As already reported in Teleread, notebook and stationery brand Moleskine has been looking at digital integration of its pen-and-paper offerings, with Evernote and others. Its latest offering in digital convergence is the Voyageur series, “a new sized notebook for Moleskine in a portable format designed to store printed emails, itineraries and maps. The essential travelling companion that keeps track of your observations and explorations on the road, so you can concentrate on posting your pics for the folks back home.”
As you can see from the picture below, the Voyageur notebook offers the option to hashtag and share travel photos, and the whole platform offers a print-on-demand format allowing direct printing of digital content in a matching format. There is also a tutorial, accesible through a QR code on the front wrapper. The whole, Moleskine claims, constitutes “a traveller’s notebook for the digital age.”
For my obligatory thirty seconds of snark, I’ll just point out that Voyageur can’t put in what the Muse left out, and it and all Moleskine’s offerings seem pitched at those who aspire to the style of the writing life without the substance. Also, Evernote seems to be coming far closer to the true digital traveler’s notebook, with its digital sketch, text, picture, and even sound and video integration. Still, Paul Biba is clearly at least one exception, and Voyageur could be the ideal Christmas gift for the writer in your life.
