Yesterday our friends at Baron Fig released their new Baron Fig Confidant Askew (buy via Baron Fig) which is also a limited edition which was part of their subscription plan.  Although it is part of their subscription, you can also grab it individually without the subscription.  The box above might give you an indication as to what the Askew design aesthetics are all about, but lets take a closer look.

The outside of the Baron Fig Askew Confidant has a nice bright violet blue book cloth cover with a vividly contrasting red cloth ribbon page finder.  I’ve always liked the book cloth cover for the Confidant Journals from Baron Fig because they just feel different than most notebooks because of the texture.

Here is a much closer look at the cover and page finder ribbon so you can get an idea of the texture on each.  The cool thing about the colors of the cover and ribbon are that they are a great match with the inside of the notebook pages.

The inside cover of the Baron Fig Askew has what looks like the intense and obsessive scribble marks of a regular ball point pen.  Even just seeing this visual triggers the very real smell in my mind of what that much ball point pen ink smells like when you scribble that much with one.  It makes for a nice nostalgic call back just looking at it and having that scent triggered in my mind.

Inside of the Baron Fig Askew is where you see the uniqueness of this limited edition journal.  All of the pages inside have free hand rulings drawn in them, where again you will see that the markings match the color of the cover and page finder ribbon.  These two pages show some of the more tame or “ruly” as compared to “unruly” rulings on the pages within the notebook.

The majority of the pages in the Baron Fig Askew have more tame, but still very unorthodox and wavy rulings on them.  It isn’t just the rulings that are wavy or “unruly” but also the left page margins are also a free for all too.  So pretty much no rules for the pages on these notebooks, but it gets a little more “unruly” from here.

In one instance I came across these two facing pages within the Baron Fig Askew.  On the left side you have standard horizontal ruling, but on the right side they mix it up and you have some vertical lines, unless of course you flip the notebook around and make them horizontal.

Things get a little more hectic on some of the other pages with this notebook.  The left side here remains fairly calm, but you can see the rulings on the right seem to have a mind of their own.  One might think that this is the extent of the “Askew” nature of this offering from Baron Fig.

Flip around in the Baron Fig Askew limited edition and you will find some real unique pages such as this one above where the rulings resemble an abstract spaghetti bowl painting.  Obviously this page won’t be ideal for note taking, however its perfect for brainstorming, doodling, or just playing a game like trying to figure out what you can add to the squiggle to make it into something.

Baron Fig Askew Limited Edition Writing Sample:

I have to say, writing in the Baron Fig Askew was definitely a fun experience, but I know it isn’t going to be for everyone.  In fact this probably isn’t something I’d really want to use for business purposes, but as a travel journal, or just for personal journaling with no rigid format it might be a nice change of pace to get your brain thinking a bit more creatively.  I mostly used a Sharpie Pen but also got great results with a Space Pen, Uniball Signo UM151, and Uniball Jetstream.  This is absolutely a unique offering that was a ton of fun to experience, but I have a feeling there will be some strongly split opinions on this, so just keep in mind that its probably not ideal for formal, structured, or business note taking, but for any other sort of journaling it may be a great way to really spark some creativity in your writing.  Either way, if you want to give one a try, you can check out them out here on the Baron Fig website.

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.