From Idea to Reality: The Journey of Creating The Everything Notebook

From Idea to Reality: The Journey of Creating The Everything Notebook

Sep 04, 2024Honest Workshop

Starting a business feels a bit like jumping into the deep end without quite knowing how to swim, but trusting you'll figure it out on the way down. That’s how Honest Workshop was born! We’re Sheron and Bec— two women with backgrounds in graphic design and architecture— who had a wild idea to create something meaningful, even if we didn’t quite know what chaos that would unleash.

Honest Workshop is our first business, and let me tell you, we’ve learned so much on this rollercoaster of a ride. Everything from setting up a Shopify website to wrangling social media marketing to tackling all the unexpected admin work (seriously, no one told us just how much admin was involved!). Filing our first tax return? That was a whole new level. But every stumble and mistake has been worth it because, in the end, we’re designing for people just like us— people who live messy, ever-changing, beautiful lives. That’s what keeps us going.

The idea for The Everything Notebook came from our personal frustration with half-filled, abandoned journals and notebooks that gathered dust on our shelves. We were appalled at how many barely-used notebooks we had sitting around, and when we started asking friends and family, everyone seemed to have their own pile of mostly-empty notebooks too! In that pile there also those notebooks and journals that were just too precious to use.

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The ones that has gold foiled edges, and beautiful paper that we're too scared to mess up. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to keep up with them, it was that our lives were too dynamic for rigid, way too precious, one-size-fits-all notebooks. One day we were planning our weeks, the next we were sketching ideas, and none of our notebooks could keep up with all the hats we wear. We needed something adaptable, practical, and most importantly, personal.

So, after countless late-night brainstorming sessions and endless cups of coffee, The Everything Notebook was born. It’s more than just a notebook— it’s a notebook system designed to grow with you. With interchangeable inserts that fit different seasons of life, and customisable covers, bookmarks, and elastics, The Everything Notebook adapts as your needs change. It’s truly your notebook for everything— whether you’re journaling, planning, sketching, or dreaming big.

Of course, it didn’t all happen overnight. We poured our hearts into this project— hours of research, design, and prototypes until we landed on something we truly believed in. One of our key design principles was to create a "delightful journey from start to end." We wanted to recognise that opening your purchase was part of the experience, so we put a lot of thought into the packaging. Sheron, our graphic designer, has been working on this since last year, ensuring every detail—from the packaging to the product— makes you feel special from the moment you open it.

But it doesn’t stop there. We’re still growing and learning as we continue to develop new products, and we want to involve everyone who’s interested in giving feedback and helping us improve. This is where our community comes in, and while we’re still building it, we’re excited to have you along for the ride. Your input helps us make The Everything Notebook better, and we hope to create future products with the same thoughtful design.

So here we are— two women, a dream, a notebook, and a whole lot of lessons learned.

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We’re just getting started, and we can’t wait to see where this journey takes us next. The Everything Notebook is more than a product; it’s the result of our passion, sweat, and dreams, and we hope it becomes a part of your life as much as it has been a part of ours.

Let’s start this journey together— after all, it’s your notebook and your story! 



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