Travellers Notebook Times

This is my first Van der Spek Codex. The Codex is a leather notebook/planner cover. It comes in a variety of sizes for different types of planners and notebooks. It is available in several ‘pre-set’ sizes, but Van der Spek can make it to more or less any size you want.

This one is an A5 (page size 210×148 mm), I will be using it with my Quo Vadis Daily 21 day per page planner that I use as my journal. The paper on the Daily 21 is excellent and works with fountain pen without any bleed through.

My Van der Spek A5 Codex arrived last week in a lovely presentation box that all their products now come in.

This is the A5 Codex. I went for Black ‘Janet Leather’ on the outside with Red ‘Janet Leather on the inside with red stitching on the inside and outside.

Janet Leather is a traditional full grain vegetable tanned leather that I have in a few other of my planners and covers. It is of  high quality leather and has a variety of textures depending where on the hide the parts are cut from.

However, Van der Spek will always try to match all the parts from the same part of the hide, so there isn’t a massive variation in textures and colour shades in the finished item.

The internal design of this particular Codex is fairly standard. I decided not to have the full width back pocket as I don’t use that pocket on my current Gillio Appunto A5.

I also went for my preferred internal layout of just three card slots, with two horizontal slip pockets on the front inside cover.

I have this in several other Van der Spek planners, so much so that Petra Van der Spek calls it the ‘Steve Morton’ layout!

On the rear inside cover there is a shallow horizontal slip pocket as well as an elasticated pen loop.

There is also the full height vertical slip pockets, on both sides which is where your notebook or planner covers slide in to.

One other feature of the design of this Codex is the square rather than rounded corners on the cover.

As a special honour Petra also included the Van der Spek logo on the inside of the cover.

The Quo Vadis Daily 21 is a perfect fit. I tend to only insert the rear cover because it is quite a bulky journal, being a day per page format. The front vertical pocket is then free to be used for any paper ephemera I come across during the year that I want to save.

This is my Quo Vadis Daily 21 – 2020 edition, ready for the new year.

I omitted having book marks in the Codex because the Daily 21 has one bound in to the spine of the journal.

I really like the contrast between the black leather and the red stitching, shown here on the clasp attachment to the rear of the cover.

My Lamy Logo fountain pen fits the pen loop perfectly.

This in the format of the Daily 21, it is fairly simple. I don’t fill all of the page every day, but it gives me plenty of space to jot in details of what I’ve been doing each day. I’ve been using this format since about 2013. I wrote a review about this planner on Plannerisms.

Thank you to Petra Van der Spek and the team at Van der Spek for making this excellent cover for me to use next year. I’m really looking forward to trying it out and using it every day.

For more information about Van der Spek and their full range of products visit their website, please see the links below.

Web Site: http://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
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