Notes From Afar
I love this sketch from my friend Brendan Dawes – it conveys the creative process beautifully. I’ve seen Brendan use this in his talks, and as he says, it’s always met with a flurry of smartphone action, I may even have snapped it myself.
Brendan is now releasing it as a robot drawn print in a limited edition of just 100.
Treat yourself for Christmas or better still treat me :)
If you write with a pencil, you get three different sights at it to see if the reader is getting what you want him to. First when you read it over; then when it is typed you get another chance to improve it, and again in the proof. Writing it first in pencil gives you one-third more chance to improve it. That is .333, which is a damned good average for a hitter.
I do love a bit of “ambient gubbins” as Mark and Lard used to call it. From Brian Eno to the Monument Valley soundtrack, ambient music is my soundtrack of choice for working, writing or just staring out of the window thinking.
Over the years Moby has released some lovely ambient music, including ambient versions of his albums Wait for Me and Hotel. Earlier this year Moby released a pure ambient album entitled Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep.
Of Long Ambients1 Moby said “over the last couple of years I’ve been making really really really quiet music to listen to when I do yoga or sleep or meditate or panic. I ended up with 4 hours of music and have decided to give it away.”
That’s right Long Ambients1 is free and well worth a download.
The lovely people at Bellroy recently asked me if I’d like to take a look at their new Micro Sleeve wallet. Now as you know I have a minimal wallet habit and having been intrigued by the Micro Sleeve since it’s release I happily said yes.
I’ve been using the Bellroy Micro Sleeve as my “daily carry” and thought I’d share my thoughts on this great little wallet.
The Bellroy Micro Sleeve is designed to hold between two to four cards plus a few folded bank notes. At the moment I’m not travelling much, and only need to carry my bank card and my Drivers Licence for ID, which makes the Micro Sleeve just about perfect.
The Micro Sleeve has two slots on the outside for your cards and a single pocket in between for your cash – squeezing the ends of the Micro Sleeve opens up the cash pocket allowing easy access to your cash.
This design made me think of the simple coin pockets we had as kids back in the 70s day, made from plastic, and generally covered with pictures of the Smurfs or Snoopy. The top was kept closed by two flat steel springs, you squeezed the ends to open the pocket, which would close with a snap somewhere between satisfying and terrifying.
I had initially assumed that the Micro Sleeve used a stiffener of some sort to create the spring loading of the cash slot, but after a couple of weeks in a moment of idle examination I noticed that it is in fact just leather.
The whole wallet is two sheets of leather folded and glued and sewn together, the springiness comes from the leather itself and the opening is controlled by a cleverly placed slit on each side of the inside of the wallet.
The only issue I have with the design isn’t really an issue with the design… It’s an issue I’ve mentioned before, it’s the comedically large bank notes we have here in the UK requiring each note has to be folded three times for it to fit the Micro Sleeve cash slot. So when carrying more than a few notes the slim profile of the Micro Sleeve can be affected and we wouldn’t want that would we?
The Micro Sleeve is made from some of the nicest leather I’ve seen, I wonder if the quality and inherent stiffness of the leather is needed to facilitate the spring design and ensure it’s longevity.
I’ve been using the Micro Sleeve for four weeks or so and it’s wearing beautifully. I fully expect the outside to take on a lovely patina as it wears over time – a future candidate for Aged to Perfection.
I usually buy black accessories, but you may remember I was really adventurous with the Bellroy Elements Phone Pocket and chose grey.
Bellroy have a lovely range of colours for the Micro Sleeve and so this time I went “full disco” and chose the frankly gorgeous Caramel.
Caramel is a beautiful colour and is twinned with a darker chocolate brown on the front of the wallet for a very stylish and classic combination. I chose Caramel as I hoped it would age nicely, adding depth of colour and based on the first few weeks it looks as though it will.
I have tried a number of slim or minimal wallets over the last few years and the Bellroy Micro Sleeve is without doubt the best designed, best constructed and frankly nicest of them all.
The simplicity, cleverness and elegance of the design of the Micro Sleeve make me love it even more.
If you are looking to slim your wallet I highly recommend the Bellroy Micro Sleeve, it’s a real beauty.
I’ve never understood the need to carry all of your cards, all of the time and in your back pocket at that.
When I started working in London, catching the tube everyday, I became aware of the vulnerability of carrying all my cards and finances in my back pocket. Then when I damaged my back I was made aware of the skeletal implications of sitting on all of your cards all day – it really isn’t very good for you.
Since then I’ve been using a front pocket wallet, and as I’ve simplified my finances and the items I need to carry everyday I’ve sought out simpler more minimal wallets and the internet has delivered a wealth of choice.
The first simple wallet I bought was the aptly named Slim. The Slim is possibly the most minimal wallet ever made, but it is also possibly too minimal. It really is just a length of elastic sewn together in a loop, with an X sewn on the side. Yes it will hold your cards, and folded up notes, but it is in no way pleasing to use or to look at.
Having said that I still use the Slim today; I keep it in my car with all of my store and loyalty cards in it. If I’m going shopping I know I’ll drive there, so why would I need to carry my cards with me at all other times?
My next simple wallet was the Bellroy Card Sleeve. Bellroy make fabulous wallets, all designed to help you slim your wallet; my last ‘back pocket’ wallet was a Bellroy Note Sleeve, which I still use on occasions when I find my self with too much cash to carry in a small wallet, for cash is still the achilles heel of the minimal wallet.
The Bellroy Card Sleeve has been my everyday wallet for some time now, and I’ve been very happy with it indeed, but when I came across a new slim wallet design I was intrigued and thought I’d take a look.
Trove was another Kickstarter success, but one I missed due to being a very pleasant holiday in the sun. Upon my return I contacted Trove who they kindly sent me one of their Factory Edition Trove Slim Wallets for review.
Trove appeared to deliver both simplicity and flexibility and is hand made in the UK from higher quality materials than certain other slim wallets. Trove takes the basic concept of the Slim, an elastic loop to hold your cards, but instead of simply sewing up the bottom a leather strip is added at ninety degrees.
This leather strap or loop adds a structural element to Trove that gives a degree of rigidity and provides two extra slots for cards, notes or receipts. The leather used in the strap is of very high quality and is already taking on a lovely patina from being carried.
Trove say their wallet is flexible enough to carry between one and ten cards. I carry three cards on a daily basis: my bank card, my Amex card and my drivers licence and Trove is perfect for this.
I’ve experimented with more cards, and whilst Trove will accommodate them, removing them becomes trickier and far less graceful.
The two slots front and back between the leather strap and elastic loop are perfect for holding a rail or parking ticket, a particular card you need often or a couple of folded notes.
Which brings us onto the achilles heel of Trove and all slim wallets: carrying cash, especially the ridiculously large UK notes – the £20 note is so large it looks like something from the Victorian era. Yes you can fold the notes up, lets face it you have to, but then of course they become four times their original thickness, and more than two or three soon makes Trove bulge, I use the term relatively, which starts to defeat the object of a slim wallet.
The sooner everybody takes cards or contactless payment through our phones the better – cash cannot die quickly enough for me. But I digress…
Trove is a great slim and minimal wallet, beautifully made from high quality materials and more versatile than most other slim wallets. If you are in the market for a slim wallet I highly recommend a Trove and if you aren’t I strongly suggest you take a look at the cards you carry on a daily basis and look at slimming your wallet – your back will thank you and thieves will not.
In a world where we consume and replace items at an alarming rate, and where there is a multi-billion dollar industry in protective cases for our devices it feels as if almost everything we carry is new and blemish free.
Which is why I love items such as the iPhone in my original Aged to Perfection, and now this wonderfully worn Fisher Space Pen I came across in a review over at The Pen Addict.
“I usually carry this pen as a tool instead of a writing instrument that I enjoy using.”
I love the story that accompanies the review, and that even though there are pens that may write better the author still carries it every day because, as he says, it is a tool.