Notebooks and atelier: the origins

French lumbermen

La Compagnie du Kraft is probably the most unproductive notebook workshop in the world. This is all part of our charm. Our products are part of a popular culture - foresters from the french Landes who made notes about cutting down trees. A few words were also destinated for lumbermen's wives, althought we haven't found any love letter yet.

Historic atelier and Letterpress

Meet Philippe, the last bastion of male resistance in the workshop. Our long-lasting typographer has trained a new generation to take over, although we still prepare all our notebooks using the same traditional method. The workshop is housed in 50m2 and the equipment is serviced in house, as the spare parts are difficult to find.

Workshop specialty : "carnet de boucher" using a small device dating back to 1948, Pillippe perforates and prints each page. The cylinders block whenever he tries to take it up a notch and the frenzied paper ballet commences!

Nicolas

The reviver. Working exclusively with women is easier with a slightly unstable taste for all things simple and sober. He revived the workshop with notion that "we are what we are", that marketing is about being sincere, and that even the coarsest products can contain a dash of elegance and delicateness.

Marion

Production, customer service, delivery and organic almonds, she is control of everything, or almost. It is no easy task producing 25.000 items every year in 12m2, but she plans on doubling the workspace by adding a mezzanine made from bamboo grown on her balcony. All she needs is a driving licence to transport the bamboo to the workshop.

The essencials

Essential, adj : something that is absolutely necessary. Fundamental to the nature of something or someone. Air is essential for life to exist.

Like an antique perfume, highly prized collector’s item or treasured heirloom, your writing is precious and embodies who you are. Verba volant, scripta manent, spoken words fly away, written words remain. Our “essence” is to provide you with a special place to store this writing that is easy to use and resists the passage of time. In these notebooks, you will only find what is essential – your thoughts, inner words, the print of your hands on the cover…the traces of you.