free range

a while back I finally broke down and ordered me some of those astonishingly popular little notebooks. a set of the grey winter-colored ones. they came promptly, straight from Chicago, in a very nice cardboard envelope. at first, I was a bit disappointed that all of them had pages of graph-paper grid. I'm a blank-paper notebook girl, whenever possible. it's so much easier that way. (then again, you miss out on that great rebellious sort of feeling when there are no lines at all to disregard...)

this here is an old sketchbook. I pulled it out and started using it, randomly, to hash out ideas for a web project genius brother and I are working on. it worked. sort of. until on my flight home the other night I found myself too lazy to tug the fat spiral-bound thing out of my bag. so I used one of these little notebooks instead:

and it was just about perfect. much more accessible. not so much space that I felt I had to scribble meaninglessly in every corner--just enough for the ideas I was chasing back and forth and up and down.

and the grid works too. my disappointment has fled. so, henceforth my little grey fieldnotes shall be my webdesign sketchbook. and maybe other kinds of designs too. I'm thinking I'll make one of the other two into a typography sketchbook and... well, the third might just collect scraps of paper, tags from clothes, and cool paper clips. for now.