The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2025–2026
iA Notebook's watermark lines guide writing, fade while reading — iF Gold 2026
iA's paper notebook uses watermark ruling that guides writing and fades when read — iF Gold 2026 and Red Dot 2025 Best of the Best.
Information Architects (iA)
What it had to solve
iA, the studio behind the writing app iA Writer, wanted a physical notebook with the same calm focus: ruled pages help handwriting but distract when rereading, while blank pages make writing crooked — and both should be solved in paper alone.
How it works
iA Notebook is a paper-only notebook from Information Architects (iA), the Zurich/Tokyo studio best known for the distraction-free writing software iA Writer. It solves a simple, universal problem: ruled pages help you write but interfere when you read, while blank pages make keeping handwriting straight hard. Founder Oliver Reichenstein says the team set out about ten years ago to build a notebook that shows lines when you write and hides them when you read.
The answer is watermark ruling. Instead of grey ink, the notebook uses a classic element of papermaking: the watermark. The faint lines are visible on an empty page, then recede under darker handwriting — an intended optical effect of light and dark. The notebook is made entirely of natural materials, uses 81 g/m² Japanese paper, and is hand-bound in Japan with a section-sewn itokagari-toji binding that lies flat.
In 2025–2026 the notebook collected the highest honours of the major design competitions: Red Dot Design Award 2025 Best of the Best, iF DESIGN AWARD 2026 Gold (only 75 Golds from more than 10,000 entries), and the Japanese Stationery Award 2025. iA published a documentary, Paper Alchemy, about the slow workshop process behind each book, and by March 2026 the notebook had put iA at number two in iF's global studio ranking for office/stationery.
Why it lands
- It isolates one universal annoyance — lines that get in the way when reading — and fixes it with a papermaking technique that is centuries old.
- The solution is invisible engineering: no new ink, no electronics, just optical contrast, so the product stays entirely paper.
- It gives a software studio a physical counterpart to its writing app, extending a coherent philosophy of focused writing across media.
- The triple win (Red Dot, iF Gold, Japanese Stationery Award) shows a niche, craft-made product can beat mass-market entries on idea alone.
What it did
Won the iF DESIGN AWARD 2026 Gold in Office/Stationery (75 Golds from 10,000+ entries), the Red Dot Design Award 2025 Best of the Best and the Japanese Stationery Award 2025; within a year it lifted iA to #2 in iF's global ranking of design studios for office/stationery.
What you can take
One precise decision — a line that helps you write and vanishes when you read — can carry a whole product: define the two jobs, guided writing and clean reading, and let one mechanism serve both.
Since then
After the awards, iA held a limited pop-up at Tsutaya Books in Roppongi, Tokyo, and sells the notebook online and through museum and stationery stores across the US, Europe and Asia. The Paper Alchemy film documents the handmade production, and iA continues to rank at the top of iF's office/stationery studio ranking.
Sources
- Paper Alchemy — The Making of iA Notebook
- 世界三大デザイン賞をW受賞した「iAノートブック」最高賞「iFゴールドアワード2026」受賞
- 2026年德国iF设计奖 金奖 获奖作品（产品设计类)
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