the diary in Arabic, very exciting!) I want to apologize to my fellow Philofaxy folks for dominating the conversation at that point!

Natalie asked the questions everyone wanted to know: what do these two diary VIPs use themselves? Gordon Presley told us he has used an A5 Filofax (a Regency right now) for years. He described his planning system: monthly pages for the overview, each week he schedules his week, then he uses daily pages to focus on each day. He saves all his diary pages and has archives back for years and years! Charles Letts keeps things simple and portable with a mini week diary, changing the cover color every year.

Huge enormous thanks to Gordon Presley, Charles Letts, Scott, Alan and the entire staff at Letts/ Filofax for being so accommodating! We all had a wonderful time and learned a lot!

I really enjoyed seeing my Philofaxy friends and I wish we'd had more time together to chat and share. Next time!

Here is a parting shot for you:

Nan and Steve in front of the Welcome Philofaxy sign!

The future of the planners industry?

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine in the planners industry about things like the open letter to Filofax's PR company, my list of planner companies who listen to their customers, and Letts being sold. He gave me some shocking news that he has heard Moleskine is also up for sale! We got into an interesting discussion about the future of the paper planners industry and he said it was okay for me to share his viewpoint with you all. Here's what he had to say:

Hi Laurie:

After reading your post on Filofax and companies who don’t listen to their users I would like share some of my thoughts.

1-       For planners and organizers there are always difficulties in keeping in line with what the core customers want and what we can produce to bring in new users.  In this sunset industry (some people would say it is sunset) it is more and more important that we grab the younger youth customers.  Even younger kids who are taught by their parents or teacher to keep in the habit of being organized.  Those are our future market and customers. 

So what does this say about the core or hard core users.  Number one rule is do not rock the boat.  We learned this the hard way.  Especially the formats and cover design.  Slight changes of fonts, color or cover design will greatly impact these users and 90 percent of the time they will hate it.  The solution is to not change the core products for these users but minor adjustments such as more color cover offerings or different texture covers.  On the guts side will be updated information sections and different paper selections plus slight updates of the formats over time so the end users can adjust to it.

2-       Filofax:  They have the same problem as many of the other companies including us is that will this be a profitable business in the future or will it die off 10 years down the road.  This stuck in my head for the past few weeks when I see what is happening in the market trend is that “Do we want to become the king of the typewriters”.  Will this happen in the planner and organizer industry…most likely yes within the next 10 years.  The goal is to find your direction…find your focus in what products you want to develop and offer.  As business goes it is shrinking every year and we must find new ideas to grow.  

The key is not to lose focus of what you are developing and always keep the end users in mind.  

Here are my thoughts on Moleskine.  I do apologize that I might be harsh on this but I am not standing from the consumer side but from a branded company side.

Moleskine is a great brand with a great product image…with something that started out as a simple product and turned into a global niche brand that everyone tried to follow….but is it just an empty shell with no clear direction on where to go.

Moleskine started out in semi selective markets where the cool folks picked it up (Designers, Celebrities, artists and such)  with it they gathered a hard core user base who thinks they are more creative than the mass public.  They feel using Moleskine put you in a higher level of consumerism.  However in a global market a brand cannot make money on just the few folks.  Would Moleskine's popularity be where they are now without the mass public snatching up their product?  The answer is no.

However here is where lays the catch 22 problem.  Which means if you become popular it is hard to be cool with your hard core users.  Also you need to make $$ so you have to mass market sale the goods and then expand your company.  There is no in between.  You either will be small and mostly unknown and cater only to the hardcore users and risk the greater chance of not being able to do more or go broke doing it….the other choice will be to go mass market and earn more cash to build an empire (with the side effect of less quality and more quantity and more different products that your core groups will not like or have to do up special product ranges for mass retail chains so everyone can have a Moleskine and it will not be special anymore…) .  So in reality they went with the mass market route.  When you see it in Target with a cheap look and in less than pleasing displays or end cap programs… it means your brand is just like all others….nothing special.  It only means that parents can now justify buying a cool Moleskine for their kids and not think about “Did I just spend that much money for a blank note book??”

The problem now is that they have expanded into all these different products and sold everywhere…online and retail.  With the heavy down turn in economy in developing countries and shrinkage of developed retail market channels going bust it will hurt the company if the finance is not up to par.  And this is what is hitting them now I feel.  Going mass market means your profit %% is much less and a simple currency drop can wipe you out. Maybe they are ok still or maybe not but the bottom line is the bottom line….$$ comes first.  The brand will be here as long as people use paper to write on.



This is a fascinating glimpse inside the business of planners and what companies are going through right now. I do understand the industry is in general decline and that some will go out of business. But I think people will still be using paper planners 10 and more years from now. I just think there will probably be fewer people using them than now. Companies have to decide what their niche market will be. Mass production? Very high quality? Whatever it is, it will become a test of Survival Of The Fittest and only the few companies who manage to keep afloat will still be around 10 years from now.

What do you think?  

Letts Bicentenary Diary

I am so excited about this diary!! It is a peek at the very beginning of diary creation. It's like holding the diary version of the Big Bang in your hands!! This is how it all started!!

This is the Letts Bicentenary Diary, produced to celebrate 200 years of diaries printed by Letts. Inside this diary are pages detailing the beginning of Letts by founder John Letts, and his creation of the very first commercial diary in 1812, which revolutionized the shipping industry and business worlds at that time. The history of the company and of diary use itself is described, and famous diary users (including some royals!) are named.

You have no idea how exciting I found this. (Or, if you've been reading this blog awhile, maybe you do). What you might not know is that I love old things, and especially learning about the beginnings of things. I did my Master's degree on the origin of birds. I have antique furniture. I write in notebooks and planners.

So to read about how diaries/ planners got started from the very beginning was very exciting! I have to admit I had goosebumps while I was reading it!!  (Yes I freely admit I'm a geek!)

There is a timeline over several pages tracking significant events over the past 200 years, from the production of the first diaries to 2012. Fascinating to see how our world has changed in that time, yet people are still faithfully recording our lives on paper in books! I love it!

Another thing I found fascinating: next to the page of current measurements and conversions there is a page of measurements and conversions in the 1800's!  It tells you why tyres/ tires are called that, what's a carucate, and how many mouthfuls are in a pint. I love learning about stuff like this!

The look of the diary is meant to replicate the appearance of the original diary in 1812, and the book is made using the same techniques used then.  The diary comes in a beautiful box ready to give as a gift, or to house your collector's edition diary. It also includes a card that states which number your diary is out of only 2000 printed!

The end pages have a beautiful pattern inside, this photo doesn't nearly do it justice.

The diary has an open weekly format with a space for notes, and holidays are printed in the day spaces. The print and style look like they could be straight out of the 1812 original.

Yet for the antique appearance of the book, the features are entirely modern. There are loads of useful pages including reference calendars:

Modern-day country information:

A planner for 2012:

And for all of 2013:

There are several pages in the back for Contacts and Notes. A red ribbon placemarker and gilt page edges add to the luxurious look of this book.

The back cover retains that old-world look too:

Now, let me tell you about the paper. It is so spectacular I tweeted @LettsDiaries to ask what it is. It is Cotton Cream 90 gsm, and it is divine. Thick, smooth, and just cream-colored enough to add to the antique look of the book. It's gorgeous. Letts said this same paper is also used in the Duchess and Westminster diaries in their Limited Edition collections (http://www.lettsoflondon.co.uk)

The diary is approximately A6 size, a little taller. I measure it at about 4 1/2 by 7 inches (nearly 12 cm by nearly 18 cm).  It's a very portable size, slim and light so you could carry it around everywhere with you.

What could possibly make this diary any cooler??  I'll tell you what: it's made in Scotland. I think I may swoon.

I pre-ordered this diary back in July because I absolutely did not want to miss out on this collector's edition, and I'm so happy to have it! If you are interested in this one, don't wait a single second. With only 2000 in print, they'll go fast!  Here's the product link:

http://www.letts.co.uk/bicentenary-diary-2012-week-to-view.html

Letts 200th anniversary and 2012 products!

Letts is coming out with some very exciting new products for its 200th anniversary in 2012!

Check out the Letts 2012 online catalog here.

The first thing that caught my eye, on page 5, is their special 2012 diary to commemorate their bicentenary! I absolutely must have one! And, how cool is the photo of the very first commercial diary from 1812, I would love to see that in person!

There are several products to commemorate the 2012 Olympics in London, including a countdown diary.

The academic-year diaries are available now on www.Letts.co.uk.  Here are some that look especially cool:

The beautiful Butterfly weekly diary comes in A5 or A6 sizes.

The Festival planner comes with a gel pen and pull-out planner.

The Academic Your Design has a clear cover you can put your own picture into, and a week + notes format!

The diaries listed above also come with a ruler/pagemarker that fits on the spiral binding!

Getting into the 2012 diary selection, one that really caught my eye is the Image range on pg 42-43 of the catalog.  It has a weekly format where Saturday and Sunday have MORE space than the weekdays! There's also space on the weekly spread for your To-Do list. AND, there's monthly grid calendars! The A5 Lavender one went straight on my Must-Have list.

Backing up a little bit, the covers and format selection on the Renaissance range are excellent.

And there are more beautiful covers on the Blossom and Kyoto ranges.

I was happy to see the Scotland diary is still included in the range on page 54 of the catalog.

Their Noteletts notebook range has been expanded with some excellent cover choices.

I'm really happy to see that Letts has such a great selection of beautiful, fun, colorful covers. And I'm very excited they've added new formats to their range, especially the week + notes and the inclusion of the monthly grid calendars!

And I know I'm several months premature, but Happy Bicentennial Letts!  Wishing you at least 200 more years of successful business.

CNN diary and notebooks by Letts

Get ready to be impressed: here is the new line of CNN notebooks and diary from Letts!

First of all, let me say many thanks to Letts for sending me these products as samples to review. They are exquisite. And thank you especially for the personalization on the leather covers! Not only do they look exceptionally nice, having my name on them prevented my husband from pocketing them for himself! He did however stake his claim on the linen-covered notebook, which I thought was only fair.  It says a lot about these books that my husband is so interested in them! He normally doesn't even notice notebooks and things like that.

I'll get on with the details because there is SO much to tell you about these books.  Let me just point out how cool it is that CNN has partnered with Letts to create this line of products geared towards people who travel and/ or work internationally.  Falling into that category myself, I can tell you that these products are not only very functional but also extremely useful for anyone who travels to other countries.

The CNN notebooks and diary are available at www.cnnlife.com.  They come in a very nice gift box, shown above. The CNN Life products include a linen-covered notebook (the CNN LifePlus), a smaller leather-bound notebook (CNN LifeStyle), and a pocket size leather-bound diary (CNN LifeLine).

First let me rave for just a minute about the leather on these books.  It is smooth and soft to the touch, and even has that nice leather smell to it. All three of these books are extremely classy and professional-looking.  They have an understated, unique look that will get attention.

First, let me take you through the CNN LifePlus notebook, which is the large linen-covered one.  (Click here for the CNN LifePlus product page.)

This book measures 15.4 cm by 21.4 cm.  The cover is flexible yet firm.  Inside the cover there is a time zones map:

Followed by a page to enter your personal information, then an annual planner that you can use for any year:

The notebook pages themselves have a unique layout.  There is blank space at the top of the page and lined space in the bottom half.  I don't know the exact weight of the paper, but my guess is at least 80 gsm and possibly higher. The paper is thick, exceptionally smooth, and a very subtle shade of cream.

Along the edge of the right page is a dot pattern, which I've shown a closer view of below (and which you can click on for an even closer look):

In the top row of dots, you circle the day of the week.  In the middle row, you circle the dot indicating the month. And in the bottom row you circle the day. It's an ingenious design to help you note the date very quickly so you can get on with your note-taking. To the right of the dots you can circle Client or Personal to classify your notes.

At the back of the book are several pages of cultural guides for doing business in various countries. I find these absolutely fascinating, and extremely accurate.

When I read the guide to US business culture (I'm from the US), I thought yep, that's right on. When my husband read the Russia one (after having worked in Russia for 3 years) he said it's entirely accurate. I read the India one (I lived next door in Nepal for two years awhile back) and again thought it was right on the mark.  And when I read the UK one (where I'm currently living) I thought, no wonder!  People do not realize how very different British culture is from American.  These business culture guides are extremely useful for international business travelers, and indeed could make or break the success of your business experience overseas.

In the very back of the book are references for finding CNN online (with lots of website options), on television or on your mobile so you can stay connected and informed wherever you are in the world.

Next up is the CNN LifeStyle notebook with the sumptuous black leather cover. (Click here for the CNN LifeStyle notebook product page):

This notebook measures 12.5 cm by 14.5 cm, making it very portable. This book also has the annual planner that can be used for any year:

Inside there is a section with city information for various cities around the world. There are city features and insights, information on local media, time zones and dialing codes. And here is something I find fascinating: you can use your smartphone to scan the black and white square to get a map of the city!  Wow!  Very useful when you're on the go.

The notebook pages are blank, and at the right side there is the dot design to note the date and Client/ Personal.  Again the light cream colored paper is very thick and smooth.  There is a ribbon (actual ribbon) placemarker.

At the back of the book there is the information on how to connect with CNN wherever you are.

Last but certainly not least is the CNN LifeLine pocket diary. (Click here for the CNN LifeLine diary product page.):

This also has the wonderfully smooth leather cover.  And look at that personalization! It looks so nice!!!

This diary measures 8.5 cm by 15.2 cm. It is small and slim enough to take with you absolutely everywhere so you never miss the opportunity to schedule your appointments or capture information.

Inside the front cover is the time zone map as shown above in the large LifePlus notebook.  There is a page to write in your personal information, then a two-page spread with the current year's planner:

At the beginning of each month there is a featured city with information on airports, holidays, climate, time zones, currency and dialing codes.  And included is that digital square that can give you a city map on your smartphone!

The weekly layout is very efficient.  It consists of a week + notes format with the days on the left page and the right page lined for notes. At the bottom of the right page are reference calendars for last/ this/ next month, with the current week in bold.  The diary has a ribbon (actual ribbon) placemarker and the same light cream colored, super-smooth paper as the notebooks.

There are several blank pages in the back of the book for notes, then there is space to note your important dates:

There is a page about CNN Traveler (www.cnntraveler.com) which has excellent stories about locations all over the world. In the very back of the book is the information on connecting with CNN online, on tv an on your mobile as in the other CNN books.

As I said before, these books are very classy and sophisticated-looking.  They have a very professional yet cool appearance. They would make an excellent gift for any traveler, or something you should get for yourself if you are an international professional.

These books arrived just when my husband and I discovered we will soon head back into the international arena, so we appreciate them that much more. Many thanks again to Letts for these excellent products!

Here are the links again for your easy reference:

The CNN Life notebooks and diary are available at www.cnnlife.com

Other Letts products can be found at www.letts.co.uk

The CNN Traveler website is www.cnntraveler.com

The main CNN news website is www.cnn.com

Noteletts notebooks

Filofax USA very generously sent me two samples of their new Noteletts notebooks to review.  Thank you Filofax USA!  These are excellent notebooks and I'm VERY happy to have them, and excited to tell you all about them too.

Noteletts are the new line of notebooks from Letts of London, who make excellent planners/ diaries and who also owns Filofax.  You can find Letts online at www.lettsusa.com and at www.letts.co.uk.

I received the L5 Ruled, which measures approximately 6 3/4 by 9 inches, and the pocket size L7 Flip which measures almost 3 1/2 inches by 4 1/2.

I was immediately excited when I received these notebooks in the mail.  These are really cool!  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them with the wrapper still on because I ripped it off immediately.  Also you don't get to see the pocket size reporter notebook in its pristine condition, because these arrived the day before I went to Croatia and I instantly tossed this little black book in my bag as my travel notebook.  So, you see it in its slightly scuffed post-travel condition.

These notebooks have several features which make them immediately stand out from the notebook crowd.  Their hard covers are fabric-covered, which look and feel very nice.

 
Noteletts have something I've never seen in a notebook before: international information pages like what you often see in planners/ diaries. They have info like international dialing codes, time zones maps, and more.

The pocket reporter book has international info on two pages (click on photo for larger view):

The larger book has a time zones map in addition to dialing codes, weights and measures, and temperature conversions:

Each notebook has an undated annual planner in the back to record plans for every month of the year, so you could use this as combination notebook/ planner.

The small flip book has the planner over three pages:

And the large book has the planner across a two-page spread (click to enlarge photo):

I'm really excited about the monthly planners because you can use them to track goals, write future appointments, keep your birthdays/ anniversaries, etc.

Each notebook also has a page in the front to record your important information:

There's an actual ribbon, not cotton, placemarker that is color-matched to the cover.  Every page has a place in the top right corner to note the date you make your entry (click on photo to enlarge).

My only suggestion to the company is to do away with the Noteletts logo at the bottom of each page, especially in the small size:

The paper is absolutely glorious.  I mean, wow.  Super-smooth, thick, cream colored.  According to the company it is 100 gsm.  Unfortunately I don't use fountain pens so I can't speak to its FP performace, but my Pilot V5 and Sakura Micron 05 pens just glide across the page with no feathering, very little shadow on the other side of the page and no bleed-through whatsoever.  I can't stop touching this paper!  This is paper you WANT to write on. 

The books also have contrasting colors in the inside covers and pockets in the back:

The first thing I thought of for these notebooks of course is that they'd be perfect as a travel journal (and thus the book went immediately into my bag).  With the international information and date space on each page, these notebooks would be perfect to plan and record any trip.  The hard cover and elastic strap make the book perfect for traveling around in your bag without getting beat up or flapping open.

These notebooks would also be perfect for work.  They are so classy-looking you'll be proud to use them in meetings.  The date space at the top of each page will help keep your notes organized each day.  And the annual planner in the back will help you keep track of multiple projects at once.

Noteletts are available in the small L7 flip book I reviewed here, small L7 notebook, medium L6 notebook, and large L5 notebook I have reviewed here. They come with blank, ruled or quadruled pages.  The colors available are Burgundy (the color of the large notebook I reviewed here), Black, Lilac, Green and Pale Blue.

Those of you in the US can buy Noteletts directly on the Letts USA site:

http://www.lettsusa.com/noteletts/

UK folks can buy Noteletts on the Letts UK site as well as various retailers.  Click here for the Noteletts UK website. 

Many thanks again to Filofax USA for letting me sample these excellent notebooks!  I'm officially hooked!