Search results for ""author paperblanks""

In his Spring painting (1894), Lawrence Alma-Tadema represented the Victorian custom of sending children to collect flowers on the morning of May 1, or May Day. By placing the scene in ancient Rome, he suggested the festival’s great antiquity through architectural details, dress, sculpture and musical instruments based on Roman originals. Alma-Tadema’s curiosity about the ancient world was insatiable, and he incorporated his knowledge into over 300 paintings of ancient archaeological and architectural design. In later years, his large panoramic depictions of Greek and Roman life caught the attention of Hollywood. The set design of certain scenes in Cecil B. DeMille’s film Cleopatra (1934) was inspired by this painting. We are honoured to feature a detail from Spring as part of our collaborative The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.  

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This design pays tribute to an 18th-century binding that housed the Khamsa, a seminal work by Persian Sunni Muslim poet Nizami Ganjavi (c. 1141–1209). Featuring intricate floral detail, our Layla cover design beautifully mirrors the contents of the original volume. Considered the greatest romantic poet in Persian literature and described as a “creator of poetic scenes,” Nizami brought a colloquial and otherworldly quality to the Persian epic. His best-known work, the Khamsa (also known in English as the Five Treasures), is a series of five long narrative poems. The first of these, Makhzan-ol-Asrâr, was influenced by Sanai Ghaznavi’s The Walled Garden of Truth, an early Sufi book of mystical poetry. The four other poems are medieval romances. His tragic story of star-crossed lovers Layla and Majnun has famously inspired many contemporary artists with its theme of unrequited love. The delicately adorned cover of this Layla journal, the second title in our Pe

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Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), a Spanish architect from Catalonia, was one of the greatest pioneers of 19th-century architecture. Gaudí’s works have a highly individualized style, defined by his unique compositions, organic shapes and kaleidoscopic designs. They transcend not only mainstream Modernism, but traditional art forms. Perhaps Gaudí’s most-loved contribution to his city of Barcelona is Park Güell, a vibrant garden filled with his art. Reproduced here is a section of a mosaic sun on the ceiling of the park’s Hypostyle Room, alongside the abstract lines from his chimney pots at the Casa Milà building. Gaudí’s last work of civic architecture, Casa Milà (also known as La Pedrera) represented a break with the conventions of his day, designed as a totally undulating building with a beating heart like a living being. Gaudí’s fascination with the geometry of nature stemmed from his deep religious dev

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Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), a Spanish architect from Catalonia, was one of the greatest pioneers of 19th-century architecture. Gaudí’s works have a highly individualized style, defined by his unique compositions, organic shapes and kaleidoscopic designs. They transcend not only mainstream Modernism, but traditional art forms. Perhaps Gaudí’s most-loved contribution to his city of Barcelona is Park Güell, a vibrant garden filled with his art. Reproduced here is a section of a mosaic sun on the ceiling of the park’s Hypostyle Room, alongside the abstract lines from his chimney pots at the Casa Milà building. Gaudí’s last work of civic architecture, Casa Milà (also known as La Pedrera) represented a break with the conventions of his day, designed as a totally undulating building with a beating heart like a living being. Gaudí’s fascination with the geometry of nature stemmed from his deep religious dev

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Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were pioneers in the field of folklore, collecting stories through Germany’s rich oral tradition in order to preserve a history that might otherwise have been lost forever. In doing so, they popularized some of today’s most enduring fairy tales. “The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry” was the first tale in the 1812 edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen). It tells the story of a spoiled princess who reluctantly befriends a frog who, unbeknownst to her, is actually a prince under a sorcerer’s spell. In the original tale, the curse is lifted when the princess throws the frog against a brick wall in anger, but in later years the Brothers Grimm sanitized the story, turning it into the tale we know today. The Grimms’ impact was so profound that it is hard to imagine a world without these stories as they continue to be passed down through generations. We are honoured to reproduce this manuscript from the Bodmer

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Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was a Spanish architect who was known as a leading figure in Modernism and the pioneer of Catalan Art Nouveau. Gaudí’s work was greatly influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature and religion. His exceptional style is characterized by the depiction of organic forms, abstract lines and extraordinary mosaics. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans of his works, instead preferring to create them as three-dimensional scale models and moulding the details as he conceived them. As such he left very few written documents, and many of those he did leave were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War riots. Reproduced here is the Manuscrito de Reus (Manuscript of Reus), the only remaining written document of Gaudí’s. The notebook, which is a collection of his diverse impressions of architecture, is now kept at Reus Museum in his native Catalonia. Further embellishing our cover are Gaudí’s incredible mosaics

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New York City is home to an endless number of famed landmarks and tourist attractions, including the eye-catching skyscrapers that punctuate the city skyline.Described in an original brochure as the “mise en scène for the romantic drama of American business,” one such tower is the Chanin Building. This midtown Manhattan landmark was built by developer Irwin S. Chanin in the late 1920s and its magnificent lobby is a major draw for architecture aficionados. Ornately adorned with bronze grilles representing some of the finest Art Deco in the city, the lobby was modernly styled around a “City of Opportunity” concept. One of these ventilator grilles, with loops, spirals and geometric lines symbolizing human thought and emotion, is reproduced here.The Chanin Building’s exuberant craftsmanship led it to be designated a city landmark in 1978 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Its uniquely New York City take on the Art Deco style is just one of many reasons to pay attention to the architectural achievements lining the city’s streets.

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Showcasing silk dyed with beni (the pigment extracted from safflower petals) and lacquered in gold, this kimono design dates to the Edo period (1615–1868), when it was used as a costume for the theatrical style known as Noh. Karaori refers specifically to the exquisitely embroidered woman’s kimono that traditional Noh theatre was known for.

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Let a swirl of turquoise amid gilt embellishment inspire you to write your chronicles. This cover design is based on a binding originally published by Salel Binder in Paris in 1514. The tome, Chroniques, was created at a time when books were evolving and binders were using smaller formats that were easier to bind. Pasteboards replaced wood covers and gold tooling grew in popularity.The exuberance of the Chroniques design reflects the sheer splendour of the Renaissance approach to decoration that influenced architecture, art and all facets of cultural life. In the glittering green-blue of this cover you may well see the intricacies of your own stories or the infinite possibilities of the written word. At minimum, we hope that Turquoise Chronicles will make you think of Paris, which has for centuries been a centre for art and publishing and a beacon of culture.

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William Morris (1834–1896), one of the most celebrated practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement, created woven and printed textile designs using the ancient technique of hand woodblock printing. As seen on this Paperblanks Morris Windrush softcover Flexi notebook, his evocations of the natural world, with their depth of tone and magical gradation of tints, have become design classics.

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Paperblanks Gold Inlay journal cover reproduces a “Stil der Neorenaissance” (neo-Renaissance style) design popular in 19th-century Germany. The original binding, composed of solid metal, was covered in a fine layer of gold which was then meticulously engraved by skilled craftsmen. Bindings like this were highly valued and were frequently adorned with silk, cloisonné enamels or precious stones.

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For over a century, the Cockerell and Son Bindery represented a tradition of the highest quality bookmaking. It remains especially celebrated for their unique style of paper marbling, developed by the late Sydney (Sandy) M. Cockerell. He took the painstaking tradition of handmade marbled papers and found a way to produce the strikingly complex designs at high speeds and volumes. We have reproduced one of these iconic marbled papers here.

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Legend has it that hanging a Bird of Happiness in one s home will bring health and happiness. Artist Nadezhda Sokolova has taken inspiration from this classic tale of Russian folklore with this Firebird design. Using her unique style of batik painting on silk, Sokolova captures the warmth and optimism of these wood chip birds.

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The dramatic art tradition of opera traces its roots to the earliest periods of ancient China. During the Tang Dynasty (618 907), the Emperor Taizong founded an opera school called Liyuan (Pear Garden). Chinese opera reached its pinnacle under the Qing court (1644 1911), giving birth to what is known as Peking Opera. Reproduced for this cover is a piece of beautifully embroidered opera skirt from that era.

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Azulejos are painted, glazed ceramic tiles that date back to 13th-century Portugal. Today, we see these decorative tiles across a wide range of buildings, from monasteries and palaces to railway stations, restaurants and family homes. The design on the tiles commonly related to the building s unique history, and the individual pieces often end up forming an elaborate mosaic. The design seen here is pulled from the traditional tiles gracing the fa ades of a variety of old houses in Porto, Portugal.

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The eternal appeal of a classic floral design is captured in the work of Irish illustrator William Kilburn (1745 1818). The artist behind William Curtis Flora Londinensis, a comprehensive book on 18th-century English botany, Kilburn was also a leading designer and printer of calico. With winding twigs, colourful petals and undulating seaweed, Kilburn s unique ability to blend local flora with exotic plants is on full display in this design.

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With pages displaying astounding plays of naturalistic illusionism, the luxurious personal prayer book known as the Spinola Hours is one of the most visually sophisticated Flemish manuscripts of the 16th century. A book of hours contains a calendar of Church holidays, the Hours of the Virgin (a cycle of prayer services devoted to the Virgin Mary), the Office for the Dead and other prayers, hymns and readings, all richly illuminated as seen in the page reproduced here.

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The eternal appeal of a classic floral design is captured in the work of Irish illustrator William Kilburn (1745 1818). The artist behind William Curtis Flora Londinensis, a comprehensive book on 18th-century English botany, Kilburn was also a leading designer and printer of calico. With winding twigs, colourful petals and undulating seaweed, Kilburn s unique ability to blend local flora with exotic plants is on full display in this design.

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Luxuriate in the brass and regal blue tones of this Blue Luxe cover design. The original book, crafted in the heart of Amsterdam in 1715, was bound in goatskin with elaborate gold tooling. Contained inside the volume was the Oratio Dominica (Lord s Prayer) in almost 150 languages and dialects, compiled by English courtier John Chamberlayne, creating a document of global appeal.

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More sumptuous than even the finest arrangement, our Van Huysum journal cover is based on a painting by Jan van Huysum (1682–1749). Van Huysum is perhaps the greatest master of that most revered subject in the Dutch artistic canon: the flower. A seduction of the eye and a jolt of passion for the soul, this still life is anything but static.

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This blue and gold Paperblanks Equinoxe Azure journal reproduces a 1688 binding protecting L’office de la Semaine Sainte. The original binding was adorned “à la fanfare,” a handtooled pattern edged in gilt. “Fanfare,” which was a style popular in the seventeenth century, required tremendous skill on the part of the bookbinder and was reserved for books of great importance.

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Laurel Burch was a self-taught artist and “flower child” who sold handmade jewellery on the streets of San Francisco in the 1960s and continued to rely on her intuition and passion to create vibrant images of whimsy and allure with paint and paper. Brilliantly coloured and exquisitely embellished in blues and purples, one such creation is portrayed on Paperblanks Blue Cats & Butterflies journal.

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This captivating image comes from Andrew Lang’s The Olive Fairy Book. Compiled in 1907 by the Scottish poet and anthropologist Andrew Lang, illustrated by Henry Justice Ford and published under the editorial direction of Lang’s wife, Leonora Alleyne, the book was one in a twelve-part series known as Lang’s Fairy Books (or Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books of Many Colours). Upon publication, the books were a sensation among British schoolchildren and were sold all around the world. Each book in the series was named for the colour of its fairy, and this Olive Fairy design reproduces the front cover of that book’s first edition.

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Unheralded wildflowers and weeds are given a voice in our Vox Botanica series, featuring the work of celebrated Art Nouveau illustrator Anton Seder.Seder (1850–1916) was a designer, art professor and eventual Director of the noted Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine. With the region at that time hotly contested by both France and Germany, the art scene that arose offered a unique marriage of cultures. Influences from both countries, along with Victorian, Baroque and even Japanese woodblock elements, can thus be seen in Seder’s work.This particular piece, originally chromolithograph on paper, comes from one of his best-known works, Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe, or The Plant in Art and Trade. Published in Vienna in 1890, it offers two volumes of stunning prints gracefully depicting elements of nature. Seder’s harmonious use of space, plethora of details and candid depiction of natural elements drew us to this piece. With this series, we herald Seder’s unique voice and vision for his plants in a new era of art and trade.

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Unheralded wildflowers and weeds are given a voice in our Vox Botanica series, featuring the work of celebrated Art Nouveau illustrator Anton Seder (1850–1916).This particular piece, originally chromolithograph on paper, comes from one of his best-known works, Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe, or The Plant in Art and Trade. Published in Vienna in 1890, it offers two volumes of stunning prints gracefully depicting elements of nature. Seder’s harmonious use of space, plethora of details and candid depiction of natural elements drew us to this piece. With this series, we herald Seder’s unique voice and vision for his plants in a new era of art and trade.

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This stately gold-tooled design comes from a unique 1990s binding crafted by book conservator Scott Husby, who pulled together fragments from the early 1800s to create a beautiful new cover for this copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Originally published in 1623 in London and containing 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (known as the First Folio) is one of the most influential books ever published. It is the only reliable text for nearly 20 of Shakespeare’s plays, 18 of which had previously never been printed, including The Tempest and Twelfth Night.Today, there are only 235 surviving copies, from approximately 750 printed. Due to its influence and scarcity, the First Folio is one of the most valuable printed books in the world, with one being sold at auction in 2001 for over $6 million. The Folger Shakespeare Library itself holds 82 copies of the First Folio in their collection. We are honoured to introduce this beautiful and unique binding as our first reproduction from the Library’s unparalleled collection.

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William Morris (1834–1896) was one of the most celebrated practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement. In creating woven and printed textile patterns Morris chose to work with the ancient technique of hand woodblock printing, finding inspiration for his famous repeating patterns in the natural world around him: “millefleurs” tapestries and early prints of herbs as well as the crispness and abundance of exquisite detail in medieval art. His evocations of antique florals and plants in all their profusion, depth of tone and magical gradation of tints have become design classics gracing the decorative arts, including our book cover.

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William Morris (1834–1896) was one of the most celebrated practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement. In creating woven and printed textile patterns Morris chose to work with the ancient technique of hand woodblock printing, finding inspiration for his famous repeating patterns in the natural world around him: “millefleurs” tapestries and early prints of herbs as well as the crispness and abundance of exquisite detail in medieval art. His evocations of antique florals and plants in all their profusion, depth of tone and magical gradation of tints have become design classics gracing the decorative arts, including our book cover.

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This striking Art Deco design comes from the British bookbinder Sybil Pye (1879–1959), heralded as one of the top female artisans of her time.Self-taught, Pye began producing her first works in the early 1900s using naturally coloured leather, before graduating to multi-coloured panels. By 1934 she was creating complex covers of up to six different inlays, and her work was regularly exhibited throughout England and around the world.This particular design was crafted to hold a collection of William Wordsworth’s poems illustrated by Pye’s lifelong friend Thomas Sturge Moore. Though we can’t be sure that Pye intended to evoke the image of a lion’s majestic head with this cover, the possibility offers an interesting connection between the binding and its original contents, as one of Wordsworth’s poems is titled “Picture of Daniel in the Lions’ Den, at Hamilton Place.”One of the youngest pre–First World War women binders, Pye was the only binder in England who specialized in inlaid leather bindings. With this series, we pay tribute to a pioneering woman in the art of book design.

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Unheralded wildflowers and weeds are given a voice in our Vox Botanica series, featuring the work of celebrated Art Nouveau illustrator Anton Seder.Seder (1850–1916) was a designer, art professor and eventual Director of the noted Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine. With the region at that time hotly contested by both France and Germany, the art scene that arose offered a unique marriage of cultures. Influences from both countries, along with Victorian, Baroque and even Japanese woodblock elements, can thus be seen in Seder’s work.This particular piece, originally chromolithograph on paper, comes from one of his best-known works, Die Pflanze in Kunst und Gewerbe, or The Plant in Art and Trade. Published in Vienna in 1890, it offers two volumes of stunning prints gracefully depicting elements of nature. Seder’s harmonious use of space, plethora of details and candid depiction of natural elements drew us to this piece. With this series, we herald Seder’s unique voice and vision for his plants in a new era of art and trade.

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This beautiful jewel-toned purple and gold design is a shining star of bookbinding history.Originally crafted from red morocco leather with intricate filigree and golden pointellé, the binding has been in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) since the Second Empire (1865–1870). It was designed by an unknown Parisian atelier to hold the Pars Hiemalis (or, winter) section of the Parisian Brevarium, a book that dictated the liturgical rites of the Catholic Church throughout the church year.The binding’s contents were printed in 1645 by S. and G. Cramoisy, one of the first secular workshops given authority to print liturgical works for the Catholic Church. However, this manuscript and binding was likely produced for a book collector rather than having been used in service. With such brilliant filigree work, it is easy to see why a noted bibliophile of the era would commission the piece, and why the BnF would so proudly hold it in their collection for the last two centuries.

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This glorious design comes from Sangorski & Sutcliffe, a world-renowned British bindery best known for their bejewelled cover of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.Established in London in 1901, Sangorski & Sutcliffe quickly rose to become one of the 20th century’s most important bookbinders. They were celebrated for their jewelled bindings, like the one reproduced here. Crafted in 1922 to house Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 “Recessional” poem, written for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the original binding incorporated real turquoise, aquamarine and ruby gemstones, alongside medieval-style illumination by Alberto Sangorski and gold tooling by George Sutcliffe.In the late 1980s, Sangorski & Sutcliffe was acquired by Asprey, joining forces with Zaehnsdorf under the SSZ umbrella. But the family name was restored in 1998 when Shepherds Bookbinders bought the company. It is an honour to work with such a luxurious bookbinding and to share the legacy of Sangorski & Sutcliffe with 21st-century stationery lovers and bibliophiles.

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A man as tormented as he was beloved, Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) overcame a life of extraordinary ups and downs to become a world-renowned playwright, author and poet. He stands as one of the most influential writers of the Victorian era.Wilde’s work is fraught with the insights of a man who possessed a deep understanding of both the positives and perils of society. Criticized for what was perceived as an “effeminate nature” and oppressed by a largely homophobic world, Wilde remained resilient. He used his experiences to form brilliant, if controversial, literary works.The comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, a draft of which is reproduced here, was a great success upon opening but saw its run cut short when Wilde was imprisoned for “gross indecency.” This represented one of the first famous celebrity trials but was, sadly, only one of many persecutions of a member of the LGBTQ community for a consensual act. We first released this Embellished Manuscript in 2010, and this season we bring it back in celebration of Wilde’s literary legacy and personal perseverance.

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For over a century, the Cockerell family name represented the highest quality bookmaking. Though no longer in business, the Cockerell and Son Bindery remains celebrated for their unique style of paper marbling, developed by the late Sydney (Sandy) M. Cockerell.Described as a “latter-day Leonardo,” Sandy Cockerell possessed not only an artist’s talents, but a scientist’s mind and engineer’s skill as well. He took the painstaking tradition of handmade marbled papers and found a way to produce the strikingly complex designs at high speeds and volumes. By improving existing equipment and creating his own gadgets and tools when that which he needed did not already exist, Cockerell embraced new mass production techniques.For his contributions to the paper arts, Sandy Cockerell was awarded an OBE and an honourary doctorate from Cambridge. When we launched Paperblanks journals in the early 1990s, a selection of his designs graced some of our first covers. We are honoured to return these iconic marbled papers to our collection with this black, white and red Rubedo design.

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Our Enigma journal is inspired by a cover said to have been designed by Le Gascon, a legendary but little-known 17th-century bookbinder. Le Gascon was the inventor of the "pointillé" and "fanfare" styles, and his influence is felt throughout the rich bookbinding history that follows him.The original cover was made of red morocco leather embossed and gilded with rosettes, spirals and dotted lines. It also featured Le Gascon’s emblematic small compartments which were created by carving ridges into the leather. No matter who created the original binding, our cover pays homage to its consummate artistry and visionary design.

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Tiptoe through the tulips with us as we discover the vibrantly detailed gardens of Gary Grayson’s artistic world.A lifelong artist, Grayson’s affinity for both antique prints and modern graphic design is on display in the digital artworks behind our Nature Montages series. His distinctive style is an eclectic mix of vintage vector, impressionism and pop art – all combined to create a layered and vibrant world. Here, butterflies and birds invite you to explore the garden together, and the bursting blooms bring promises of warm summer days.A native of Arlington, Texas, Grayson takes inspiration from a wide variety of sources. A fan of everything from Puccini to NASCAR, he is an artist who defies the limitations of genre. May his boundless creativity so inspire your own expressions of imagination.

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Let a swirl of turquoise amid gilt embellishment inspire you to write your chronicles. This cover design is based on a binding originally published by Salel Binder in Paris in 1514. The tome, Chroniques, was created at a time when books were evolving and binders were using smaller formats that were easier to bind. Pasteboards replaced wood covers and gold tooling grew in popularity.The exuberance of the Chroniques design reflects the sheer splendour of the Renaissance approach to decoration that influenced architecture, art and all facets of cultural life. In the glittering green-blue of this cover you may well see the intricacies of your own stories or the infinite possibilities of the written word. At minimum, we hope that Turquoise Chronicles will make you think of Paris, which has for centuries been a centre for art and publishing and a beacon of culture.

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Photographer Gérard Degeorge has travelled the world, capturing grand pieces of architectural design through the scope of his lens. We have frequently turned to his celebrated photography collection for previous releases, and return once more for this Moorish Mosaic cover.We first came upon this design while browsing Degeorge’s vast collection of photographic slides, and it immediately reminded us of visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Alhambra is adorned in tile mosaics set around a theme of “paradise on earth.” Though we cannot be absolutely certain where the unique piece of tilework on our cover originates, the geometric pattern, floral design and arabesque setting are all suggestive of the art and architecture styles found in the western Islamic world.Through the centuries, Islamic artists have led the way in inlay artistry, creating intricate and memorable pieces like the one reproduced here. It is our hope that our Moorish Mosaic will transport you to an earthly paradise.

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Vincent van Gogh was one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionist painters, though he experienced much turmoil in his personal life. After admitting himself to the Saint-Paul Asylum following a severe mental health crisis, Van Gogh began his recuperation by painting the asylum garden, notably its irises. We are honoured to feature this seminal painting from the J. Paul Getty Museum in our collection.

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Photographer Gérard Degeorge has travelled the world, capturing grand pieces of architectural design through the scope of his lens. We have frequently turned to his celebrated photography collection for previous releases, and return once more for this Moorish Mosaic cover.We first came upon this design while browsing Degeorge’s vast collection of photographic slides, and it immediately reminded us of visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Alhambra is adorned in tile mosaics set around a theme of “paradise on earth.” Though we cannot be absolutely certain where the unique piece of tilework on our cover originates, the geometric pattern, floral design and arabesque setting are all suggestive of the art and architecture styles found in the western Islamic world.Through the centuries, Islamic artists have led the way in inlay artistry, creating intricate and memorable pieces like the one reproduced here. It is our hope that our Moorish Mosaic will transport you to an earthly paradise.

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Our Safavid Indigo design reproduces a leather filigree pattern incorporating handtooled motifs, retaining the elegance and style of the Islamic Golden Age even in our modern context. Originally released in a classic brown leather look, this new deep blue colour scheme pays tribute to the darkest tone of Persian Blue.

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This lovely, organic pattern comes from the illustrious carpet-making traditions of the Moldavian people. The earliest known Moldavian carpets can be dated to the late 18th century, though archaeological findings suggest the craft tradition goes back to the 14th- and 15th-century weaving mills of the Moldavian countryside. By mixing ideals of beauty and harmony with folk mysticism and mythology, Moldavian craftspeople elevate everyday carpets to works of spiritual and cultural expression. This particular design comes from a contemporary rug manufacturer, Floare Carpet, who design their floor coverings in the traditional ways.

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Ancient spiritual practices meet modern digital art in this kaleidoscopic journal cover featuring the work of Android Jones. His art asks the viewer to focus on the potential for awakening, the power of the ancient third eye and the early reverberations of the time that lies before us.With colours at once psychedelic and hyper-modern, and imagery that combines Eastern iconography and a cutting-edge science fiction aesthetic, Jones is an artist who draws on old traditions and those yet to be born. Jones calls himself a digital painter and is renowned for his multidimensional, spiritually driven art and performances and the expanded states of consciousness they evoke. Whether one fancies him a shaman of pop art or a practitioner of electro-mineralism, at the centre of his art is a sense of untapped potential and limitless imagination.With this journal, we invite to you to push the boundaries of perception and awaken to the possibilities of your own third eye.

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Published in 1969, Maya Angelou’s coming-of-age memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was an immediate national bestseller and a critical success. The book, the first in a series that chronicled her early life through the 1960s, helped to establish Angelou (1928–2014) as a major figure in American letters.On this manuscript page from the book, Angelou captures the moment when she and her brother, Bailey, arrived in Arkansas to be raised by their paternal grandmother and presages the personalities that she and Bailey would later develop. Today the manuscript is held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a part of The New York Public Library.With connections to activist, literary and expat communities in the United States and Ghana, Angelou’s work encapsulates the Schomburg Center’s strongest holdings – stories of the struggles, triumphs and fortitude in the everyday vicissitudes of Black life. We are honoured to partner with The New York Public Library to bring this fascinating document to our Paperblanks collection.

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During the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the Emperor Taizong founded an opera school called Liyuan (Pear Garden). Chinese opera reached its pinnacle under the Qing court (1644–1911), giving birth to what is known as Peking Opera. Reproduced for this colourful hardcover journal is a piece of beautifully embroidered opera skirt from that era.

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Before Dutch still life painting developed, artists illuminated handwritten manuscripts to add emotional power to a written work. A celebrated practitioner of this style was Joris Hoefnagel. Reproduced for our Flemish Rose journal cover is a page he illuminated for the Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a mid-16th-century manuscript by Georg Bocskay.

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New York City’s Chanin Building was built by Irwin S. Chanin in the late 1920s. Representing some of the finest Art Deco in the city, the lobby was styled around a “City of Opportunity” concept. With a geometric design symbolizing human thought and emotion, a bronze ventilator grille from the building is reproduced for this black and gold journal cover.

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Our Blue Velvet softcover Flexi notebook design is inspired by a piece of a 15th-century velvet dalmatic. It is decorated in brocaded gilt metal thread with a seven-lobed shield, an artichoke-like botanical shape and tiny floral patterns. Creating a velvet design such as this would have been a painstaking procedure, making this a luxury fabric during the Renaissance.

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