Helvetindex Cards Review

I have followed Aaron Mahnke for a while now, either directly via his Twitter feed, through his Read & Trust network, and even through his design work and various blogs. He is quite prolific - and I didn’t even mention that he writes fantasy novels! That would be enough to keep a normal person busy for years, but not Aaron. His latest project - the Helvetindex Card - has recently launched, and Aaron was kind enough to send me a pack to review.

If you have been around these pages for any length of time, you know I am a fan of the index card. I find them useful for a wide variety of tasks - notes, to do lists, brainstorming, mind mapping - just about any task you can throw at them. Best of all, they are highly portable. Throw them in your pocket, toss them in a bag, rock a Hipster PDA, and you are good to go! So, how do the Helvetindex Cards stack up?

The first thing that grabs you is the design. I love the layout, especially the room allocated for headers and footers. Regardless of the paper I write on, I always have a header of some type - either the date or topic - so I love this aspect of the card. The writing space has a white background with tiny plus signs in a grid pattern, very similar to any dot grid pad you have used. They are unobtrusive, but still provide a guideline or framework if you need them.

The paper stock is 3” x 5” premium 100 lb. uncoated cover stock, but to me, the cards look and feel like they have a coating on it of some type. This caused some inks not to work very well with the Helvetindex Cards, while some did just fine.

Unsurprisingly, fountain pen ink performed poorly. The card stock essentially rejected the ink, giving it a washed out look and taking forever to dry. You can see the Lamy Safari and Kaweco Roller (which uses fountain pen ink cartridges) writing samples on the card above.

The ink type that caught me off guard though were the hybrid ballpoint inks, and not just one of them. Every single one I tested looked like I was laying down the yellow dashed line down the middle of a freshly paved road. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Take the Uni-Ball Jetstream 0.5mm for example. I made sure the pens were primed before writing on the card, and even tried multiple cartridges out, but they still did poorly. I could write the same text on any other scrap paper and it worked fine, but then I would go back to the Helvetindex Card and it would skip. Similar pens like the Pentel Vicuna and the Pilot Acroball performed the exact same way.

The saving grace for me is that gel ink works just fine, especially since that is my ink of choice. There was no skipping, and the drying time was reasonable. The colored gel inks remained bright as well. I was worried that the large tipped liquid ink pens like the Bic Z4 would be a problem too, but there were no issues to speak of there.

Despite the various ink issues I had, I still love these cards. The design and layout is perfect for me - I just have to pay attention to which pen I am using.

Behance Action Cards Review

I am huge fan of index cards or note cards as an idea capture tool. We have all used basic index cards from the office supply store, and recently I have started to test out some of the premium brands like Levenger and Moleskine. The 3x5 Behance Action Cards are the latest to hit my desk - are they the best of the bunch?

The Behance Action Method was designed to be a productivity and project management tool, and while I am not a practitioner of the method, I can appreciate the thought and creativity put into it. The main difference between the Behance cards and all of the other cards I have tested out is that one side of the Behance card is dedicated to Action Method input. The colored side of the card has eight defined sections to add Action Steps, along with a date/title header strip across the top.

Flipping the card over gives you the open index card format you are probably used to in the form of a dot grid pattern. Behance uses the dot grid across all of their product lines, so if you are familiar with any of their other products, this is the same.

From an ink standpoint, the Action Cards held up very well to everything I threw at it - including a TUL Ultra Fine Permanent Marker. The cards are made out of 80lb. cover stock, and while that isn't the smoothest paper, I had no issue with any pen I used. The gel and ballpoint inks really popped off the card, and the ink in my Lamy Safari EF didn't bleed at all.

When I compared the Levenger and the Moleskine note cards, there were things I liked and disliked about both. I can't say there was anything I disliked about the Behance Action Cards, but I am not sure about the Action Method side yet. I see the usefulness, I just have to see if it fits me.

You can pick up 30 cards packs of Action Cards directly from Behance for $5.00. I grabbed mine from Amazon for $5.95 since I was shopping for other goods and took advantage of the free shipping. No matter where you buy yours, I think you will enjoy them.

Moleskine Memo Cards Review

After my Levenger Note Cards review last week, I figured I would back it up with these Moleskine Memo Cards pretty quickly. While they both appeal to the same audience, they are both very different when comparing the two directly.

The Moleskine Memo Cards come packaged 20 to a pack, with 10 gridded cards and 10 lined cards. Unlike the Levenger cards, they are printed on both sides. They measure 3 /12" x 5 1/2" and also have rounded corners, which I really like as a design element on these cards. One of the issues I have always had with Moleskine products is the poor quality of the paper, and if you have used a Moleskine product before, then you are familiar with how these memo cards perform.

The micro tip pens like the Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.25mm gel ink pens perform poorly, as do many of the finer gel ink pens (although the Signo DX 0.38mm is not bad), but the wider gel ink pens and the liquid ink pens do a nice job. What really surprised me was how well my fountain pens performed. While I would have a tough time even using them on the Levenger cards, I thought they were great on the Moleskine cards. Who knew?

But now for the real kicker - the price. Holy cow are these expensive. My 20 pack was $8.95 at Amazon, making them nearly 8 times more expensive than the Levenger cards. While there are several things I like about these Moleskine cards, there is no way I could justify that price in any quantity. Heck, I'm scared to use the remaining ones I have in case certain retailers start taking them as a form of payment.

Out of the higher end note cards, I still need to try out the Exacompta (I have some on order), but right now the Levenger cards are looking like the winner.