Review: Frank Stationery Dot Grid Journal
When I saw these Frank Stationery Dot Grid journals advertised I was really excited to review these! They were claiming great things – one of the key things for me was the program they have where when you buy a book, you give a book to a school child in need. I love that approach.
About the Journal
On the Frank Stationery Website it is marketed as a “Bullet Journal” , is A5 in size, and is $25NZD and $5nzd shipping so while $30nzd total feels a little high, when I convert my STM or Lemome it ends up being about the same. There is only one colour option, of back with gold foil which I actually really like
In the information section Frank states:
Take this notebook on all your adventures; it’s the trusty side-kick that is made for documenting every day’s happenings.
We will come back to this statement later down the line.
The book is delivered in a basic brown box with the sweetest wee card outlining the book for book program. The cover is a hard cover and I found, without trying very hard got it grubby, and it kept finger prints like crazy! But I really liked the slick black over and gold foil.
When you open the Fran Stationery dot grid journal you will see the continuation of the gold foil. There is no basic information page, or table of contents.
The journal has a back pocket, and elastic closure and 1 ribbon book mark band. No where does it tell you how many pages it has – but my guess – close to 200ish. I wasnt going to go through and count all the pages.
The paper
The paper is touted to be 100gsm thick and an off white colour. I found the color more like that of the Rhodias, almost yellow versus an off white. The pen test was terrible, and would compare the paper with a Moleskine with regards to its level of bleed, ghosting and feathering. I wouldn’t even attempt using watercolor pencils in this journal.
There are no page numbers, but there is the frank branding, which really wasn’t necessary and really just takes up page real estate. What I really found interesting was that interspersed throughout the journal was quotes. Again – if you are an avid bullet journalist – while this might be cute – would become annoying as you would have to plan your spreads around the quotes.
The grid is 0.6mm which is slightly bigger than the standard 0.5mm. There are 19 dots/ 18 squares across and 32 dots/31 squares down. The dots are a dark grey. The bigger grid I think I would need to trial more before passing judgement as I have quite big messy writing so it might actually work for me. But even in saying that, I am pretty used to the normal 0.5mm and its actgually astounding how much difference 0.01mm makes!
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- The Book for book program – I really like that about the business and I liked that my book was going to a child in need. Social Sustainability makes my heart sing.
- The black and gold foil cover is really slick.
- The elastic closure is always great
- Has a back pocket
Cons
- Terrible Ghosting, bleeding and feathering
- No page numbers
- No contents page or info page
- Found the yellow page colour some what distracting
Overall?
Overall I really liked the cover – but I think it would need to be a desk only journal as it would get grubby and finger-printy fast. I think the paper might be made at 100gsm but the quality is that of the Moleskine as the bleeding, ghosting and feathering was pretty bad. So overall if you are looking for a minimalist, work journal, where you wont be using creative items, like anything other than a ball point pen. For the price I still think the Lemome would be a better starter journal with the 120gsm paper and lower price.