Book By Its Cover » Found Paper Journal

6.17.09

Found Paper Journal

Rowan Morrison

When I was a kid, I loved playing “office”. I know this sounds crazy, but there was nothing that I loved more than going to the bank with my mom so I could steal deposit slips. I especially liked the ones with carbon paper. I had collections of forms taken from anywhere I could get them, from survey cards from restaurants to customs forms from the post office. I would arrange them neatly in piles in my desk drawers. One time I even saved up my money and went to Staples to buy a pad of job application forms. Yes, that’s right. And I made my family fill them out and I filed them into a binder alphabetically. What’s amazing is that if I showed you what I am surrounded by right now as I recall this strange childhood memory (scattered post-its with scrawled notes stuck to everything, piles of papers spilling sideways underneath dirty dishes and pens without caps under tangles of wires), you would be very confused. What happened? Anyway, why I am telling you all this is because when I got this journal in the mail, my childhood love for the neat “office” life came back. The journal is made from all different kinds of randomly assorted found papers. There’s pages from old accounting ledgers and legal pads, grammar school writing papers from around the world, letterheads, job application forms(!!!), and even sheets full of Braille. It’s all collected and bound into a clean chipboard cover with a nice embossed scissors on the front. I know most people will be more excited that this paper is being given a second life, but as for me, I’m so happy to pretend I’m six years old again and fill all these tiny boxes with made-up numbers. ha! You can get one of these lovely journals here.
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17 Comments

06/17/09 10:37pm

N. Samara GuzmÃ¡n FernÃ¡ndez wrote

woaahh that sounds just like me. I stole deposit slips, I still do haha… I love forms and office stuff. That journal is amazing… Thanks : )

06/18/09 12:10am

Courtney wrote

I totally loved to play with forms and slips and adding machines when I was little and hanging out at my mom’s office. This book is rad.

06/18/09 4:34am

Rare Autumn wrote

this might be the most wonderful book in the world!! (no irony) thank you so much for the link julia!

(ps. i did the same thing when i was little, but stapled them into little books i had in a library that i forced everyone on the street to borrow from – specially made library cards and all)

06/18/09 7:15am

Angela wrote

Fantastic find! Reminds me of Phantom Limb’s mixed paper journals and notebooks.

06/18/09 11:49am

Abbey H wrote

I knew we were kindred spirits! I did the same thing! I even used my parents linen closet as an organization center and made everyone pick up their “deposit slips”, etc. I still love all of that stuff. :)

06/18/09 12:24pm

Oakland Pete wrote

I have some of these for a previous edition. I planned on using them to actually write and draw in, but I ended up keeping them as ‘art books’ from the aesthetics of all the graph papers and sheet music in them.
These make such a great gift, too.

06/19/09 8:44am

emily wrote

Oh this is so beautiful, especially the braille bits… much too nice to write in though! I too am still obsessed with office supplies.. when i was little my dad used to pay me to highlight the ‘important’ words in all his documents!! made me feel very special!

06/20/09 2:21pm

marieke wrote

i loved playing bank too, or post office! i would dream of having a serious administration. what a disappointment ;-) thanks for sharing the book!

06/25/09 12:23am

joran stamatakakos wrote

I want one.

06/27/09 10:40am

Klaus von Mirbach wrote

I also collect. Over and over again I find some new papers. What will you do with it?, I have asked myself. If I use them for drawing, is seemed to me always wrong. Now I know it, I will do a book out of that!

06/28/09 8:13am

babelfish wrote

I love that you got your family members to fill out job application forms, so cute! Love this, can’t get enough of paper scraps.

07/9/09 8:59am

Katy wrote

AMAZING!! I ordered one instantly. Yes i was also the same as a kid, used to play banks and my gran still has all the stuff in this table that the lid lifts up on. So i’m not the only strangeling with a notebook/stationary purchase. (p.s – i saved my pocket money to buy one of those changeable rubber date stamps….best purchase ever)

07/29/09 2:06pm

Kerstin-Tiez wrote

I cannot believe this will work!

09/30/09 6:14am

Lenniustr wrote

I’ll criticize :)

10/10/09 1:59pm

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01/21/10 3:49pm

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