Midnight Steel

When we were first beginning to make Paperblanks journals, we found a piece of William Shakespeare’s handwriting and just knew it could become an inspiring journal cover. Soon we added designs featuring the writing of Ernest Hemingway and Jane Austen and created a series that would become our Embellished Manuscripts Collection. These first covers were minimalist designs with the literary manuscripts written in black ink against beige paper. Eventually, our creative urges started to take over and we sought to play around with the design by adding a gold frame.

Working from a photograph of a small piece of gorgeous gold embellishment, our Art Director created a full frame for the Shakespeare manuscript and highlighted it with a burnt orange background. Of course, our curiosity for what could come next didn’t stop there! By removing the manuscript we immediately saw the possibilities for a design inspired by classic Renaissance leather bindings. And thus, our foundational Old Leather Collection was born.

Since then we have continued to play around with frame shape and background colour, with that initial beige and black design providing the backdrop for some of our most enduringly popular collections. As our Embellished Manuscripts and Old Leather Collections have continued to evolve in terms of background art and closures, we have chosen to go back to our roots for our Old Leather Classics.

Celebrating what it is about Renaissance-style bindings that we have always found so captivating – the rich hues of the dyed leather – we have selected some of our favourite background colours for this collection. Our Midnight Steel cover is inspired by the icy blue-grey tone of our Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars Embellished Manuscript design.