Print and digital are like those crazy kids in the movies that we just know should get together, but they just have too many obstacles to overcome (and then there’s the geeky best friend and….we need to get out more). Many have tried to bring them together. Evernote’s tried it. Moleskine’s tried it (and tried it again). Finally this month, a startup called Need/Want launched a Kickstarter campaign that puts forward an interesting model, at least for designers, illustrators and chronic doodlers.
Using a subscription model, “Draft” sends you one notebook a month to fill with all of your illustrations, notes and little pictures of that dog you draw that looks more like a lion. You also receive a mailing label to ship back the last notebook you filled. That notebook is then scanned and sent to you in a digital form that can be read within an app on your mobile device of choice. The cost works out to about $14 per notebook.
Draft has taken some heat already for not being searchable (the company is looking into creating category tags, at least), but for a certain kind of artist who is sick to death of transporting a growing library of old notebooks every time they move, it just might work. (No word on whether you have the option of getting those used notebooks back after scanning.)
