Unusual Filofax Organiser Designs

The general design of a Filofax organiser has not really changed that much over the many decades they have been made. 

A Norman and Hill organiser from the 1950's

Occasionally though they will throw something very different in to the mix, sometimes these are limited in numbers or they only appear for one year or so. 

In 2013 they brought out The Journey Travel Companion, it is a slimline personal size organiser, but with large zipped pockets on the outside of the cover. 

As a travel organiser it is a very useful organiser/wallet. 

Looking back through the catalogue collection, in the year 2000, Filofax released a pocket size organiser simply called the 2021 which looks like this:

From the catalogue description they used quite a variety of materials as well. 

That same year they also tried to resurrect a kind of duplex design with the Filofax Westminster. That was two organisers, an A5 Zip and a Slimline or a Personal Zip and Slimline that slotted together.  

I recreated a modern version of this using an A5 Holborn Zip and a slimline Holborn with a similar result. You get a great combination and the practicality of using the two together. 

I was surprised that the left hand pen loop is still usable and the combination still closes and zips up without any struggles, as long as you didn't 'stuff' too many pages on to the 30mm rings of the A5. 

Will we see anything different in design from Filofax in the future? Will they step out of their comfort zone and offer something radical and new? I really don't know is the honest answer. 

They still bring out new designs, but these seem limited to a different design of floral cover or similar, the basic organiser is still there as the foundation to these products. May be a slightly different pocket layout but nothing that earth shatteringly different. 

What would you like to see offered? 

 

The Perfect Organiser?

Here are some notes I jotted down for my talk about the 'Perfect Planner' at PlannerCon Europe. I've adapted them slightly for your consumption.

If the 'Perfect Organiser' exists what benefits would it give you the owner?

• You might achieve 'Planner Peace' 
• It will be an organiser you want to use, all the time
• Reduce your desire to buy more organisers.
• An organiser that will help you meet your goals each day/week/month
• An organiser that will reduce your stress and anxiety, because you will have written it in your organiser and you will not have to worry about remembering something important
• The organiser you don't want to swap out of, no reason to want to swap

I believe that the perfect organiser does exist for us all. However, it will be different for each of us, one solution doesn't fit all. 

The 'Perfect Organiser' might be something you have Custom Made, which might cost more than you have ever spent on any one or several organisers in the past, but in the long term this one purchase might save you money.

Do you have to pay a lot of money to get a good designed organiser?

I have had a particular interest now for a few years in the design of organisers.

My talk at Plannercon Europe at the end of October will be 'How to choose or design the perfect planner'.  Elements of this post are likely to appear in that talk, which is still being written at the time of the publishing of this post!

Over the years if you look through the Filofax catalogues we have in our collection, there have been numerous designs of Filofax organisers. Each design is slightly different to the others. Yes they have some common features, but in general Filofax have tried to make them as different as possible.

Occasionally I discover a design that really appeals to me because of some small detail that has been included in the design of the organiser.

So my subject for this post is the humble Filofax Fusion Personal size from 2013-2014. I've had a 'few' of these, given them away as prizes etc. I reacquired one because there was something about it that I liked.

The Personal size retailed at the time at £40, it is made in a mixture of a microfibre material with the strap closure in full grain leather. Now you might easily look past this organiser which came in Personal and A5 as just another 'non-leather' one.

It looks fairly smart, the exterior is fairly indestructible. I am sure it would survive being chucked in to a backpack, the occasional rain shower without looking any worse for wear.

Now the clever bits of the design...

Notice on the front outside cover there are two pockets that could take an i.d. pass or ticket or business card and be accessible without opening up the organiser or even undoing the strap.

On the rear cover there is a full height outside pocket, you do have to undo the strap on this one to gain access to it, but you don't have to open the organiser.

Then on the inside front cover there is a slot that can take a modern smart phone, shown here with my iPhone 6 in its cover.  The phone pocket is gusseted so it expands to easily take the phone.

And the strap closure has more then enough length it easily copes with the extra bulk of having the phone inside as well as a full set of inserts. 

Small details, but for me they make quite an inexpensive organiser a useful day to day planning/organisational tool.

The Perfect Organiser - Part 3 [Design]

The design of your organiser is a very important thing. If you are buying a custom designed organiser from Van der Spek, then you have a large range of options to choose from. Other manufacturers give you a fixed design with no options to customise so you are left to hunt around for the perfect design for your own requirements. Hopefully this post will help you decide which is the best for you.

If you have never designed your own organiser or planner before then number of configurations are endless, but there are a few design rules you have to apply. Some of the terminology used might be new to you as well.

Let us show a variety of design features and try and de-mystify the terminology, sorting out your slip pockets from your secretarial pockets, and how many variations can there be of credit card pockets?

Read on, this going to be fairly picture heavy.

Clasps

Clasps, the part of your organiser that acts as the closure to keeps the organiser closed and your pages in their protective cocoon. The design has changed quite a bit over the years, they have become part of the style of the organiser.

Four Filofax organisers from different eras. Top left a Filofax York. It has a thin clasp with plastic popper cover. Moving across a Cavendish from a few years later, similar width but slightly thinner leather with a leather covering of the popper button.

In the lower row we move in to the recent era with a Holborn, the clasp has a slight taper to it and a full leather outer. Then finally the Malden I know not everyone likes the clasps on these mainly because they use the same dimensions from Mini to A5. Yes they do look a bit big on the Mini! This time we are back to a shiny metal engraved popper.

OK another four, from three different manufacturers... so who copied who I really don't know, all very similar in design although the execution is slightly different in each case.

Starting again in the top left we have a Van der Spek they have used this design as far as I know for quite a few years. Then a Launer from the 1980's this was made in England again similar design but being quite old it is quite supple now.

Then in the bottom row we have two Gillio's the Mia Cara on the left and an Amica on the right. The Mia Cara attaches the clasp to the outer 'jacket', so the organiser part doesn't have it's own clasp so the  clasp is quite chunky. The Amica is a little more conventional and similar to the Van der Spek and Launer in the task it has to perform.

Personally I like the broader clasp as shown in the bottom four and of a generous length too so when you add in additional contents in addition to the pages on your rings the clasp closure doesn't feel strained like on the older thin Filofax ones seem to.

What is your favourite style and design?

Should credit card slots be in the front or the back? by Steve

If you were designing your own organiser would you put the credit card slots on the inside front cover or the inside back cover?

Let me illustrate what I mean. Here is my Filofax Cavendish with a huge number of card slots on the inside front cover: 

This layout is very typical of what we see with current designs from not just Filofax but Van der Spek and Gillio too. 

But going to the alternative shown here with the compact/slimline de Villiers organiser, the card slots (all 10 of them!) are in the rear inside cover. 

Going back through the old Filofax catalogues there are a number of models that have featured card slots on the inside back cover like the de Villiers.

I'm bound to miss some out, but ones that have had them in the back covers include:

• Balmoral - Internal drawing
• Carmarthen - Internal drawing
• Grosvenor - Internal drawing
• Tejus - Internal drawing
• Sherwood - Internal drawing
• Windsor - Internal drawing
• Lincoln - Internal drawing
• Berwick - Internal drawing
• College - Internal drawing
• Richmond - Internal drawing

And there are no doubt others. But you will have noticed from that selection that some of them vary within the same model the pocket being in the back the personal/slimline being in the front.

So which is right and why?

I suppose it might seem natural for the cards to be on the inside front cover because that is the natural way you open your organiser.

However, I started to wonder if the back would be better for the following reason. Which part of your organiser to you write most in? Is it the pages at the front of your organiser or the back? Most people (but not all) will have their diary insert as the first thing in their organiser?  Is that the most written in section? It tends to be for me I know.

Therefore having the lumps and bumps that any cards create under the back of my inserts with many pages between the page I'm writing on and the cards would be an advantage. So putting the card slots on the inside back cover would help considerably.

Another thought would the location of the card slots be helpful for left handed people?

So which do you think is right back or front? I think I will ask our friends at Van der Spek to see if they know.