If you’ve ever been to Venice, you are probably familiar with the tourist phenomenon of handmade leather journals. I have yet to find a guide book that doesn’t recommend the best “authentic” store in Venice to pick up a handmade leather-bound notebook in which to record your travel adventures. Of course, how a place can truly be authentic when nearly all of its business is due to tourism is beyond me…but I digress.
Regardless, I’ve been to a number of these places while visiting Venice, and never managed to find a journal that suited me. They were all generally on the bulky side, and it’s very difficult to find one smaller than a composition notebook. And while they’re “hand-made,” there’s generally not enough originality to merit the high price. Why am I bringing this up, since we’re definitely not reviewing a handmade Venetian notebook?
Since I started this blog nearly a year ago, I’ve been getting emails about the Ciak line of notebooks. At prices ranging from $15 to $25, the Ciak isn’t exactly a cheap purchase, and a lot of people have wanted to know – is it worth the price? Is the notebook used by V, of V for Vendetta fame, a worthy Moleskine alternative?
The main reason I haven’t featured a Ciak review on Black Cover as of yet is because I’ve come across the notebook in a number of New York City art stores, and I’ve always been underwhelmed. There is something a bit bulky, a bit more “diary” feel to it than “all-purpose notebook.” It’s not that the notebook lacks quality; it’s just that it didn’t fit my paradigm for a good notebook. But now, actually using the notebook for the first time, I realize that I was looking at the Ciak through Moleskine goggles. The Ciak is not a Moleskine; the Ciak is the notebook I wish I could’ve bought in one of those small stores in Venice.
Ciak is actually a company based in Florence that opened shop in 2001. Their products are made entirely in Italy, suggesting a significantly higher level of quality than those that hail from the conveyor belts of Chinese factories (ahemMoleskineahem). What’s more, emblazoned on the back of this particular notebook are the words “Handmade in Italy.” That’s right: handmade. I have NO idea about the accuracy of this statement. The company’s website doesn’t go into any aspects of being handmade, but if it’s at all true, it’s a great selling point.
The notebook we’re reviewing today is the 9cm x 13cm “Piccolo” black pocket notebook – but these dimensions aren’t entirely accurate. A standard Moleskine is 3.5″ x 5.5″; the Ciak measures about 3.9″ x 5.1″ – shorter and wider. Here’s a comparison:
One of the reasons for this is the way the spine of the cover is attached:
As you can see, the spine is unnecessarily rounded away from the pages, one of the few flaws in an otherwise fantastic notebook. While it’s got its stylistic merits, not having the pages attached is a major problem in most of the black notebooks I’ve reviewed. The spine is much more likely to break without the extra support. The cover actually bends far back from the spine when opened, which can be a bit annoying:
But enough of the bad – let’s get back to the good (and there’s a lot of it).
The cover is made of an excellent leather material – a much smoother, richer feel than the Moleskine. It feels durable and firm, yet smooth and flexible. This is a soft cover, but the amount of bend is limited, which is good – you won’t notice this in your back pocket, but you’ll also feel like it’s got some weight when you hold it to write something.
The Ciak also has a rubber band running horizontally around the book. Why? Well, for starters, for those of you looking for a notebook with a way of holding a pen, this is it. Otherwise, it’s purely stylistic – Ciak was definitely going for a distrinctive design with this one. At first, I was critical of this, but it’s definitely grown on me since. Note that the elastic band is thick – more noticable than the flat Moleskine version but perhaps more durable as well.
Opening up the first page, one finds a single blank starter page with a few lines for name, address, or reward info. Perfect, great – doesn’t assume for a second what I want to write on these pages. Ah, simplicity. The pages are firmly attached to the cover, and it doesn’t seem likely that the corners will start to pull up, something that happens on cheaper softcover notebooks.
The Ciak has 96 sheets of very high quality, creamy white paper (they say “ivory”, but it’s a lot less harsh on the eyes than I imagine true ivory paper would be). The lines are very nicely spaced, and begin at the top of the page and go right to the bottom.
Because of the binding system, it’s difficult to get the Ciak to lay flat. This is about as far as it’ll go without applying unnecessary pressure:
You can see how far the cover spine has to bend to accomodate this. It’s sort of disappointing, but more so in terms of an all-purpose notebook that you’d like to drop open easily for quickly jotting down notes. In terms of a diary, or notebook you’d treat with a little more respect, this feels like a measure of quality.
And I guess that’s what this comes down to. The Ciak is, without a doubt, an excellent, top of the line notebook. The quality is lightyears beyond the Moleskine, and it immediately stands out as having its own design and character. And I don’t want to give the impression that this can’t take a beating – as I said, the cover feels far more durable than a Moleskine, even though it’s a soft cover. Ultimately, it’s a higher quality – and more expensive – notebook, and it’s got the feel of being exactly that.
So you might feel you like shouldn’t kicking this thing around, a negative in some people’s view. But every notebook has it’s place, and I can tell you that I’ll definitely be using this one on my upcoming trip to Spain and Italy to keep a journal of my travels. It may not have come from a small Venetian notebook shop, but it feels like it could have.
Company website: CIAK Firenze
Where to buy: $18.50 (via Sam Flax South – thanks to reader Steve!) or $12.99 + $6.00 shipping (Amazon via Moleskine Books – says 3 to 5 weeks shipping, so I’d definitely email before buying)
25 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Jun 9, 2008 at 7:59 am
Sam Flax sells Ciak journals online. Here’s the page from their site.
http://www.samflaxsouth.com/cat-24-1-15/Lined-Journals.htm
2 oranse // Jun 9, 2008 at 11:53 am
Good review, I ordered one .
3 Divid // Jun 9, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I was thinking about ordering a few. The Journal shop in the UK has an action where you can order 3 for the price of 2.
4 GTD Power Links 06-10-08 « Geeks Guide To GTD // Jun 10, 2008 at 7:32 am
[...] Nick Carr reviews the Ciak notebook…Since I started this blog nearly a year ago, I’ve been getting emails about the Ciak line of notebooks. At prices ranging from $15 to $25, the Ciak isn’t exactly a cheap purchase, and a lot of people have wanted to know – is it worth the price? Is the notebook used by V, of V for Vendetta fame, a worthy Moleskine alternative? (via blackcover) [...]
5 Speedmaster // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:18 am
Great review, thanks for the heads-up!
6 Paloma Chaffinch // Jun 10, 2008 at 9:34 am
Ah – at last someone’s reviewed this beautiful notebook. I’ve been using these for some time now although I use the large one (app. 6″ x 8.5″). Divid’s right about the Journal Shop offer in the UK. I recently ordered three for two in different colors.
Two things you didn’t mention – the lovely range of colors (is this a girly thing?) and the fact that you can write in them with anything from a marker pen to my much-loved Lamy (with Noodlers of course) with not a sign of bleed through. Something that Moleskine need to get onto.
7 Through the Filter 06/11/2008 | Welcome to the world of WebedtecH // Jun 11, 2008 at 2:30 am
[...] The Ciak: Handmade in Italy [...]
8 The Cartesio: A Notebook From Florence // Jul 13, 2008 at 3:25 pm
[...] cover is bound by a rounded elastic band, nearly identical to the Ciak’s. I used to be a purist about elastics being of the flat Moleskine variety until I used the Ciak for [...]
9 Nick // Aug 11, 2008 at 7:57 am
A note for UK readers. Paperchase used to have Ciak make them a special edition called the Noto Journal that doesn’t seem any different from this book.
The one I have (haven’t started using it yet) was £7.76 a couple of years ago.
10 Alessandro // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:01 am
I was in Florence the other day, and I found one of these. I had in mind your review, so I checked the price. It was 8 euros, much less than a regular moleskine. It’s beautiful, really beautiful. If it wasn’t for your review I wouldn’t have checked. Thank you.
11 i.noizze — цифровые записки и бумажные заметки » Blog Archive » Bruno Visconti Vincent // Oct 31, 2008 at 3:46 am
[...] наткнулся на конкурента Ciak Journal — Bruno Visconti Vincent. О нем и поговорим [...]
12 tsop // Nov 6, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m now a fan of the Ciak Pocket Notebook (and The Journal Shop).
I just want to repeat Nick’s suggestion above for UK readers: Paperchase has The Noto Journal made by Ciak (£8.50) which is similar to the Ciak Pocket Notebook. The only difference I can see is what’s is embossed on the back of each journal. On the Ciak Pocket it says ‘TEMPO Firenze’ and on the Noto Journal it says ‘Paperchase’.
Hope this helps. Thank you.
13 Japanese Minimalism: The Midori Traveler’s Notebook // Dec 8, 2008 at 9:46 am
[...] me, not really. If I traveled more, maybe, but then, I’m a huge fan of the Ciak, which is basically a smaller, thicker, and more useful version of this. However, that certainly [...]
14 sleepless friday « get tangled up in me // Jan 2, 2009 at 4:15 pm
[...] http://www.blackcover.net/?p=23 [...]
15 Kevin // Jan 21, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Anyone try the Ciak pocket notebook? It’s on the “top rated” section of the journal shop.
16 Lily // Mar 4, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Nitpicking warning:
I’m aware that the post is over a year old, but the nitpicking side of me can’t resist (sorry!). I just watched V again last night: the red medium Ciak made an appearance as Delia Surridge, not V’s journal, an inflammatory document Inspector Finch was duly instructed to disregard as either an elaborate forgery or psychotic ramblings at risk of being persecuted for treason and other terrible, no good things.
/nitpicking.
17 The Ciak Journal « Chronicles of Knitterly Misadventures // Mar 5, 2009 at 3:26 pm
[...] reviews of the journal from Spiritual Evolution of the Bean and Black Cover No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI [...]
18 BILLY // Mar 29, 2009 at 10:55 am
YOU CAN PURCHASE THESE AT KATE’S PAPERIE, TOO.
19 Cynthia // Jun 13, 2009 at 11:10 am
Ciak products are available in the US from http://www.journalingarts.com.
20 Jinglepop // Oct 21, 2009 at 8:16 am
I’ve used Daler~Rowney, Moleskine, Paperchase and all this falls flat compared to the Ciak.
Durable cover, excellent quality paper, (doesn’t show through like the mole) and has the perfect texture.
Hey, and it’s REAL leather man. What more could you want with a price like that?
21 Pat // Nov 11, 2009 at 9:27 am
Glad to see you found the Ciak notebook. I’ve just started using the larger one (Sketchbook) and love it! No bleed thru, sturdy built, feels great in the hand and under the pen. Actually the binding is strong enough that you can bend it cover to cover, especially if you take a few moments and press a few pages open throughout.
Yes, Cynthia, I found mine at http://www.journalingarts.com They treated my wonderfully. My notebook is bright turquoise. Love it.
22 tm // Dec 2, 2009 at 12:04 am
I got a Ciak notebook at Borders on clearance (it was sold under the Paperchase brand). Sadly, I haven’t found any more of them.
23 Ursula // Dec 12, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Actually, the Ciak notebook covers are not leather: they’re imitation leather, treated with etheric oils in such a way that they get that incredibly smooth, pleasant feel in the hand.
Just thought this might be important to the vegetarians among us . . .
24 RR // Mar 13, 2010 at 1:56 am
I have a Ciak I’ve been using for almost a year. In addition to your comments above, I think a big pro is the distance the covers jut out over the edges of the lined pages, protecting the pages from being bent or scuffed up.
One con (to me) is the ease with which the page-marking ribbon gets frayed. I’ve trimmed it down to about 2 inches in length, losing its original purpose.
Great site.
25 Notizbuchblog.de » Blog Archive » Leserrezension: Ciak und Cartesio // Apr 13, 2010 at 3:09 am
[...] Hersteller: InTempo Ciak: blackcover.net biffybeans.com Wasserbad: Fotos eines Ciak, das 15 min in Wasser gebadet wurde. Cartesio: [...]
Leave a Comment