When you make your own product, you create an occasion to consider all the details. It’s an opportunity to care, and it’s not one that everyone decides to take up. 

For example, when I showed a friend an early version of The Consistency Journal, he noticed that the paper was rougher than he was used to. His favorite notebooks, from Kokuyo, had smooth paper.

Even though I’d published Creative Doing already, I’d never really paid much attention to the paper. Now that my customers would be the ones writing in the book, I needed to make sure the paper encouraged them to keep coming back.

Another occasion, also paper related: as I prepared to ship the first copy out, I also wanted to write a thank you note. I must have walked by Laywine’s dozens of times; I finally had a good reason to visit. I stepped out with my first purchase of Original Crown Mill. 

I also saw AJOTO’s 10th anniversary poster hanging on the wall at Laywine’s, which reminded me of In the Air, on the Ground, under the Sea by Drawing Architecture Studio (which I spent over an hour with). I learned about another detail, that the poster was made by screen printing nine colors. (More details here.)

Now, when I shop for notebooks, I appreciate all the details as well. In getting to know the product better, there is a sense of the magic fading away. The enthusiasm is still there though, and with the new expertise, the relationship is much deeper than before.