Last week, iA Notebook received the rare iF Design Award Gold 2026. Before that came Red Dot Best of the Best and the Japanese Stationery Award. We took this as a good moment to document how the notebook is made.
The film follows the process in the workshop. Paper is cut and stacked. Signatures are folded, then sewn. Covers are glued and pressed. Blocks are trimmed. Corners are shaped. The notebooks are wrapped and packed. No comments just looking at how it was made.
It is a slow, precise process. Each step depends on the one before. Small decisions matter. Pressure, timing, alignment. The book’s simplicity is built through a sequence of careful moves.
This short documentary is quiet but not silent. Its rhythm comes from machines and from the hands that guide them. Cuts, folds and presses form a kind of choreography. Watching the process gives a sense of what goes into each notebook.
