moleskinerie: create, inspire, share. by brian khoo from singapore

i decided to approach this project with my memory of the first time seeing a moleskine and the things which struck me about it; the little details and the curious way people stored their ideas in such great details in such books before passing it out for others to see, in a simple, yet sophisticated package.

the details; the first thing which stuck me about the moleskine was the rounded edges of the notebook. it was a very simple modification in the notebook, but yet brought about a form of elegance and functionality. less folded edges and a unique look. the other part was the elastic band used to hold the ideas between those pages together, something hardly seen in many notebooks then. with this, the basic shape of the logo was formed; 'm' for moleskine, implementing the characteristics which to me, made it something special.

an 'm' in the form of a corner of the moleskine notebook. I left the indent in the middle of the 'm' instead of keeping a smooth form of the notebook as a representative of the nib of the pen; creativity in progress. for the final logo, it is only present in the main notebook, as it is where all the ideas converge.

however, i wasn't satisfied with the design which i had done. it just didn't seem complete. after much contemplation, i realised that the design lacked the one important aspect; the social aspect, which made sharing a moleskine with others a very personal experience.

the sharing of ideas is a very interesting one. an idea always starts off as a simple thought. pass it on to others, and other build on to it, adding layers of their thoughts and character until it forms a whole. it is not complete, and it will never be. but for now it is complete, until the next layer from whom it is passed on to is added.

with this, i added repeated the logo in a full circle, a 't'shape rather than a 'x' shape in order to bring about the idea of thoughts and creative processes from the four directions; the north, south, east and west. the layer idea was also implemented with the various notebooks overlapping each other, each of a different opacity, and in the very center of the pile is a small transparent gap, representative of a spark of inspiration to set the wheel of ideas going.
as for the technical aspect, the varying opacity does not mean different colours, but rather, it will filter a single colour to a variety of shades, similar to how a good idea can come from a variety of different inspirations. the font used to finsh up the word 'moleskine'is selected to retain a simple, yet ornate look with its serif detail, similar to how a simple black moleskine can inspire people of all ages.