I was thrilled when Erika contacted me about her Heritage Filofax – partly because I had never seen one before but mainly because it seems there is now a great supplier of Filofax in South Africa, which has always been a desert as far as ring binders are concerned.
I love these photographs, I adore the colour and that flyleaf, though I was surprised there were no internal pockets – not even secretarial. As Erika says, maybe that was to reduce bulk.
Enjoy!
Janet
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Hi Everyone!
Firstly, thanks to Janet for giving me my first opportunity to guest post. I have been a long-time reader of Janet’s blog and of Philofaxy, but have never actively contributed to any planner debates. The appearance of a rare gem in my local stationery shop prompted me to contact Janet and, well, here we are.
I have read the debates online about the ‘pro’ of the A5 paper size in ring-bound planners, vs the ‘con’ of A5 planner bulkiness. I have agreed with the pleas for Filofax to do a compact A5. It seems as if they listened, because I am now the proud owner of an A5 Heritage compact Filo in a deep chocolate brown.
Filofax have kept this a very minimal Filo. It has no closing mechanism and seems to be made from one piece of continuous leather, with a reinforced spine. The leather is supple and the Filo lays completely flat. For those who like a more stable cover, like that of a Domino, this might not please you. As I am normally at a desk most of the day I don’t think it will bother me. I also like a bit of give in a cover so that it is not too rigid in my bag.
The beautiful leather flyleaf inside gives you a place to clip your pen, store your business cards (or perhaps a nice picture) and keep stray bits and pieces in the full A5 slip pocket. This appears to be Filofax’s solution for supplying storage pockets without adding too much bulk.
The back of the flyleaf has a slit horizontally half way, allowing it to also be used as a half slip pocket if you need to secure something quickly (I think). This design is quite strange, as one might try to slip an item into the top opening and end up pushing it back out through the half-way slit. I will be trying it out to see what Filofax were going for here. Again, I think the designers were keeping the ‘bulk’ factor in mind above all else.
The contents of the planner are otherwise pretty standard. Mine came with numbered dividers, to-do list paper, assorted notes pages and a 2017 WTV vertical diary. All inserts are Cotton Cream in colour. The Today marker is a pretty brown and there is also a plastic slip pocket at the back.
The back cover is completely plain, inside and out, in keeping with the sleek minimalism of the binder.
Overall you can pack quite a bit into the planner, even though it only has 19 mm rings. That said, you can see that it remains slim and compact.
I am not sure of the pen loop. It is full elastic, so i would hesitate to shove my pen in there as it will cause the leather to pull. A thinner pen may work better here. My solution is to clip my pen to the loop. This does mean that the pen extends beyond to cover, but it is pretty secure and should suit my needs. I also plan to experiment with adding another pen loop. I should have a Leuchturm one lurking about somewhere …
So, there you have it. I have only had it a day, and I am known to be a bit Filo-fickle, but I have high hopes for this compact beauty.
I hope to see more people posting about this Filo. I would love to see more setups for A5 compacts.
Have a super day!