Today we have a special treat for you, the perfect accompaniment to starting a new journal or planner! This lovely leather notebook cover was donated as a giveaway by Goby Design.
Goby Design boasts handcrafted leather notebook covers made in Berkeley, CA in a rainbow of gorgeous colors! They source both American and Italian leather There are three sizes available:
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Pocket Size Moleskine Cahier or Field Notes (90mm x 140mm or 3.5″ x 5.5″)
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Large Size Moleskine Cahier (130mm x 210mm or 5.1” x 8.25”)
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A5 Size any single signature notebook (149mm x 210mm or 5.8” x 8.25”)
Each leather notebook cover comes with a Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook inside, held in place by a somewhat flexible, but sturdy, center wire. When you’ve finished the notebook, simply slide it out of the cover, and add your own! This is a fairly skinny cover, but I do think some of the thinner A5 cardstock cover planners would fit very well in there.
So, without further ado, let’s get to the Giveaway:
You are entering to win 1 A5 Goby Design notebook, as pictured above in the color Wheat, with the included Clairefontaine Triomphe Notebook.
You’ll also receive a few goodies from me (Well-Appointed Guest stickers, ink samples and the like).
TO ENTER: Head on over to Goby Design to check them out. Then leave a comment below and tell me your favorite color/size they make. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.
If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the monkeys some time.
FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Sunday, October 19, 2025. All entries must be submitted at wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Monday. Winner will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form so that I can contact you if you win. I will not save email addresses or sell them to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 5 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class is covered. Additional shipping options or insurance will have to be paid by the winner. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.
A special thank you to Goby Design who provided us with the leather notebook cover for giveaway!
The grass green is probably my favorite of the colors. I always love A5 notebooks, but I’m starting to really get into carrying pocket notebooks, and would like to have a cover that I could stash a credit-card holder into, so I think I would go for the pocket size.
This looks like a great giveaway.
I really love the chestnut or mahogany color for the cover.
I like their redwood cover for the A5 notebook. Those covers appear to be very well made.
I always love A5, as it’s big enough to actually say something meaningful or take useful notes, but not so big as to be overwhelming. And their violet and avocado are both lovely, but I’d have to go with violet. It’s just so happy!
Oh wow I love the violet and periwinkle designs but all of them are just gorgeous. When I pay my credit card off I may just get myself one if I don’t win.
Beautiful in the simplicity of the design
I am partial to brown leather, but that notebook in wheat is very nice. I particularly like the ginkgo leaf design. Did you know that Ginko trees have been on earth since before South America and Africa separated from each other?
Yes they have some gorgeous colors, I narrowed it to the Cherry and Periwinkle in of course the ubiquitous A5. The Gentlemen Stationer mentioned he might start carrying Goby, so that would be cool to see in person and feel the leather. Thanks for the giveaway, very generous of them and you too.
Lots of good colours, but I think I like the Mahogany in the Pocket Size!
A5 size is the best but who doesn’t love a really nice orange.
I really like the A5 size notebook and the Wheat actually is the color I would choose but all the colors are gorgeous!
Fan of the Mahagony – A5
These look like fantastic notebook covers. I’m happy to know about them. I’m drawn to the A5 size in Avocado. I love avocados.
I love the ginkgo leaf cover design! I didn’t see that on their website , but hope it might be available soon. My favorite cover size is A5 all the way. It’s hard to pick just one of their colors, but the limoncello looked great, the dusty rose wouldn’t load, but sounds like something I’d pick, and the violet was quite lovely too! ️
Oh wow, their covers are gorgeous! I’m a sucker for that grass green cover, and I love the A5 size best.
A5 in plum would be the juiciest color for me.
Probably A5 in orange, or a classic black
A5 in orange, or maybe a classic black. But I love the ginkgo design. When I first saw them I was stunned.
A5 size and I would choose either Mahogany or Chestnut as the color.
A5 Cherry Red! I just chose the A5 size for my 2026 planner. These are nice, I would get them in the other sizes!
Wow, thank you for sharing this. I hadn’t heard of Goby yet. The covers look beautiful. I feel immediately drawn to the grass green because teal is one of my favorite choices for covers. But I also love the plum, redwood, avocado, carrot and wheat. I also appreciate a thinner more minimalist cover. The ginkgo embossing is so nice, I wish that was an option on the site. Prices seem reasonable too. It is a new approach to include a well matched notebook too. Pocket and A5 are great because I have a whole box of field notes and of course a stack of A5s. Hopefully they expand one day to sizes in between too, like B6 Slim.
If I remember correctly, I met these folks last year at the SF Pen Show. They didn’t have the A5 size at the time and I thought I could get away with shoehorning my shorter notebook in a larger size. They kindly advised me away from that purchase because the covers were for thin refills. Such a nice guy to forgo a sale.
Thanks for ding the giveaway! I really like their A5 mahogany. I’d probably use it to keep track of my adventures learning sketching and watercolor.
It is awesome that Goby is made in the USA. The color is beautiful and who doesn’t love wheat? And leather? Yes, please! Plus a Clairefontaine Triomphe notebook? Double yes please!
Oh! The Indigo in A5 absolutely beautiful.
I am torn between the Green or the Mahogany in A5, as that is my most used size format.
The Avocado in Large fits my needs.
The plum one is lovely! The A5 is a great size and I love that they are using Clairefontaine paper – it’s one of the best.
All of the colors are beautiful, but my favorites are cherry, carrot, and avocado. Yum! I’m really into pocket notebooks at the moment.
A5 is always my favorite journal size. I would like the redwood or plum colors, but the wheat is a very traditional color that always pleases. I buy the Clairefontaine Triomphe paper pads to write letters all the time! It is perfect for fountain pens–of which I am a long-time fan. I have over 50 fountain pens inked up in trays that I rotate through when I write letters. None are fancy or expensive. I am more into the endless ink colors. Having around two dozen people I write to (having been housebound the last 20 years letter writing is a big part of my social life–lol!) and having to write in segments does help me to rotate through all those pens quite regularly. I also journal daily, so this would be a wonderful item to win, for sure! Have a wonderful day! 🙂
The violet is my favorite. I have so many field notes that would look sharp in that cover!
A5 seems to be my favorite notebook size. I keep coming back to it.
oh my goodness…they have so many beautiful colors!