Review: Daycraft, Signature Sketchbook

Brand: Daycraft, Signature line

Size: Available in two sizes –  4.3″ x 5.9″ (A6)  and  5.9″ x 8.3″ (A5) . Both reviewed here.

Pages: A6 has 128 pages, A5 has 176 pages

Price: Around $12-15 USD.

Markings: Very small Daycraft logo on the back of the notebooks. Last writing page of the notebooks have Copyright information.

Pros: very aesthetically pleasing, luxurious feel even though it is not leather, very simple and classy, ribbon page marker, little to no markings

Cons: paper doesn’t take anything over a fine tip very well (with the exception of ballpoint pens of course), does not lie flat, no pocket or elastic band – although as I mention later on, this actually works for this notebook

Where to buy: Stores in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Australia, Poland, Sri Lanka and Philippines – to check for local stores, go here. They are also available online from Australian shop Vera Chan, whom I bought the A5 notebook from – highly recommended, she even packaged the notebook in fancy paper and made it look all nice. I suppose I have a “thing” for nice packaging.

The A6 sketchbook reviewed here was a sample sent to me by Mr. Foreal Lee, along with 3 other Daycraft Planners which I will just briefly review at a later date since it’s already April and there are many wonderful reviews of those planners out there. Granted, there are many wonderful reviews of the Signature line as well, but I love this notebook so much that I had to do my own. A big thank you to Mr. Foreal!

Rating: A-

And for a more detailed look into the Signature Sketchbook…

If you’re looking for a simple and aesthetically pleasing notebook, the Signature line by Daycraft is the notebook you’re looking for. The Signature line comes with blank pages(sketchbook), lined pages (notebook) and also as a Planner format. It comes in a variety of colours, including grey (pictured below), green/teal, pink, black, red, yellow, purple, light green and brown.

The Signature cover is made out of Polyurethane, however on the labels and the Daycraft website it is described as “Fine Italian PU”. The feel of the cover can very easily lead you to think that it’s made out of leather, especially with the “Fine Italian” description. Even though it’s not leather, the soft cover feels extremely smooth, and very nice to the touch. Because the cover is soft (no cardboard backings), the notebooks have quite the flexibility and can be bent in many directions without creases forming on the cover.

As you can see, the A6  is only slightly larger than a pocket Moleskine, making it very portable. Although not pictured, the A5 is also only slightly larger than a large Moleskine.

When opened, you’re greeted by a lovely contrasting colour to the colour of the cover – in the grey sketchbooks case, a bright aqua blue. In the case of the pink A5 sketchbook, the contrasting colour is black. The simplicity which you find on the outside, you’ll also find inside. There are no “information” pages, no pockets or anything that would cause any sort of obstructions. It’s simple and beautiful.

Also no elastic band closure, which works well for this notebook, but I wouldn’t want to see any other notebook without an elastic band closure. If there is no pocket, I can live with that – but no elastic band drives me crazy. It actually surprises me that I love this notebook so much without the elastic band, but it really just works! The notebook doesn’t lie flat at all, which is a little bit of a problem when writing, but because of that, it also doesn’t open up easily and therefore does well in a purse or backpack. It does however have a nice ribbon page marker which is always useful.

The part of this notebook that I love the most however, is the contrasting coloured edges of the pages. It really does make these notebooks special – makes me want to buy all the colours available. They’re an absolute pleasure to look at.

So they look lovely, but how about the paper? The paper feels super smooth to the touch – and at 100gsm, it also feel rather thick. I’m not an artist, so even though this is a sketchbook, all I can really offer is to test some pens out on the paper – no sketches from me.

I have to say that I was a little bit surprised that any gel/ink pen above a fine tip line bled through the page. A little bit of a disappointment, since I was expecting the 100 gsm to perform better. For fountain pen users – an extra fine or fine nib should work (I suppose it would also depend on the ink), but a medium? Not so much.

Even so, I really do love the Signature line. And since I really only every use ballpoint pens, I don’t personally have much of a problem with the paper, although I do like the idea of knowing that I can use some markers and they won’t bleed through. It’s something I can live without though, and so I think I need to get my hands on a lined version, since I don’t do so well when writing on blank pages.

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