You're reading: Paper notebooks on rise in age of digital gadgets

Paper notebooks might seem out-of-date considering that smartphones and tablets are taking over the scene. But people keep buying them. 

Note-taking mobile applications such as Evernote and Intellinote became multimillion-dollar attractions, yet Ukrainian entrepreneurs are introducing paper notebooks anyway.

Ivanka Present

Oksana Ivanenko, a Kyivan,
started her business Ivanka Present in 2010. She launched notebook sales in
2014 and sold 300 of them in that year alone with an average price of $10-15
per item.

Note-taking mobile applications such as Evernote or Intellinote became multimillion-dollar attractions, but Ukrainian entrepreneurs are introducing paper notebooks anyway. 

The accessories startup also
sells toys, postcards, photo albums and various decorations for one’s interior
design. All of the products are made out of textile and paper.

The idea came from making
photo albums. Ivanenko was annoyed of the constant referral to the computer as
a way to share photos, which she regards as lacking the personal touch. Soon
after, she applied the same philosophy with the notebooks.

Each notebook is handmade and
unique in color and smell. One notebook has a slight notice of strawberry, yet
another is so rich in bubble-gum odor that one might be tempted to chew it.

The business attracts
Ukrainians of different ages – from kids buying presents for their parents to
businessmen wanting to jot down important notes. 

Spending two years in
Minnesota via a student exchange program for high school, Ivanenko got inspired
with the various crafty ideas. “Scrapbooking was very popular in the U.S.,” she
explains. 

Not all of the materials are
Ukrainian. The perfumes are ordered from Germany whereas the paper from
Holland. Everything is recycled and made out of natural products. 

Ivanka Present has lost
corporate customers in the last year, offset somewhat by the growth in private
clients. “The customers became smarter. They are not so rich to buy cheap
things,” she says. They also want a Ukrainian product. 

Today the startup employs
around 10 people, with three of them working full-time as notebook makers.
Their shop is located right across the street from Lavra, a monastery in Kyiv,
and can also be found in the Litera bookstore in downtown Kyiv.

Papinarubashka

Pavlo Suslyakov, a 31-year-old
graduate of Karpenko-Kary Theater and Film Institute and Kyiv Polytechnic
Institute, also creates handmade notebooks, selling 400 of them last year. What
was launched in 2009 as Papinarubashka, or father’s shirt in Russian, now makes
notebooks, $13-23, with branded covers out of old cloth – worn T-shirts,
jackets, robes, curtains. 

“The idea is not to make a
mass product, but so that each notebook has a history and its own character,” Suslyakov said.

Suslyakov’s idea came during
his studies at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The business now involves six
people. In addition to the main staff, there are artists and designers
temprorarily employed.

Suslyakov uses both, a
smartphone and a notebook. He uses the phone to note ideas when he is on the
go. Once he has free time, he fully develops these ideas in a notebook.

Papinarubashka aims for a
young, creative audience. Writers and pop-jazz singer Jamala are counted among
the customers. Papinarubashka notebooks can be found in Kyiv’s Gulliver and
Metrograd shopping malls.

Olena Morozova, a documentary
film director, says that a paper notebook is part of her everyday life. “I am
more of a fan of the old method: pen and paper,” she says. 

Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected].