Over the past 30 years, we’ve released a wide range of cover designs featuring art from all around the world. With every new collection we endeavour to share representations of unique artistic and cultural traditions with you.
Sometimes we find a design that is so special, one that continues to resonate even decades later, that we decide to bring it back out of the vault even after it has been discontinued and re-release it as part of a new catalogue collection.
Today, in honour of our 30th anniversary year celebrations, we’re taking a look at eight of those designs to see how they started, and how they’re going.
Emily Dickinson’s “I died for beauty, but was scarce” was one of the earliest drafts included in our Literary Manuscripts collection. In 2021 we re-released it as an Embellished Manuscript, complete with the signature wrap closure bearing her name.One of our earliest series was called Antique Maps, later renamed as Early Cartography.In 2018 we brought back both Celestial Planisphere and Western Hemisphere to our collection.We’ve always been drawn to illuminated manuscripts! One of our earliest was this page from Dante’s Divine Comedy, and we recently released a new Divine Comedy design, called Inferno, in 2021.William Shakespeare left few handwriting samples behind, which is why this draft of his section of the play Sir Thomas More is so special. It was featured on one of our first Literary Manuscripts and we’ve brought it back as an Embellished Manuscript and Special Edition over the years. Most recently, we brought it back as a journal featuring this famous portrait of the Bard on the back cover.Arts and Crafts leader William Morris left behind countless beautiful textile patterns. One of our favourites is this blue and gold Windrush design. We first released his sketched version of the pattern and have more recently brought it back in full as a softcover Flexi notebook.We have released a few covers featuring works by Rembrandt over the years, but we’ve always been especially drawn to this Windmill etching. We first released it on an Embellished Manuscript journal, and brought it back as a Special Edition in 2019 in recognition of the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death.Our original Romantic Sensibility series was primarily compromised of colourful micro-format journals. When we brought back the design in 2018, we spaced out the border to allow it to fit a wider range of sizes, and The New Romantics were born.
Which is your favourite re-release?
What design from the vault should we bring back next?
Hi –
Is there a way to access all of the designs from over the years?
I adore the series that focused on the Book of Kells, but I don’t know how many there were.
Thank you!
As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations we are working on an online archive so you can browse all designs past and present. It’s currently in development, so stay tuned for an announcement 🙂
My favorites are the Romantic Sensibilities and the New Romantics as well as Emily Dickinson. A close third is the William Morris selection. I love Paperblanks.
Thanks again.
Hi –
Is there a way to access all of the designs from over the years?
I adore the series that focused on the Book of Kells, but I don’t know how many there were.
Thank you!
Hi, great question!
As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations we are working on an online archive so you can browse all designs past and present. It’s currently in development, so stay tuned for an announcement 🙂
My favorites are the Romantic Sensibilities and the New Romantics as well as Emily Dickinson. A close third is the William Morris selection. I love Paperblanks.
Thanks again.
Thank you so much! We’re so glad we could bring these designs back for you to enjoy again.
I like the Mucha collection most. I hope you will bring these out again.
Thank you for the suggestion!