Hacked notebooks

An exhibition of Moleskine notebooks customised by and containing the sketches of designers is on exhibition in London.

Karim Rashid’s notebook contains just what you would expect from this prolific designer – sketches for future work in a multitude of disciplines. Demonstrating that his mind is working nonstop, Rashid draughts for fashion, product and furniture collections.

Tord Boontjie exploits the concertina-like folds of a pocket notebook to create an intricate cut-out paper scene in his trademark whimsical aesthetic.

Rodrigo Almeida experimented with permutations of wood in his transformation of a notebook, itself a by-product of trees.

Nendo's Oki Sato cut tiny artworks into the tops of the notebook's pages to create a forest of trees and shapes that line up to create a row of houses.

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu make a bold but minimal statement with a neatly chiseled channel cut into the notebook's middle, descending at an angle into the pages.

The notebook of Kiki van Eijk features a selection of process sketches that illustrate her working methods. Here she gives the reader access to the inspirations behind some of her work with her own "Kikiworld" brand.

Joep van Lieshout’s notebook, buried within an amorphous lump of polyurethane, is inaccessible. Perhaps it waits for some archeologist of the future to unpack it.

GamFratesi are two architects known for their meticulously designed furniture. For this project they returned to their roots somewhat, by constructing a “Moleskine House”. The walls form a bookmark, keeping the book open at a 90-degree angle for spine preservation, the perfect perch for the notebook roof.

In his notebook Yves Behar has kept a record of his acclaimed One Laptop Per Child project. Photographs, sketches and messages to the reader are included, making this a compelling modern-day artifact.

Fernando and Humberto Campana have bound their notebook in offcut faux-alligator skin leather, roughly stitched with exposed seams. Like the vibrant street life and culture of Brazil that inspires them, this object appears to have a life of it’s own.

For their contribution, BCXSY have transformed their logo, which features the designers' heads in profile, into a wax seal and placed it over the elasticated band that keeps the book closed. An age-old way of ensuring privacy thus replaces a more modern one.

Fashion designer Antonio Marras created a catalogue of his ideas and inspirations, from visuals in the form of mixed-media collages to his own exclusive stories. This is an immersive collection of personal research and flights of fantasy ready to be developed into future works.

Anothermountainman has employed the woven polypropylene fabric from his renowned "redwhiteblue" series. Neatly folded strips of different sizes and angles protrude like bookmarks.

Furniture designer Alfred von Escher exploits the wide horizontal format of a fold-out notebook with drawings of tire tracks along the page.

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Posted 14 Sep 14 By Adam Becker Graphic Design & Illustration Creative Work / Design News Comments

The Detour collection of Moleskine notebooks, which have been customised, hacked, illustrated, written in and otherwise embellished by a leading international designers, is on exhibition during this year's London Design Festival (13 to 21 September) in Moleskine stores across London.

In an age when digital mediums are ever-encroaching, this archive of work reaffirms the historical allegiance of designers to paper. The travelling exhibition traveled to nine cities on three continents before arriving in London. The individual books can also be viewed in an online gallery.

The notebooks on display in London have been selected for how they showcase the creative process and their embodiment of the notebook as a design object in itself. They are displayed in Moleskine stores in Covent Garden, Harrods, Old Street and Canary Wharf. Curated by Raffaella Guidobono, all pieces have been donated by their authors to the Italian non-profit foundation lettera27, which supports the right to literacy, education, access to knowledge and information in developing countries.

Flip through our Lookbook above to see some of the notebooks by designers such as Yves Behar, Tord Boontjie, and Fernando and Humberto Campana.