Black Moroccan Bold

The timeless beauty of an antique leather journal is brought into the present on the cover of this intricately embellished, leather-like cover.

For our Black Moroccan design we were inspired by one of the softest, most pliable forms of leather. Since the late 16th century, fine Moroccan leather has been valued for use in luxury bookbindings due to its strength and ability to show off gilding.

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. 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.

For this special Black Moroccan Bold design, we’ve stripped things down even further by removing the gold frame. With this, we’ve come full circle to truly highlighting what inspired us in the first place – the inimitable look of a leather book cover.