‘CG Live Talk with a veteran in the sector.'

Many people regard her as the original veteran in the industry, and that is meant in the best possible way, as Ursula Will – Usch for short – has worked in the sector for 30 years, and has seen and experienced a lot. She harbours a particular passion for notebooks and calendars, which she radiates to all in the CG Live Talk. Thanks to her experience in the industry she has her own special perspective of the products, and knows which products will be well received by customers.

Namely, notebooks must always convey a message, and awaken the recipient’s desire. This poses the question: how should I create my notebook, in other words, how should I design it? The solution is storytelling. Something has to happen on the notebook. It needs to tell a story. The look and feel needs to be right, and above all, the recipient must covet the notebook and want to own it. Ursula Will sums this up perfectly as follows: “Dear customer, three things are really important. If you convey your company’s emotion, message and philosophy to the world, then you have done everything right. Your notebook will therefore achieve what you wanted to achieve with your budget: the recipient keeps it, and it doesn’t end up in a drawer somewhere.”

You need to reduce the message and story to their essence. It needs to fit with your brand, and properly represent you. But the brand itself doesn’t necessarily need to be at the forefront. Today, a short, snappy message on the front is much more appealing than a big company logo and the company slogan. It’s much nicer when you concentrate on what’s inside. Businesses then think to themselves that nobody will see where the product is from, and that the advertising effect is lost. But the best thing is, the customer always knows in their mind where the product came from, and he or she uses it. That’s the most important thing.

Lediberg was one of the first in the sector to realise the importance of designing notebooks, and therefore modifying and adapting them, in accordance with the zeitgeist. The company deployed cool, bold sayings that appealed to customers, and embossed or printed them onto the notebooks. This is still the approach today. Suddenly the notebook has a completely new, modern, stylish look, which really appeals to customers.

Brand new in the range are the apple notebooks. Apple notebooks? Yes, that’s right! It sounds strange, but it works. The new Appeel collection follows a green philosophy that treasures and respects the value of nature. Because the environmentally friendly paper used in the Appeel range is created from special plant fibres made from what were previously apple peel and cores. Thanks to the patented technology used in Appeel, leftover bits of apples that would otherwise go to waste are used for an entirely new purpose. During the process, they are crushed, dried and milled, before being turned into paper.

As well as the many different notebooks, Lediberg also produces just about any type of calendar you can imagine. Contrary to the received wisdom that nobody goes about with a calendar and pen in their hand any more, doing everything digitally instead, calendars represent an enormous 80% of Lediberg’s sales. The clear best sellers here are the horizontal format desk calendars, weekly planners, book calendars and small pocket calendars.

What we have now all learned: less is more, and all notebooks are not created equal, so keep your eyes open when choosing one!