Introducing Uglybooks: Creative Notebooks Without Limits

A range of colorful notebooks and sketchbooks from designers, for designers encourage a childlike approach to creativity and prove that beauty has no rules.

What if even our simple creative tools encouraged childlike, limitless exploration rather than conformity? This central question inspired CONTINO's Founder and CCO Jon Contino and Senior Art Director Erin Contino, as well as Orange32 Founder Andreas Vavaroutsos, to collaborate to launch Uglybooks: a series of all-ages notebooks and sketchbooks specifically designed to eliminate the standard rules of beauty and allow every person to begin a new series of thoughts from a different perspective.

With Uglybooks, the trio hopes to share its human-centered philosophy with everyone's philosophy that breaks down the walls of creative expression through thoughtful design. After years of using brand after brand, we noticed that notebooks all felt restrictive in their designs; explains Jon Contino. Some books had lined pages, others grid or dot grid, others blank, and none of them felt like the same paper. I also noticed that they didn't hold up very well when I wanted to draw in ink or with a Sharpie. Uglybooks was a solution we created for ourselves that we hope others will enjoy. It isn't about creating some super pocket notebook, it's more about creating a better canvas for making stuff without the nervousness that comes with feeling like playful, creative exploration will ruin the beauty of the book itself. We wanted to eliminate any barriers or preconceived notions that other notebooks and sketchbooks filled your head with.

Uglybooks come in two distinct size options 4x5¾ inch and double-wide 8x5¾ inch. Unlike most notebooks and sketchbooks, Uglybooks features an array of colorful pages carefully selected for each book to create combinations that are both harmoniously beautiful and shockingly weird. The pages are unlined, and the covers are unbranded to allow users to create and customize their books according to specific content, place in time, mood, or any other source of inspiration. These design details skillfully challenge users by using the shifting format to force a slightly different perspective.

When you have a white page in front of you, it feels pretty standard, but with a colored page, it almost disarms you in a way you're not used to, says Jon Contino. So, with Uglybooks, you either draw or write in black, and it's more exciting by default, or you draw or write in a different color or medium, and opens up a whole new world simply by shifting your base of colors and tools. Even the simplest notes can be made exciting when you start varying the tools with which you make them.

So far, the response to Uglybooks has been immensely positive. We've been ecstatic to find that just about everyone who tried one has fallen in love with the books, says Erin Contino. The majority of the comments range from I love how the colored pages make me rethink how I draw to it's fun to choose a book based on my mood. I think it'll be great to hear how others will creatively use the books in ways we never expected.

Although we're just creating something as simple as colorful notebooks, we hope that its shift in approach is enough to inspire others to do the same in their own personal, branding, and product design projects; add Jon Contino. It's essential to embrace new ways of creating disparate perspectives. Even as children, we learn that no two snowflakes are the same and that it's their greatest trait. If we can help foster a little more creative diversity and experimentation with a notebook, you never know what new ideas it might help bring into the world.