Massdrop did a mass drop on me this week with some of the new products they are stocking from Ferme à Papier. They sent me the new Yearless Planner (currently $21.99), the Desk Calendar (currently $24.99) and the boxed Thank You Cards (currently $19.99). The planner is 5″x8″ with a perfect bound spine and decorative gold foil details on the cover. Inside, the paper is a crisp, heavyweight white paper with minimal black printing. Since the calendaring is dateless, you need to write, draw, stamp or embellish a lot of the details yourself. Luckily, the paper is heavyweight enough to hold up to both lots of types of pens and inks including rubber stamping inks.
I’m not too scrapbook-y but I like using some stamps, arrows, washi tape and arrows to embellish and color code notes in my planners. The bright white paper gave me lots of freedom to plus up the planner. Inside the front is a forward-planning spread for the whole year — not much to plan for 2017 yet except pen shows and some knitting events but there’s still plenty of room to add birthdays, anniversaries and other dates to remember.
Following the forward planning is a monthly calendar across two pages. I stamped the numbers for the days in January and added the few upcoming events I know thus far. While I included the Philly Pen Show on the calendar, I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to go but I like to keep track of these events.
After the monthly spread are a series of weekly pages. I used number stamps for the days and added a few of the meetings I know I’ll have when I return from the holidays. Not much yet but it will get filled up fast!
In the back of the book, I did a series of pen and pencil tests and was pleasantly surprised to discover how well the paper handled most inks. There was no bleeding or feathering issues . I didn’t use any super wide nibs since the book is not huge but a fine italic fountain pen, Le Pens, rollerballs, Papermate Flairs and even a fairly fine brush pen all did well so I feel confident that a range of tools for convenience and decorating options will be open for users.
Above is the pen testing page, viewed from the back. There’s a little tiny bit of show through but its only from the thicker markers like the Pentel Touch and the Kuretake Fudegokochi which is to be expected. So I’m quite pleased with the paper quality.
My only peeve with the planner is that the spine really needed to be worked to loosen the glue to get the book to open up. It does not lay flat very easily on its own. The binders put way too much glue on it and in some of the spreads you can see that it cuts into the usability of the space in the left hand edge of the right hand page — parts of the text fall into the gutter that is in the binding area. And while the Yearless Planner concept is interesting the layout really forces users to still start the planner in January rather than a format that allows for users to start the planner in any month and use it for 12 months. So its still a bit limiting. That said, the paper quality and the compact size and the ability to do a lot of decorating or no embellishing at all make it quite appealing.
There are eight different cover options to choose from and the Yearless Planner has met its Massdrop goal so its at the lowest price of $21.99.
Next up is the Desk Calendar which is a 12-month cardstock calendar in a walnut, wood slat base. The wood base is a bit wider than the cards, and all the cards fit into the stand so you can keep them altogether.The cards also stand more rigid and upright if you keep all of them in the stand together. I think the wood stand could be re-used at the end of the year for personal ephemera so I think there’s some longevity to it as well.
The designs of each of the calendar cards have a Memphis-style vibe in graphic pastels.
The visible design is about 5″x5″ and the base adds another 1.5″ to the height and about 3″ to the width.
The cactus montage on the September page is my favorite. I can’t believe I’ll have to wait nine whole months to gaze at it! The Desk Calendar is currently at $24.99 and needs 3 more purchases to be a fully funded drop. There’s only three days left too. It’s a pretty unique desk calendar and would make a nice gift.
The last item from Ferme à Papier is a set of eight Thank You cards in an acetate box with kraft envelopes. I received the box set of Black Carrara with gold foil stamped lettering on the cover. I also received a single sample of the Purple Floral design but I forgot to photograph it (so sorry!). As the holidays are rapidly approaching, its important to have some thank you cards on hand and these simple, universally appropriate cards would be perfect to give to your boss, co-worker, friend, or family member. I am always looking for thank you cards appropriate to give to my gentleman friends or for work colleagues that are not overly flowery or floofy. These cards are perfect for that.
My only fuss with them is the foil stamping is a little rough. It appears that way in the photos on Massdrop so there is no false advertising so I’m wondering if that was the look the designer was going for because its almost consistent on every card. I’m particularly picky because I do a lot of foil stamp design work for my job but I just thought I’d point it out. Alternately, I don’t often find such simple cards where I work so I guess I should pick my (picky) battles.
The Thank You cards boxed sets are $19.99 and need 10 buyers to meet the drop and there’s just three days left.
DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Massdrop for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
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