Exaclair 2011 Catalogue!

Exaclair week on Plannerisms continues with a look at their 2011 catalog!! They have a lot of new products coming out that I am excited about including new planner formats, new cover colors and styles, and new notebooks!

Karen at Exaclair sent me the link to the 2011 catalogs, which I've had a lot of fun looking through. Here is the link, which you can click on to open the catalog in a separate window:

http://exaclairretailers.com/gallery/content/flashcatalogs.php

There are two catalogs: the top one has the Quo Vadis and Exacompta planners for 2011, and the bottom catalog contains their other products such as Clairefontaine and Rhodia notebooks, J.Herbin inks, Decopatch, and tons of other great stuff. I won't go through them page by page (although that would be fun!) but I will point out new products that I'm especially excited about.

There is one entirely new planner: the desk-sized Note 27 weekly planner. It has the week on the left page (with equal sized spaces for each day, even Saturday AND Sunday, bravo Quo Vadis!) and the right page is lined for notes. This planner is very large: the page size is 8 1/4 x 10 1/2, making each page almost the size of a US standard piece of paper. While that won't be a problem for anyone who will leave this planner on a desk or carry it in a briefcase or bookbag, it's too large to go into a purse/ handbag (unless you carry a really large one).

The Daily Pocket planner has a new format in 2011 that, in my option, is a huge improvement over the format from previous years. I used the Daily Pocket in 2009 and 2001, and loved the portable size (and especially the monthly calendars in the 2009 edition) but felt the daily format was too cluttered at the top of the page. For 2011 the daily format has an elegant, uncluttered look with the day and date at the very top of the page (like the Journal 21 format) and a large space just under that for the day's Priority. Below that the page is lined with times from 8 am to 9 pm, with a few lines after that for extended evening hours or notes. In the bottom right there is a calendar of the month with the current week highlighted. I'm thrilled they have kept the ivory paper that I like so much, and also the monthly calendars that make this planner exceptionally useful. I will definitely be getting a Daily Pocket for 2011!

Two planners that are conspicuously absent from the 2011 catalog are the Horizon 7 and ABP/1, both of which I believe have been discontinued. I know there were plans in the works to discontinue the Horizon 7 due to low sales, so I'm assuming the same happened with the ABP/1.

There is a new style of cover: Smooth covers with rounded corners, a back pocket and an elastic strap (not shown in the photo) come in black, Hawaiian blue, red, lime green and old rose. For 2011, three planner formats will be available with Smooth covers: Business, Daily Pocket, and Minister. I am very excited about these covers because the rounded corners and especially the elastic strap will keep the planners intact when being shoved into bags or pockets. I'm especially excited that the Daily Pocket will be available with the elastic strap, which will keep the small book securely closed. It really needed this in my opinion!

There are also some new colors available for some of their other covers: Club covers have added a very pretty Bamboo green. The Habana covers now come in Raspberry and Anise Green (for the planners and notebooks too). And for the coming year, the limited edition Robert le heros cover selection will be Taupe and Raspberry. There are also several pretty new colors for the Vinyl covers including Fuschia, Apple Green and Sapphire Blue. I read somewhere that more women than men use paper planners, and obviously Exaclair is working hard to appeal to this female customer base.

I'm also pleased to see the Equology planners will be offered again for the academic year (Textagenda and Scholar) and 2011 calendar year (President, Minister, and Sapa X). I am addicted to the velvety-feeling paper in my Equology Minister (and I'm still hoping for Equology notebooks!) so I'm especially glad to see these planners are in the lineup again next year.

The Equology Textagenda and Scholar planners are also available with Basic covers in black, green, red or tan. Basic covers are 100% recycled hardboard, with an elastic strap. Excellent option for very environmentally-conscious people on an academic year schedule.

Also, some planner covers and formats will include a Quo Vadis bookmark/ elastic strap, which is very useful for keeping the planner securely closed.

I won't go through the Exaclair products catalog in detail because there are SO many fantastic products. But there are a couple of new notebooks that I really like:

On page 15 of the catalog, the classic Clairefontaine staple-bound notebooks now come in a Two-Subject version with cutaway tabs for easy reference of each subject in one notebook. The classic Clairefontaines are my all-time favorite notebooks with their colorful covers and thick ultra-smooth paper. So any addition to that lineup is more than welcome!

On pages 18 and 19 of the catalog there are several new versions of the Clairfontaine Basics notebooks, some of which now have elastic strap closures. Those of us who carry our notebooks with us everywhere really appreciate the elastic straps for keeping our books closed and our pages from getting ruffled.

The notebook I am most excited about is, not surprisingly, the Roadbook on page 19. Ancient map print! Elastic closure! Clairefontaine paper! Portable size! I'm sold. I'll take a dozen. I'll definitely be getting some of these to use as travel notebooks as well as go-everywhere everyday notebooks.

So there are some very exciting new products coming soon from Exaclair! As usual, they have really responded to their customers' needs and wants. I'm already writing up my shopping list!