Tag Archives: Van der Spek

Van der Spek A5 Codex

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/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

Special Announcement – Van der Spek

This is a very special announcement from Petra Van der Spek…….

I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating Petra and her partner Leon who have announced that they are expecting a baby (pictured above!) and also wish Petra good health for the coming weeks/months until the baby arrives.

To celebrate this ‘event’, Petra is giving everyone who orders on the Van der Spek website a 15% discount for the 24 hour period from 10:00 CEST on 2 August 2017 until 10:00 CEST on 3rd August 2017.

The 15% discount is for all orders, which will then be subject to the usual VAT (if you are in Europe) and shipping at the normal rates. (See the website for details.) Use the code 15weeks when finalising your order to claim the discount.

Go to the Van der Spek website and explore their full range of leather organisers, travellers notebook covers, bound planner covers and other accessories too.

Van der Spek Nomad – Wallet Accessory

The Van der Spek Nomad was launched in March 2015 as a custom designed travellers notebook available in a large range of colours, leathers, designs and sizes. In June 2016 it was also launched in the Touch Me range of leathers pre-made for Van der Spek.

The custom models are all manufactured from the best quality leathers by their own in house team of leather artisans.

Van der Spek Touch Me Nomad

Van der Spek Custom Nomad

These are in the standard size of TN that take booklets and other accessories for the 210 x 110 mm size. I’m sure you have seen these plastic inserts available on Ebay, Amazon, Etsy and other on-line sources.

These are ok, but after a time the plastic becomes brittle and can split potentially losing the contents.

So I sat down with the Van der Spek team this last week and I worked closely with Petra and her father to try and come up with something that would give similar functionality to these types of inserts, but they would work with the Van der Spek designs, they would be of higher quality, more durable and be affordable to buy.

They agreed that a custom leather design would be great and we sat around the table sharing ideas and bouncing ideas off each other. Finally we came up with a simple design that will thread on to one of the vertical elastics. of the Nomad or any other similar Travellers Notebook.

We agreed that this Wallet Accessory could be fitted to existing Nomads, as well as being able to be ordered with new Nomad orders in matching leather to your Custom Nomad. Additionally the Touch Me colour leathers are available so these could be used for the Touch Me range of Nomads too.

This being Van der Spek we came up with a variety of available options.

So at the base you can have a simple zip pocket insert.

We also had another prototype made with a zip pocket on one side, and 10 credit cards on the reverse side with a slip pocket as well.

However, if the configurations shown above aren’t to you liking, please email Petra at Van der Spek and I’m sure she will be able to give you an idea of the cost of your custom configuration.

Here are some close ups of the tabs top and bottom that the elastics thread through and therefore they are easy to insert and remove if you wish to use it in another TN, or to carry it separately.