What does the name TRAVELER’S notebook mean to you? To someone new to the brand, they might think it’s a notebook for only when you travel. Or maybe it is a notebook for someone who flies to exciting places and has grand adventures. You could use TRAVELER’S notebook for those purposes, but there is so much more to it. We designed TRAVELER’S notebook to inspire people to embrace their everyday life as if it’s you are traveling. When you are traveling, don’t you notice details in your surroundings more? Wouldn’t you take the time to slow down and appreciate the scenery?
Here at TRAVELER’S COMPANY, we want to encourage everyone to embrace the spirit of traveling, where you view everything with fresh perspectives and take the time to document them in TRAVELER’S notebook. You can also use it for fun art projects, tracking habits, a general notebook to capture your thoughts, or even for work and professional life. You’ll see that life isn’t as mundane or monotonous as you think when you make the effort to enjoy each moment through analog. Those insights and inspirations might turn into something amazing; you never know!
So far, we have shared how you can put together refills to suit your needs, and how to customize your TRAVELER’S notebook to show your personality. To demonstrate the versatility of TRAVELER’S notebook, we must flip through the refills and see how people exude creativity across each page. In this third and final installment of TRAVELER’S notebook introduction series for beginners and experienced users alike, we’ll show you five different ways to use TRAVELER’S notebook. We hope you find inspiration from the different ways TRAVELER’S notebook lovers document their lives.
MAKE ART ANYWHERE, ANYTIME
A lot of artists love TRAVELER’S notebook because of its portability. You don’t have to sit down at a studio and set up an easel to create art. TRAVELER’S notebook 012 Drawing paper refill, 021 Watercolor paper refill, and even 013 Lightweight paper refills are a blank canvas for your art piece if you want to experiment with different mediums. However, just any regular refills should be enough to make a quick sketch and add illustrations to your writing. Enjoy the freedom of swapping out refills and inserts when you try to capture your life in colorful ways.
@misslingbloom is a family doctor who loves creating art outside of work
Donna is a story artist in the animation industry and she loves capturing scenes in daily life
Whether you are a professional artist or enjoy drawing as a hobby, TRAVELER’S notebook can hold all kinds of creativity. You can dedicate an entire refill to be a special sketchbook or pepper a few pages of your journal with drawings and doodles. Embrace the spontaneity of capturing a busy crowd with a pen or doodling beautiful scenery from your mind.
PLAN YOUR LIFE OR BULLET JOURNAL
TRAVELER’S notebook comes with functional inserts like the undated weekly or monthly inserts. Some users also utilize 026 Dot grid refills as a starting point for bullet journaling or scheduling. We found that entrepreneurial creators enjoy the portable size of TRAVELER’S notebook to manage daily tasks as they move around the studio or office space. Teachers and students utilize separate planner refills with notebook refills to take notes and plan work schedules. When you can have many refills in one notebook, it’s much easier to organize and keep track of things. To travelers, TRAVELER’S notebook is like a suitcase. For the everyday user, it’s a briefcase or work bag that holds all the things you need.
Designer Sam Kuo shares his monthly diary from when he’s in college.
@cissyartcafe (left) and Job Airam (right) utilize bullet journaling for their respective creative endeavors
CAPTURING IDEAS FOR SPECIAL PROJECTS
Sometimes, your notebook doesn’t need a destination to get started. What’s great about TRAVELER’S notebook is that it encourages you to capture the ebb and flow of everyday life and projects. TRAVELER’S notebook refills are designed for all kinds of documentation, even if they are just brief ideas or a place to record the progression of a project. Just like a commonplace notebook, TRAVELER’S notebook can be your catch-all for all sorts of things going on in your life. You can draw sketches and make drafts for your next sewing project. If you are a designer and need a space to make some doodles, utilize any of the refills to get started.
Sam Kuo (left) and @ameruu (right) uses TRAVELER’S notebook to brainstorm ideas for their next project
Even if it’s just a fleeting quote that comes to mind, but you might want to recall later, your reliable TRAVELER’S notebook that’s always by your side can help capture it.
Sara McNally documents quotes in her TRAVELER’S notebook
TRAVEL, BUT NOT FAR FROM HOME
A lot of TRAVELER’S notebook users journal about their days even when they are not traveling. Just like you would collect ephemera and brochures throughout a trip, it is also easy to discover fun things closer to home in your city. Think about fun things you’d do on the weekend such as a movie night date or an outing with friends. Journal about your favorite restaurant’s dishes. Write about your day and a conversation you had with your loved ones. Print out photos and tip them into your pages.
Job Airam (left) and @ohaijoy (right) uses TRAVELER’S notebook to journal about daily life
You can easily fill multiple refills over time when you document snippets of your life like this. You will also come to enjoy the natural patina of your TRAVELER’S notebook leather cover when you touch and use it daily.
@twocupstravels shares all the TRAVELER’S notebook refills she filled over the years
EMBRACE THE B-SIDES
Don’t be afraid to try something new and out of the ordinary. In 2021, TRAVELER’S COMPANY released a series of interesting refills called B-Sides & Rarities, which celebrates the interesting ideas and experiments that we did with TRAVELER’S notebook. What if you want to use a notebook refill that you can take out to nature without worrying about it getting wet? Or a paper that is so thin, you can see through more than one page? We explored with users how to have fun with interesting textures like the Washable Paper refills and Super Lightweight Paper refills.
Sara McNally (left) uses the Washable Paper refill to log her kayaking adventures. @penguinscreative (right) uses the Super Lightweight Paper to create layered art
Other than the notebook refills that you can continuously write on, you may also want to try the Sticker Release Paper refill that can help you collect labels and ephemera when you are journaling on the go.
Partner Shop Yoseka Stationery demonstrates how they keep sticker ephemera with the Sticker Release Paper Refill
ARCHIVE WITH EASE AND RE-LIVE THE MEMORIES
It’s so easy to go through refills after refills when using your TRAVELER’S notebook. With the end of each refill, it’s a refreshing feeling of closing a chapter of your life and starting a new one afresh. You can try something new or continue the style you enjoyed in the last notebook. You can look back at each filled insert in chronological order and experience the feeling of looking through old slide shows and photo albums. You will be surprised at the nostalgia a certain page or spread might bring. Some TRAVELER’S notebook users also organize and archive their refills with the Refill Binder by category or themes. The slim profile is easy to store and revisit when you have the urge to look back on your life’s progress.
Sara McNally (left) and Donna (right) archive their TRAVELER’S notebook inserts in Refill Binders
TRAVELER’S notebook BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER
When you’re thinking of TRAVELER’S notebook, people are always at the core. We designed this notebook for you to capture your life stories. Organically, people who come to love TRAVELER’S notebook will end up meeting and together celebrate this special way they each document their journeys. In Japan, TRAVELER’S FACTORYs are individual hubs in which people can meet and share their appreciation for the manual work and analog tools that TRAVELER’S COMPANY develops. They are built in the center of communities that celebrate local stores and business, and overall allows travelers to enjoy the culture of analog holistically. You can take a break from your busy schedule to relax and enjoy the sense of community that TRAVELER’S notebook naturally fosters.
The library section of TRAVELER’S FACTORY Kyoto
No matter where you are located, you’ll see that the love for TRAVELER’S notebook has no boundaries. Many TRAVELER’S notebook Partner Shops around the world host meetups for users to meet and share their enthusiasm for the notebooks. TRAVELER’S COMPANY also hosts CARAVANS that take TRAVELER’S notebook to new cities to make new friends. It is always fun to be part of a crowd that shares a love for one thing.
There is also joy in meeting someone at a coffee shop that happens to be jotting down some notes in his or her TRAVELER’S notebook, and we’re sure you’ll share a look of understanding for knowing what the notebook represents. We hope you enjoy the freedom and flexibility of TRAVELER’S notebook and embody the spirit of a traveler wherever you may go.
Have a nice trip!
