Miniature Notepad

     This hand-held Mead Memo notepad implements a "flip-phone" design by laying out its spine at the top of the pad, as opposed to the side as most other notebooks do.  In so doing, the spine takes up very little of the notepad paper itself, maximizing the space provided to the owner on which to write. 
   
     Such a small notepad is useful for any person wanting a convenient documentation medium to take with them on the go, to temporary places and events like a seminar or school presentation.  A device like this provides an alternative to larger, classroom-oriented notebooks, which are  heavier to carry around may become mostly dead weight for the writer who only needs a small amount of space for their notes.  This notepad can also be useful as a grocery or check list, as seen in the bottom image. 
   
     The simple plastic cover and metal wire spine are typical elements of a notebook, both cheap materials that serve to protect the paper and bind it together respectively, but is otherwise far removed from anything ornate.  Even the graphic for the brand on the cover, a simple yellow block with white typography imposed over it, is very streamlined.  All of these design choices take attention away from these elements specifically to emphasize the paper, the main point of this notepads purpose.  

     A grocery list like the one displayed here provides poignant context regarding how this pad has been used since its purchase, and demonstrates its small scale through the size of the handwriting on the paper.  At the same time, this highlight's the notepads limited usability and disposable nature; with how quickly handwriting takes up space on the notepads dimensions, the lifespan of the paper depends entirely on the quantity of sheets installed into the design, which appears to be very little.
   
     The idea behind this design was to construct a handheld medium that effectively budgeted its limited space in order to provide a maximum degree of usability out of the pad.  The problem is also tied to the limited space, in that the designers needed to question how big they wanted the actual pad to be, how thick they wanted the cover and the spine to be, and how small or large they wanted to print out the spacing lines on the paper.
   
     Designs as sleek as this cover and spine are invaluable to the functionality of a product this small, yet they manage to achieve aesthetic quality through the simplicity of materials, color choice, and text.  The aesthetic design is appealing enough to draw the eye of anyone needing a convenient writing medium, but humble to ensure that it doesn't distract or detract from its main function.