Moleskine notebooks embrace digital era

If in today's world, you have at your disposal virtual reality, artificial intelligence and all the other latest technological breakthroughs, do you still keep a notebook in your pocket?

Christophe Archaimbault, CEO of Moleskine, said he believes that you should, because "the more digital the world is becoming, the more writing the world will need".

In January, Archaimbault was appointed CEO of Moleskine, a legendary notebook said to have once been used by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway.

The original notebook was brought back to life by a small Milanese publisher in 1997, establishing the Moleskine trademark. At the end of 2016, the brand was acquired by D'Ieteren Group.

"Shanghai is an important city for us and it's an important city for me, because I lived five years in Shanghai, so I always love to go back to Shanghai," he told China Daily.

"We believe that there is potential and we should start in the larger cities ... so Shanghai is the priority force."

The existing five Moleskine stores in Shanghai are far from enough and Archaimbault believes that the company "can probably double the size of the network we have in the city", and "the next priority is to expand in Beijing; after that, it is going to be to expand in Chengdu".

"Moleskine is not a big luxury company and needs to grow at its own pace," he said. "We have a five-year plan to grow our business in China and that's going to come about through connecting with consumers and giving them a beautiful shopping experience."

Moleskine has traditionally been favored by the art and creative communities worldwide, and through the past decades the Moleskine Foundation has built up a collection of more than 1,500 notebooks created by renowned artists from all over the world.

Once a year the company presents an exhibition of these artworks in a project named Detour, and "the first one we did after the COVID-19 pandemic was in Shanghai", Archaimbault said.

"That's why I said Shanghai is important to us. We're going to redo it again. I think it's important for us to show, to explain the beauty of writing, the beauty of putting things down on paper."

Meanwhile, the digital age has expanded the boundaries for writing. The company has launched Moleskine Smart, for example, which is a notebook with a special ink that is connected to the phone of the user.

"That's a way for us to use generative AI digital tools to make sure that what you write is also available on your best companion, which is your phone.

"You can still enjoy the pleasure of writing, and have all the benefits of being able to color, send and email it," he said. "Again, the whole starting point is this is your life. The day you put the elastic on, it is private; it is your safe. No one can look at it. And we want to preserve that."

Archaimbault carries his notebook wherever he goes, as "writing is a way to fix my thoughts and crystallize what I have in mind. I can have a thought, but forcing me to put it on paper is forcing me to think it through properly".

He then shared a personal story about how he met his wife by writing on a Moleskine notebook. "I was so shy at the time that I only dared to write on a piece of paper, tear off the page and put it on her door ... I cannot tell you what I wrote on the paper ...but I was lucky enough I had my notebook with me. Otherwise, I would not have been able to write to her ... It worked, because I married her and we're still married," he said, beaming.

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn