A Paper Archive of Ideas

Michael Beirut recently published a post on Design Observer about his preferred method of taking notes and archiving his ideas – a standard-sized blank composition notebook. He started using them in 1982 and has filled 82 of them with notes, sketches and even drawings that his kids did. He calls them notebooks rather than sketchbooks because the books are likely to include more notes, lists and data as they are to include actual sketches. I'm fascinated by his notebooks, mostly because he found a system to document and archive his ideas over 20 years ago and he's stuck with it.



Despite the occasional book getting lost or misplaced, his system did not rely on computers or any kind of technology that required batteries, back-up systems or software upgrades. As much as I love technology, he makes a strong argument for paper-based idea archiving.

How do you keep your ideas?