Personalising your journal or binder ~ Part 1: Text.

We like to think that what sets us apart here at Earthworks is our ability to personalise your journal with text. We’ve been hand tooling text into leather for many years and, without wishing to blow our own collective trumpet, we think we’re quite good at it now.

Blind tooling on a Dark Brown Journal

When we first started out we had a number of options open to us.

We could use sets of metal alphabet stamps to add text, but even if we purchased shelves and shelves full of expensive sets then we would still be restricted in the sizes and font styles we could do.

We could do gold leaf, but we remember the bad old days of the 1980s when everyone seemed to own a cheap leatherette notebook with gold initials emblazoned on it. To be honest, this was never an option for us, we wanted something that would complement the leather and not something that glared out from it.

So, we decided on blind tooling by hand. Although this method is arguably the hardest to do well, once mastered it is the most versatile. The way we add text is simplicity itself (theoretically!), using a variety of tools we indent the letters into the leather, effectively ‘writing’ each character by hand. This means that we can add most font styles in most sizes and all we need are a small selection of tools, a steady hand and a good eye for detail. More importantly for the customer, it’s very cost effective which means that we’re happy to offer up to five letters free of charge and more text at quite a reasonable price.

I know what you’re all thinking at this point…

What would I get for free?

We’re happy to tool up to five letters on your journal or binder at no extra cost. This can be your initials or perhaps your name, or any other text you would like. We will always tool the text in a font and size that we think suits the item best.

If you have one of our Plain Classic Journals or Binders then we will place the text in the bottom right corner of the front cover. If you have initials then we will usually (but not always) use our standard capitalised font, like this:

Initials on a Brown Journal

Initials on a Dark Brown Ringbinder

Initials on Black Ringbinder

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or if you have a name then we usually (but not always) use our more informal font, like this:

Name on a Brown Journal

Name on a Brown Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have one of our journals with a carved design on the front cover then we use the same fonts as on the Plain Classics but we will usually (but not always) place initials in the middle of the back cover and longer names at the bottom of the back cover, like this:

Initials on the back cover of a Brown Journal

Initials on the back cover of a Black Journal

Name on the back cover of a Brown Ringbinder

 

Of course, if you would prefer to have your text in a different font or in a different place on your cover then we’re always happy to help out when we can and we’ll probably still do it free of charge for you. Just let us know the font you would like and where you would like it.

We cannot add text to the covers of our wraparound journals as we make these from a much suppler leather (so that it wraps around!) but we can still personalise these free of charge by printing text onto the first page inside, so it’s the first thing you see when you open the journal. But that’s another blog post for another day. Let’s stick to the Plain Classics and Carved Journals & Binders for now.

But what if I want more text?

That’s no problem at all, we can do that for you but we may have to charge you a little extra. If you need just one or two letters over the allotted five then we’ll probably still do it free of charge (don’t tell anyone though, it’ll be our little secret). But you can also have as much as text as you would like, just as long as we can physically fit it onto the cover of your journal. You can have your whole name, your business name, a dedication, a poem…any text at all. We can even do it in a different language if you like, if you provide the words then we’ll tool it for you.

And, just like with the initials, we can add your text in a variety of fonts so don’t be afraid to ask if you want something a little different. We send each customer a proof of the cover layout for approval each time we’re asked for extra text so you can be sure you’ll get exactly what you want.

Here are some examples:

Title Bar on Brown Ringbinder

Title bar on Black Journal

Text on Dark Brown Ringbinder

 

 

Dark Brown Wedding Guestbook

Dark Brown Wedding Ringbinder

Personal message on back cover of Brown Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem on Brown Journal

Poem on Black Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t think that if you have text then you just have to have text! We can incorporate your words with one of our designs, like this:

Text with Skull & X-Bones

Text with Triquetra Binder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text with Acanthus Leaf Journal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or we can even incorporate your own words with your own design, so company logos are no problem:

The Bolthole Hotel

Guy Mallinson Crafty Camping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ticklers Bow Tie Company

CV Mercedes

 

And there we have it, the words don’t just go on the inside of the journals!!

If you’ve read through this and it’s given you any ideas then we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch and we’ll happily give you a price for your text and discuss the details so that you can can get the perfect cover.