Behance, Action Method Dot Grid Journal

I liked the dot grid and the larger sheet size, but it will not lay flat like a Moleskine. In fact, the binding has come loose and I have the binding and the paper in two separate pieces. I re-glued it, but since I am not a bookbinder, it came apart again. I won't but it again.

I ordered my very first Behance Dot Grid Journal back in November 2010, and it immediately became the only notebook/journal I wanted to use. It was perfect in every way -- the dot grid was sufficiently subtle that it didn't overwhelm my text and sketches, but it provided enough visual structure to keep my writing tidy. The paper was thick and satisfyingly velvety to the touch. Best of all, the journal was bound in signatures rather than as a stack of individual sheets, and this enabled the journal to lie almost entirely flat, in the manner of a spiral bound notebook. By 2014, though, the journal had been redesigned -- or at least remanufactured -- and now it is bound as individual sheets connected with a glue backing. The journal pages not only don't lie flat any more; a considerable portion of the inner margin of each sheet is inaccessible and unusable. This matters less, but the bookmarker ribbon also begins to fray uncontrollably within a few days of use in a way that the bookmarker ribbon didn't used to. The green elastic band gets stretched out. It is still an attractive and reasonably usable product, but it is no longer the Platonic ideal of a journal that it once was.Every time I find a new vendor offering this product, I order it in the hopes that it will be the old journal I loved, but it never is.

What I received was not the same journal that is shown in the pictures. The pictures show that each page is completely blank with a dot grid, and the elastic band is green. In what I received, each page is half blank and the outer half of each page is deep blue with some sort of organizational lines, and the elastic band is blue. I think what is shown in the picture is the Behance Dot Grid Journal, but what they are selling here is the Behance Action Journal. Don't buy this and expect to get what you see here.

The first page of the notebook is glued to the cover close to the spine, which makes it difficult to use the notepad- plus it leaves a gap between the pages and the cover. I was hoping I would be able to fold back the cover, but that is not possible. I like the paper and the other features, but I think I'll revert to my old paper covered notebook.