As I do with every ystudio review, I start off by stating how much of a fan of the brand I am. The look, the feel, the marketing - all of it works for me. That extends to the Letter Paper Set as well, but there is one additional question I have to ask of the brand for the first time: Why?
The design of the Letter Paper Set is as beautiful and well made as all ystudio products that have come before it. It’s listed as part of their Brassing lineup, which is a bit confusing as this isn’t a writing instrument. It does carry the same black and brass aesthetic though.
This A5 writing pad contains a feature that you don’t normally see in other stationery products, at least not ones from this century. Behind each of the first 10 sheets is a second, carbonless, copy sheet. The idea, according to ystudio, is to write a letter, mail it off, and keep a copy of the correspondence for yourself.
I get it. It’s not a bad idea at all. Carbon and carbonless copy papers have been around for as long as we have been writing regularly, but I have to ask: Do we need it?
Even as a fun, throwback, stationery product, the ystudio Letter Paper set leaves a lot to be desired. For starters, there are just 13 sheets per pad, with only the first 10 of those sheets backed, as mentioned above. It also ships with 5 envelopes as part of the set, so in combination with the page counts, you have a lot of management ahead of you if you want to make the best use of it.
If you want to use this product as intended, you should know that fountain pens need not apply. I have a heavy hand when writing, so using something like the ystudio Brassing Rollerball is the perfect choice to effectively copy your handwriting to the carbonless page. With fountain pens, I don’t - and don’t want to - press as hard as it would require to see my words on the copy page, even with the built-in backing board giving me something to press down on.
As odd as I find this product, I can’t help but be enamored with the paper itself. Maybe it’s the ystudio fanboy in me coming out, but the brass lines on the off-white page really pop. The pages are thin, so there is some ghosting, and it is absorbent, so you won’t see much shade or sheen if you do choose to use a fountain pen, but there is no feathering to speak of. I wouldn’t want a 200 page journal with this paper, but give me a 30 page pad, drop the copy sheets, and sell letter envelopes as a separate 10-pack. Then we have a product I can really get behind.
Because right now, at $40, this is not a product I can recommend. Yes, it features the ystudio style I love, and yes, this is a brand that makes premium products and charges accordingly. The difference is that I can see a use case for their other products. There is a very limited use case to be made for the Letter Paper Set.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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