Midori I remember as the original company that brought us Traveler’s Notebooks (I still have a Midori branded Traveler’s Notebook) but in 2015 Midori spun out their Traveler’s Company brand. Indeed, Midori was the original name with the company starting in 1950 as Midori Shokai Co., Ltd. where it made courier, letter and notebook products (so it hasn't strayed too far from its origin). Today the Midori Brand and the Traveler’s Company brand are subsidiaries of the parent company. The parent company went through many name changes before arriving at Designphil Inc. today and the name is portmanteau of “design” and “philharmony”. Designphil’s other brands are Knox, Plotter, Touch and Flow, Custom Made Letter, Innovator, and Watashi Dayori which all come under it’s “Lifestyle Design Business” (they also have a commercial side to the business where the products are created and branded for specific external companies). Nearly all of these subsidiaries deal with paper stationery products or the leather cases that surround them. In general Designphil’s philosophy seems to be around using traditional techniques and modern techniques of manufacture.

The MD Notebooks come in two types of paper. The MD Paper Cream and MD Paper Cotton. When the MD Paper range was originally created the notebooks were only available with white paper. This was the same paper used with the Midori diaries. Taking standard international I don’t see why a converter wouldn’t fit. There is certainly space for it however none is provided.

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Robert Oster Bondi Blue: This ink is a moderate saturation and moderately wet ink with good lubrication that presents with a low moderate amount of sheen that occurs at the edge of where the ink pools and can show with various degrees of saturation. It can present with decent shading in the right conditions;

I sat down with this notebook and a pen in my hand, expecting to have the same experience as writing in any other Midori MD notebook. Don’t get me wrong… I love the regular notebooks. I use them for my bullet journal and for some of my doodling notebooks. They are fantastic. With that being said, as soon as I started writing on the cotton paper I understood what the big deal is. More recently the Paper Cream version was launched and this is the version I bought. I really loved the paper in this notebook. It’s an off white colour and complements the pale blue grid design in the notebook. It’s a lovely surface to write on, working well with coloured pencils and the Muji gel pens. MD PAPER DESIGN The nib arrived perfect out of the box and needed no flushing or tuning. Its design is very cool: it’s MD branded, has no breather hole, and is on the small size, but it swoops down like a beak, giving a great feeling of precision and control, a little like a Pilot PO nib. Like the PO, it’s a firm writer.The thing is, you don’t buy this paper because it is a high performer. You buy it to write on and to have a luxurious writing experience. Inks still look fantastic on it. Pens still write great on it. I’m sure that if you write with pencils, they’ll feel great on it as well. Bonus points: if you’re not a fan of the slight green tint that regular Midori MD paper has, the cotton is a regular cream color. Conclusion If you just can’t live without a cover for your notebook there are a range of options to be bought separately. These come at different price points. The cheapest is a simple plastic cover. The clear cover allows you to see the minimal design of the notebook, but the plastic is very flimsy. I broke my plastic cover before I had even put it on my notebook. Montblanc Irish Green: This is a drier ink with low moderate saturation that can show with good shading and generally no sheen (apart from on the swatch); If you’re looking for a new notebook I really would give the MD Paper notebook a try. I loved the minimal design, the simple cover is very aesthetically pleasing. As I mentioned it was designed for writing and I enjoyed the experience of using it. MD Paper consists of a range of products owned by Midori. Midori is one of Japan’s most well-known stationery design companies and has been operating since the 1950s. You might recognise Midori as the company who created the Traveller’s Journal range.

The ribbon marker was in the notebook at an odd angle and bent, but eventually straightened out. Actual Use Considering how thin the paper is I didn’t think it would hold up well to wet media. It was surprising to learn that it worked very well. I began experimenting with calligraphy in my bullet journal, using it to create headers for my monthly logs. You can see everything from the converter nipple down to the nib. And I mean everything: the party piece of this pen is the clear feed, so your choice of ink will be very visible (in this case the rather attractive Woolacombe Bay Cult Pens exclusive from Robert Oster).

MD PAPER PRODUCTS

Note: this notebook is the same as the Midori MD Notebook with model number 15003006, except for the paper band design. Midori MD notebooks are very fountain pen friendly and are not very difficult to find. While they don’t show as much sheen as Tomoe River paper, they do show as much as many other high-sheen paper options. Midori MD notebooks are probably one of the most well-rounded options available today thanks to their features, great ink-handling capabilities and decent dry times. Regardless of your needs, you’ll have a hard time finding a better notebook than a Midori MD.