Q u a d r i l a t e r a l

With the help of my friend Shin and also from Tina I fulfilled a longstanding dream and wandered around the National Stationery Show at the Javits Center last week.

I got a bit starstruck when I got to meet the head designer for Jack & Lulu and when I introduced myself to the head of Snow & Graham. I’m not sure whether they encounter many starstruck fans, but I hope it gave them some pleasure.

In a bizarre bout of full circle-ness, I happened upon a new line at Crane’s called Chloe B. (my future daughter since I was 16). I’ve had a thing about the stuffiness of Crane’s since I was 15 and I interviewed to work at a stationery store in Concord where the old woman (who didn’t hire me) made a big to-do about how they were a licensed distributor (the only one in Concord!!) and only sold Crane’s.

With the new Chloe-ish lines, it’s clear that they’re trying to woo younger folks like myself. I guess they picked the right name to do it.

On Cool Hunting’s Holiday Gift Guide, I found the Behance line of stationery for creative professionals. They’re specially designed to capture to-dos in meetings, with a proprietary methodology called the “Behance Action Method”. It’s Franklin Covey for creatives, designed to get a class of Perceivers to act more like Judgers.

Can stationery make the unmethodical methodical? Should office supplies come with built-in orthodoxy? For the analysis-prone like myself, a pretty to-do list like this might be a nice kickstart; a treat that inspires me to focus afresh. For those who get offended by trying to put all of life in small boxes, it might be too much.

This week I discovered See Jane Work, a store and Web site, which (despite for being a bit too precious and girly in its aesthetic) has a philospohy and product line that I couldn’t agree more with:

“At See Jane Work we’ve long admired the European aesthetic of bringing Function and Style to necessary items. Using simple designs and a fresh color palette we’ve created a line of products for the Office, Home and Home Office that reflect that understated elegance and unpretentious sense of purpose. Now, the notebooks, binders and organizational products that you use everyday can not only help you manage your work, they can also reveal your personal style.”