[IxDA Discuss] Back to Basics

[Nathan Moody]

Christine's question about Moleskines and Todd's question about being  
picky with drawing tools, along with the general enthusiasm about  
this thread definitely calls out the emotional fetishism that's so  
easy to fall into when selecting writing and drawing tools. I got  
bitten by this in college; I could use #2B's on butcher paper or I  
could use a 0.3mm Rotring mechanical pencil on Rieves BFK printmaking  
paper...while the marks would be somewhat similar, the tactile  
feeling is altogether different, and IMHO habit-forming. We have  
arguments here who can find the smallest ballpoints in SF's  
Japantown. This fetishism has always fascinated me, as I fall into it  
all the time, and I think that's why the Moleskine brand loyalty  
thing has taken off. Is our sense of touch that refined, or are we  
just that snobby? :-)

(By the way, for any graphics tablet users out there, it's that  
tactile thing that I struggled with for years on my Wacom...plastic  
on  plastic never felt right. But if you buy heavily toothed paper  
and tape it to the tablet, the signal goes right through and it feels  
a lot closer to drawing on actual paper. You have to refresh the page  
from time to time to eliminate the inevitable grooves you leave in  
it, but I've found that it allows me to draw directly into the  
computer much more successfully.)