Category Archives: Review

Gillio Appunto A5 Planner Cover – Anthracite – Review

The Gillio Appunto range of leather planner covers was initially released in March 2016. They originally came in both A6 and A5 sizes and have been joined by ‘Slim’ and B6 sizes.

The Appunto was originally designed for the Hobonichi style planners, but any notebook/planner of the same size will fit in to these covers.

  • A6: all standard A6 notebooks; Hobonichi Planner & Hobonichi Techo A6 and A6 Avec
  • A5: all standard A5 notebooks; Hobonichi Techo Cousin and Cousin Avec
  • B6: all standard B6 notebooks (e.g. Stalogy)
  • Slim: Hobonichi Weeks and Weeks MEGA

This review is of an A5 Appunto which I have recently received to review and try out.

The review sample is also in a new leather colour ‘Anthracite’ which is a lovely dark grey colour. It isn’t as stark as pure black, but not too light a grey colour either.

The Appunto is in Italian vegetable tanned leather, there is no stiffener between the layers, so it is soft and supple to the touch.

With the A5 Appunto open you can see that there are plenty of pockets and slots for most peoples requirements.

The inside front cover has 4 regular card slots and two deeper card/note card slots. There is a full height slip pocket on the outer edge as well.

On the back inside cover there is a full height zip pocket and a half height secretarial flap pocket. The elasticated pen loop sits above the broad clasp.

There are two book marks in the central section.

There are slots on both the front and back inside cover to hold your planner/notebook.

I intend to use the Appunto with my Quo Vadis Daily 21 planner, which I use as my daily journal. I’ve been using this make/model/size as my journal since 2013. The paper is excellent and it takes fountain pen easily.

The Daily 21 being A5 size, slots in neatly in to the A5 Appunto.

The Daily 21 has stiff covers, so I only slotted the back cover in to the Appunto, but for soft cover planners/notebooks you can slot both the front and back covers in to the Appunto, it has provision for this.

The A5 Appunto also has a full width back cover, so you can also carry loose A4 size pages as well.

I scanned in the new leather and an existing Gillio Compagna in Royal Blue, so you can see the difference in the leather colour. Grey is often a difficult colour to photograph, so scanning it in often produces a more accurate result.  You can see the other Gillio leather colours in a previous post on Philofaxy.

Gillio Epoca Royal Blue (828) Anthracite (780)

The A5 Appunto measures when closed measures 230mm high by 170mm wide including the clasp.

Here is Mella’s video:

 

The new colour will initially be available in the following models:

  • Pocket Compagna – 223/14
  • Medium Compagna – 224/02
  • Slim Appunto – 282/02
  • A5 Appunto – 281/02
  • A6 Appunto – 280/02

Thank you to Gillio Firenze for the A5 Appunto review sample in Anthracite.

Further information: 

Gillio – IIC bvba
Breedveld 2 unit 7
1651 LOT (Beersel)
Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)2 380 63 19

Email: helpdesk@gillio.eu
Website: https://www.gillio.be
Facebook page: Gillio Firenze
Facebook groupGillio Firenze
Instagram: @GillioFirenze

William Hannah Pocket Notebook Cover

The company William Hannah Ltd will be a new one to a lot of people in the Travellers Notebook community, but the company has been making disc-bound notebook/planner covers for a few years. These covers have been very well received and are finished to a very high standard by artisans in England using Italian vegetable dyed leather hides.

Their A5 and A6 disc-bound notebook covers have been reviewed over on Philofaxy links to those reviews are here if you are interested in finding out more about those:

However, today I’m reviewing a new Pocket Notebook cover. Once again it is made from the finest Italian vegetable dyed leather hides and finished to the same high standard.

The Pocket Notebook comes in a stylish black presentation gift box with the WH logo embossed in to the front surface, the box is a clam shell design and it just increases the anticipation when opening it for the first time.

The first time I saw this packaging with the A5 notebook back in 2016 I thought about what it would be like to receive such a package as a gift. The receiver would have no clue what was in their surprise gift package!

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Prima Traveler’s Journal

I was fortunate enough to get some time to chat with the representatives of Prima at PlannerCon Europe 2017 in Brussels. They kindly offered me one of their Traveler’s Journals to review on the blog.

With so many different Travellers Notebooks to choose from on the market these days it is difficult to know which one to buy, especially if you are new to this format. You have to look at what each design has to offer that you will need to help you decide which one to go for.

Most are a simple one piece of leather folded in half with some holes and elastics and not a lot more.

This is were the Prima Traveler’s Journal differs from most of the others on the market today.

The Prima Traveler’s Journal is made from bonded leather, so it will stand up to every day usage easily.

The item is packaged in a clear plastic box with a cardboard wrapper which gives details about the product.

 

Once you have got the box open and extracted the Traveler’s Journal you get a much better impression of the product.

The leather has a pleasing shine to it and as you can see the stitching is very neat and accurate.

The cover is held closed with a horizontal elastic which has a leather tab on it to cushion it against the cover.

The back cover has the website address of Prima Marketing embossed in to it at the foot of the cover.

Opening the cover reveals the internal layout of the front inside cover.

Taking a closer look you will see the pen loop, two credit card slots and two diagonally cut slip pockets.

 

Laying the journal open flat you will see it comes fitted with space for four journals. There are two elastics threaded through the cover at the top and bottom to make the four equal length strings to add inserts and accessories to.

The rear inside cover is devoted to a full height zip pocket, with a leather tab and Prima charm on the zip pull.

The zip pocket opening is in the size of the pocket making it very easy to get things in and out of the pocket. The pocket is lined so things will be protected in there.

The journal comes with two plain paper inserts of the normal regular size (110 x 210mm).

So if you want a simple but well designed Travellers Notebook give this one some consideration.

Thank you to Prima Marketing for supplying the review sample.

Further Information:
Website: https://www.primamarketinginc.com
Facebook Page: https://www.instagram.com/primamarketinginc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primamarketinginc/

Available here:

Other stockists are listed on the Prima Marketing Website Store Locator page.