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rich mitch 'legends' takenotebook

the local branch of the supposedly scottish bank in which all my money is stored, was fortunate to have escaped the recent round of closures. this has left a number of rural locations north of the border without any physical bank whatsoever. yet despite this parlous state of affairs, the staff seem just a tad too keen to persuade me to adopt their digital banking service. almost everyone i know, including mrs washingmachinepost, has an app on their phones allowing the paying of bills, transferring of money between accounts and no doubt many other services of which i remain oblivious.

i have my reasons.

firstly, i find it decidedly odd that any employee of a bank would proselytise that which might ultimately make them redundant. i am more than happy to have the girl behind the counter inform me as to my current balance, transfer money to another account and change large denomination notes into more practical amounts. for as one who, by my own admission, is none too good with numbers, i seriously doubt that i could make it through the year without messing up somewhere along the line. that and the fact that i am still one of only two people in the world bereft of a mobile phone, a situation that i do not see altering in the foreseeable future.

since the 2007 advent of apple's iphone, the phrase 'there's an app for that' has become ever more omnipresent, with seemingly very few factors in modern life that cannot be handled by a smartphone. i recall a visit to an early edition of 'bespoked bristol' where friends of mine had to park their car some distance from the venue because all immediate parking required payment by smartphone app and, at that time, none of them possessed such a device.

meantime, i am not only well aware of my luddite tendencies in this respect (not too keen on electric gear systems either, come to that), but i've no real desire to change my ways, simply to make life easier for the powers that proffer services i might need to use. like the banks, for instance. however, just to offer a massive contradiction to the above, my ipod touch, used mostly to play mel lewis sextet and septet recordings while i wash the teatime dishes, harbours a convenient reminder application of which i have made extensive use. whether my memory is actually struggling, or i am simply bombarded with more information than i can easily process, i know not.

but whatever it might be, my ipod will offer a suitable reminder of what needs to be done and when.

for that is the only downside i can find to the latest takenotebooks rich mitch legends edition. those 96, lined pages refuse to ping and tell me what it is i'm supposed to do. which is why i have made use of its pragmatism for other, useful purposes and not as a diary. for instance, when working between three separate pieces of adobe software, i frequently have need of maintaining the same cmyk numbers, which have usually been scavenged from elsewhere. if you're anything like me, work rarely proceeds in an organised manner; i'm eternally guilty of jumping from one project to the next without rhyme nor reason. thus, i've usually scribbled the relevant numbers, pantone swatches and filter settings on scraps of paper or post-it notes.

none of which can be found the following day and even if they are, i've forgotten to which project they refer. that's right when you need a rich mitch takenotebook. because those 96 lined pages have no need of a battery, no need of recharging and do not suffer from 'sleep mode'. and it's very hard to accidentally delete anything.

but from whence came the association between one of the country's finest illustrators and folks who offer books of lined notepaper. i asked ian at takenotebooks...

" When we started developing our notebook business, I began to create notebook cover designs, but the main aim of the company was create a platform from which like-minded designers could design notebooks without risk, and to use the collective social media 'voice' to promote the work. Instagram is perfect for this. Having been on social media for a few years, and as a fellow cyclist and designer, it wasn't long before I was drawn to Richard's work. So I approached him to ask if heÊwanted to design some notebooks, and to showcase his LEGENDS pattern. He is a brilliant illustrator, and his work is uniquely 'Rich' - a visual signature. We felt that our quality product and his style would be a great selling collaboration."

but i hear one or two of you murmuring about the cover remaining partially open after frequent use. i'm glad you mentioned that, because this cycling legends decorated note book features an elastic strap fastened to the back cover, allowing the front to be securely closed and not become out of sorts, when stuffed into a rucksack or computer bag. and though the cover could probably display pretty much anything at all, we are cyclists, keen to remind ourselves and others, that there's more to life than writing cmyk numbers and distillery managers' mobile phone numbers on lined notepaper with rounded corners. but when there isn't, we want to be reminded of our cycling heritage and have colleagues ask us to identify the caricatures on the cover. because we're unbearably smug in that way.

you know i'm write.

takenotebooks rich mitch edition

sunday 21 october 2018