The world in which we live today is filled with rules. Our daily behavior is orchestrated by the city in which we live, by the transport we choose, by the places we visit, by the objects we use. We follow instructions such as walking on the sidewalk and not on the street, without even thinking that human beings have created these sets of rules. We have become the users of the world that we, a long time ago, created. We have forgotten, as we have become the users of our own sets of rules. We have created objects that help us follow these sets of rules and other objects for which we need to learn new rules in order to use them. Within these sets of rules and objects we have created the notebooks.
This Notepads come in different formats, but the most common ones are composition (each pages with a set of lines), mathematics (each page with a set of squares) and blank pages notepads. The composition and math notepads ask us, the users, to follow their pattern in order to take advantage of them. Once again we find ourselves trapped in our own sets of rules. But the blank pages notepads is different. It’s a fairly simple design that consists of blank pages with hard or soft cover. The cover design changes; it can have images, patterns, colors, or just one color. The type of the inside paper, the pages, also changes; it can be from an expensive photograph paper, watercolor paper, or a recycled paper. Without discussion each type of blank notepad will give the user a different experience, but all of them, in contrast with the math and composition pads, give the user an infinite freedom. A blank note pad is a powerful object that transforms us, human beings, from being a passive user into someone creative. It gives us an infinitive freedom from which we cannot escape. The user is the creator and the blank notepad is the canvas in which this creation will take place.
Do we want all the freedom that a blank paper notepad gives us? Are we able to handle all this freedom in a world filled with rules? Sometimes it can make us feel overwhelmed by the infinitive possibilities it gives us. It allows us to write, paint, sketch, do math, diagrams, brainstorm or draw, basically to do what ever our imagination allow us. It can become our friend and precious find, or our enemy if we can’t handle this freedom. It can help us express our ideas and feelings, liberate our thoughts and impressions that have been stuck inside of us for some time, that we need to liberate, to let go. It transforms us and allows us to express ourselves, in a way that sometimes can become scary breaking the rules of society.
Its versatility is not only on how it can be use but also on its owner, on who uses it. Every human being, without gender or age restriction, without a specific interests or passions can enjoy and become a creator using a blank notepad.
Even thou blank note pads are freedom givers they are not free. In order to become useful they always need another object such as a pencil, pen or paint. These objects determine their function. Depending on the use we want to give them we have to choose a second object, which type of pencil, paint, or which medium we want to use in order to let the notepad give us the freedom opportunity we are expecting to have and to enjoy.
Physically what they know about us, about human beings is what they are able to experience. A hand, that carries an object, which will transform its essence, of being a blank white canvas, clean, empty into something else, reaching a new form, becoming a drawing, a story holder, transmitting an idea or a thought, a message.
It can understand about the most intimate places of human beings and their relations to the world depending on its use. Some of us will write our most intimate ideas and feelings while others will write about the superficiality of life, some of us will use them as calendars, or just to write practical ideas and behaviors, some will draw their ideas, or the portrait of a love one.
Blank Note pads are not only freedom givers but are also, secrets keepers, painting and drawing canvas, holders of the sketches of great creations and carriers of the greatest ideas.