Editing The Pen Addict 239/transcript (section)

== Paperboy London ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' I want to talk about something cool. All right. This is a new paper brand emanating from my hometown.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Paperboy London is the name of the brand. And what I love about them designed in London, pressed in England. This is not something I get to talk about. Right. There are not a lot of companies that create a brand around being proud to be made in England. Made in America is all over everything. Right. We mean you have had this conversation in the past. Yeah. But this is a notebook brand that is being made here. Now, the company behind this is Paperboy London is the brand, but it's owned by a company called Jolly Awesome. And Jolly Awesome make incredible greetings cards. My connection to this company is that when I worked in the bank, I worked with the guy behind this, Matt. He was like an artist and a graphic designer. And he started creating greetings cards whilst he was still working at the bank alongside me. Oh, really? And he left to start his company. And he is part of the reason that I left. Because he did it. So he went out and did it. And his cards are a huge deal. They're sold all over the world in big high street stores. There's a couple of chains here in the UK that carry them. I know that he does them in the US. He sells stuff at trade shows. He does pop-up shops. Jolly Awesome is a big deal. And he's wanted to make notebooks for a while. And me and him were chatting about this. And he's come out with this stuff, which is incredible. So he sent me some stuff. He sent me some pre-production notebooks and some production versions. And I am so impressed. Because I have never seen notebooks like this before. They are bold. And they are bright. And they are colorful. And he was talking to me. We were chatting about paper. And he put a lot of work. I can't say for sure where the paper is sourced. But he told me a company he was working with. And the company that he was working with is an incredibly well-established paper company in the UK. With an international heritage. I don't know if he was just working with them to find out what paper to go with. Or if he's using their paper. Like I don't want to say that. But the paper is really good. I asked Matt if he could kind of give me the lay of the land of the paper. And what the production is. And he told me the inner is a 120 GSM white offset. And then the covers have a special matte lamination waxed over the print. So that they age without cracking. Because the covers are amazing. They're like, that's my favorite thing about these. Like I've never seen notebooks like this before.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, these look really cool. I love the designs.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I'd be interested to try. Like what size notebooks are they? Are they? A5. Okay, yeah, they look bigger. So that's a good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, they're A5. And I believe they're also. Yeah, they also have some pocket notebooks. Some of them that have googly eyes on the cover. I don't have those. But I do have the A5 notebooks. They're a great size.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I like the spray. The spray notebooks. I like those. Oh, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' They're really sweet looking. So I have the spray. And my favorite though is the Nothing Came Easy. Yes, it's this like fracture monochrome. And it's got foil stamping. Oh, cool. The Nothing Came Easy. And then it's foil stamped with the Paperboy logo on the back. I also love that brand name. Yeah, that's a good name.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So he's doing this. He's doing this stuff. Like he's making these notebooks. Like this is his company. He's making notebooks. And he's stretching his legs in print technologies. Doing kind of off the wall things. And putting them out on these books. And the results look fantastic.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So what I love about it is it's bold designs. Like, but it's his first designs on notebooks, right? It's like this just coming out of the gate with something different. And the paper. So I've used a variety of pens in the paper. It feels good. It's nice and smooth. I've used a bunch of fountain pens. It was feathering a little and bleeding a little on some of my broader and crazier nibs. But nothing I wouldn't have expected, honestly. Because like this isn't like the paper that's intended to be made for the types of pens that I was using. Right? Like there is like very specific type of paper that you want to use if you're using a music nib. Yes. Right? Like if you want no bleed or feathering from a music nib, well, you need to buy something specific for that. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You need to shop appropriately.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. So like all of my mediums, some of my broads, and obviously all the ballpoints I'm using, it will work perfectly. No bleeding. Like I was worried about the paper, right? Just from my requirements. Sure. Which is why I asked him up front before he sent them to me. Like I'm just interested, what are you using? And what he was telling me was good and then the results have come out really great as well. Like, you know, because we have this all the time. It's like so many people love barren fig paper because it works really well. But I can't stand it because I find the bleed to be too much. Right. Right? But it's like, because I have like quirky requirements for a lot of my stuff. Yes. You know? Yeah. And, you know, obviously Field Notes doesn't work perfectly with all fountain pens, but I just let go of that most of the time. Yeah. Because I love the designs. But I think that what Matt has been able to create here is kind of incredible for a first try. Like, I'm very, very impressed with what he's been able to do. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. These look nice. And I'm going to say one thing and I don't mean it as a negative, but it's something that comes up. Like the first thought popped in my head, like nothing came easy. And what's the other one? Rise and Shine looks straight out of the Nike catalog. Like, I don't know if it's the same font or the same angle. It's very similar. It's very similar. It's like, like if you saw this at a Nike store, you would think like that's the perfect Nike notebook. Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I believe he's using Futuro Bold. I believe like just from my eyes, which is what I use for my vlogs, funnily enough, which is kind of weird. We both kind of gravitated to all this bold italic. But yeah, it does look like Nike. Yeah. Which is good.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, it's cool.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's a cool, clean look. I'm a huge Nike fan. Like a lot of his stuff, I think, you know, you could see it there. I completely agree. Like some of these notebooks, you could put them in a Nike store and it would work.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Which I think is a good thing. Like today. Yeah. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I'm saying it. Like I didn't want to sound that as a negative. I'm just saying that's how nice these look. It looks like Nike, like marketing material, like high ends. Someone put a lot of time and effort into this kind of stuff stuff. So yeah, it looks great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But they have an attitude that I usually don't get from my paper products. You know, like there is just like a young, fresh attitude that we usually don't get. Right. That's why I'm pretty impressed of it all. So I recommend people go and check it out. The website is paperboy.london. This stuff is, you can order it now. I think it's shipping now or very soon. But the store is open. It's available. I think especially if you live in the UK, give this a shot. And the reason I'm saying this is because I just think that I think it's important that we try and have some homegrown talent here. Yeah. You know, because it bothers me sometimes that everything that we talk about comes from the States. Yeah. I can understand that. You know, and that I even have an affinity for made in America for some weird reason.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's why I do talk about the Ajoto guys from time to time because that's all British made product. And it's amazing. And the guys that run it are fantastic. And, you know, anywhere, you know, wants to be proud of the things that come from their locale. I think it's a big deal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And so I will also use this opportunity again to give another plug for Tessa's The Stationer. Absolutely. The Dash Stationer.co.uk because she's adding more and more incredible stuff. And it's another, like, boutique store based in England. Right. Which I'm excited about. So I will also now put out a call for if you know of a company that's based in the UK, that is based in England, I would say England maybe, especially because that's where I'm from. I would love to know about them. So please send in your recommendations to me because I'm just, now that I've seen, like, these two brands from people that I really adore, I am becoming increasingly aware of our US focus. And it doesn't need to be that way because I'm not there. I'm here. So I want to know more because I know that we have an international audience as well. So I want to try and cater to that a little bit more. But please go and check out Matt's products because he is a lovely person who makes super cool stuff. And go to Jolly Awesome as well because his greetings cards are freaking hilarious. They are so good. Like, they're just so good. And he also does, like, prints and stuff. I actually need to get some prints from him. So, yeah, go check out jollyawesome.com. The guy knows branding. Like, if there's one thing, his company names are just totally on point.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yep. He's got it going on. Good for him.

'''Myke Hurley:''' All right. So that wraps it up for today. A real grab bag. I love the grab bags, though. I do, too. My favorite types of episodes. If you want to find our show notes for this week, head on over to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 239. Of course, there is a plethora of links in there for you to go and check out. I want to take a moment, again, to thank Blue Apron and Squarespace for their support of this week's episode. If you want to find Brad online, he is over at thepenaddict.com and knock.co as well. And he is at dowdyism on Twitter and penaddict on Instagram. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]