On the outside, it looks much like any other lined composition notebook – and for a moment, the lines inside might even fool you by being the classic light horizontal blues and vertical reds we are used to … but that moment does not last long.

It starts with simple waves, but as the pages unfold this blank book tells a series of clever stories. One page hints at the rays of an abstract sun, while another looks like it is being sucked into a black hole. There are curves, mazes and more. The idea by Marc Thomasset is aptly titled “Inspiration Pad” – but is it too late to capture most imaginations?

There was a time when the notebook fad referred to a different kind of pad. These days you have to specify what kind of notebook you mean – it used to be you just specified the type of paper. White or yellow? Graph or lined? Contact or copy? For printouts or notes? Transparent vellum or faux parchment?

Perhaps this project is a sign that paper is becoming a bit of a novelty – or maybe it will send some folks back to the (physical) drawing board to see what they are missing.