Looking at the Flex organiser from Filofax
The new modular system from Filofax is nice, and lets Filofax address the same market as the Moleskine range. And I love that you can hack it with Field Notes and Cahiers as ell as the genuine Flex refills. More thoughts after I use it in anger at the Fringe, but for now…
You can’t look at this in a vacuum, The middle sized Slim Flex is £19, and you can get a basic Filofax Personal for about the same cost. But in context, you’re also picking up a 64 page notebook and jot pad with the binder. The list price for Moleskine notebook of the same size is £10, and the notepad refill for Flex, with 256 pages, is £7.50. Yes, there’s a higher install investment, but the ongoing costs are about the same, and there is more organisational ability in Flex.
I’ve been hankering after a disc binding system. The benefit is you can use plain paper, print your own inserts and swap up to bigger discs if your system is getting too stuffed. You can also carry a pocket sized pad and pop the notes into your main system.
The down side is getting hold of the damn stuff. Levenger in the states seems to be the biggest supplier but getting the product shipped to the UK is crazily expensive and that’s before import duty. Allegedly there is a European manufacturer (Atoma) but I can’t locate a UK supplier.
Anybody out there want to become a distributor?
Chris,
I use both traditional filofax and disc bound systems. May i suggest that here ebay is your friend? Circa is difficult to search for because of the `normal` meaning. Another brand is rollabind. The discs come up fairly often, but the holy grail is the desk punch. I believe the levenger punch is 11 holes – rollabind is 12 so you can print and punch your own a4 inserts.
I got one from a uk craft site who then discontinued them. My second ( for the office) was from a US eBay seller. Good luck in your search, and i hope you convince someone to be a UK distributer. Maybe staples and sell in the US?
Would be interested to know how you got on with the flex. i have just purchased one, and like the portability but can it replace a ring binder? thanks
Fed up with the limitations of both the moleskine and the filofax, I created a hybrid system that’s very cheap and flexible. Have a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEOhQlR4CeA
I’ve just come across these systems after receiving an email from Staples who are now selling their “Arc” system in the UK.
I had a good search and it appears that these people are UK distributors for Atoma:
http://www.craftandpartydirect.com/atoma_notebooks1.php
They don’t have many different lines though.