As we hurry from our successful careers to our families at home,
we deal with staggering amounts of information: appointments to be booked, notes taken from meetings, recipes
to try and details about an upcoming vacation. While some may boast of photographic memories, most of us
reach for organizational aids. At the forefront of this select industry is Moleskine America, a company that
has been setting the standard in office, home and lifestyle notebook products.
Moleskine owes its renown to both superior product quality as well as a culturally influenced attitude with
regards to the statements their notebooks make about the people who incorporate them into their daily
routines.
“In the abstract, it’s an entity that captures the culture, imagination, memory and personal identity of
today’s creative and professional communities,” explains Marco Beghin, president of Moleskine America.
“It is a celebration of individuality and creativity, and of the distinct qualities in each of us that make
us exceptional.”
With culture in mind, Moleskine products are designed first in Italy and then fabricated in China, an
appropriate location as the art of paperwork itself stems from Chinese tradition dating back nearly 3,000
years. Their iconic black notebook, however, is slightly more modern.
“The original ‘craze’ actually began centuries ago when world-renowned figures like Picasso and Ernest
Hemingway used their little black notebooks as the vehicles of their inspiration,” Beghin explains.
Moleskine products today serve as simple and agile products that reflect the on-the-go lifestyle of the
contemporary artist and professional. While many reach for notebook computers instead of pads of paper,
Moleskine advocates a combination of the two to cater to the full range of needs of the
21st-century consumer.
“We’re not saying throw out your computer and buy a notebook; we’re saying let us show you how to incorporate
the two in a way that will give you a more collaborative creative experience,” he says.
Further technological influences include Moleskine’s newly designed cover for the popular Kindle, a digital
reader that is quickly becoming the standard in e-book reading.
Moleskine offers a range of products including everything from agendas to the iconic black notebook favoured
by cultural greats. Beghin himself favours combining the notebook with a memo pocket for what he refers
to as the perfect combination when he travels. “I can chronicle my experiences in the notebook and keep
mementos and other small souvenirs in the memo pocket,” he shares.
In keeping with this balance of culture and efficiency, Moleskine has designed their Travel Collection,
featuring popular city destinations across the world. The goal of the collection, according to Beghin, was to
offer people a way to learn and record their travels using a more-personalized medium than a standard
guidebook:
“We wanted to give them a tool that would allow them to create a guide for their trip that would reflect
their unique interests and plans and would lead them on a journey of their own design. The resultant travel
collection is part journal, part city guide, and is the first guidebook you write yourself. It gives
world travellers a medium that allows them to document their travels, while telling the story of their
journey in their own words.”
Moleskine also offers their Passions Collection, designed specifically to record memories, thoughts and
notes. It pays tribute to what Beghin refers to as “the loves of our lives,” and features six notebooks
corresponding to six diverse interests: Recipes, Wine, Books, Film, Music and Wellness.
“Every title is specifically designed as a personal archive for Moleskine lovers to fill in, according to
their interests and preferences,” he explains. •
