rhodia notebooks; substance over style

I'll be the first to confess that I used to be quite fickle when it came to notebooks but one notebook changed my opinion. The notebook in question is a Rhodia one I found in the sale at Paperchase.

Rhodia notebooks aren't ugly - they just appear a bit... masculine and macho. For some reason, black and orange are colours I associate with the male population. However, orange (on its own) is one of my favourite colours (hence why this Pantone notebook just had to be mine) and with these Rhodia notebooks at such a good price, it was one bargain I couldn't pass on.

The only ones in the sale were the black Rhodia A5 ruled hardback notebooks with the logo in orange.

The design isn't unexpected - it is a black notebook with the Rhodia name and logo in orange on the front. I like how it is quite minimalistic as it will lend itself well to being jazzed up a little.

I'm intending on washi-taping the spine to label the notebook.

As soon as I opened the notebook, I think I fell in love. The paper is a lovely bright white with a purpley grey rule and when you stroke the paper, it is so smooth. If I had to design my own notebook, I am pretty sure I would want the inside to look like this. The paper is quite similar to Oxford notepaper and that is definitely not a bad thing. At the back, it says that the paper is 80g in weight.

To end this blog post, I have done a pen test on the paper - after all, no notebook review could be complete without a pen test, right?!

Overall, I am very impressed with the paper quality, but with the Rhodia brand strongly associated with the Clairefontaine brand, I wouldn't expect anything less than a high quality notebook. And the not-so-pretty design? Not a problem - the spines will look lovely on my bookshelf once they are jazzed up!

I know there are a lot of Rhodia fans out there and I also know that I am very late to the Rhodia party but boy, am I glad I found these notebooks. Please note that I bought these notebooks earlier this year - I've only just started to use them; hence the delay in posting about them!