In the scheme of things it probably isn’t too nuts, but given my space it’s a bit of a bugger. They’re leaning against every surface and constantly getting knocked over.
In another life, when I was at college, we made these basic folios with a hardboard A1/A0 on each side, and about a 4 cm baton on 3 edges so you could just throw your pads & documents in and out. Crude but really handy.
Does anyone know if you can buy something like that? Basically a very slim box, A2+ open on one edge?
I know you can get drawes but I don’t have the cash or space… and I don’t have means to make one.
These are made from paper, and so will get knocked around & the corners damaged. Also as is, the way they open is no good.
But imagine one of these, no lid, three edges closed & one of the long edges open, and that’s what I mean. That can be stood on it’s edge behind a door, or against a wall, and I can just slide my pads in and out. Where I have more space, I could stnd two side-by-side, but they have a very slim profile…
And made from something tougher, like plastic or hardboard/ply.
The ones we made at college were exactly as I’ve described above. I figured they must have got the idea from somewhere… thanks
Nah, defo need to keep them, they’re mostly unused sketch and marker pads. Any finished pages I really want to keep, I store in folio cases with individual clear slipcases… and stuff less important gets binned.
Tape the box shut and cut one of the side flaps off.
Or go to a Fedex store or similar and find a flat shipping box that works.
As my grandma used to say, “Beggars cannot be choosers.”
This isn’t particularly fancy, and it is set for 12" x 18", but maybe you can remove the center beam, but it still isn’t deep enough.
If you want something your own size, you could probably create something on your own, a flat file rack I would imagine is fairly straightforward (then again, I’m not a carpenter.)
Some of the first things I purchased after graduating many years ago was a couple of oak flat file cabinets and a tall metal business office filing cabinet. They weren’t cheap, but I still have them and use them.
I bought them back in the pre-digital days when various types of paper were much more important than today and were an essential part of every phase of graphic design and production. In 2023, I open those flat file drawers much less often, which makes me wonder how or what you’re doing that makes paper and paper pad management so challenging in today’s digital world.
I have all kinds of pad bound art paper here in my office. It sits unceremoniously stuck between two filing cabinets. Since it’s only used for prototyping, clean and not faded are not important. I used to have a flat file I kept the paper and active job proofs in. But it was given away.
At home, art paper is kept in a secretary drawer. It’s a nice wooden unit I’ve had since the early 80s. Something similar to this, though not quite as beat up.
Ok, so imagine a pizza box, but, say A1 size or even A0.
Now imagine you’ve glued it closed, so it has no openings.
Now, imagine you cut out one of the long sides, so it’s closed on 3, open on 1. No tabs or flaps, just open.
That’s the box folders they had us make out of hardboard & ply at college. You’d just chuck your artwork in and out. Very crude but effective. They stacked them on top of each other, but I’d have mine standing up.
I’m basically wondering if anything like that exists to buy, out in the world, made of plastic of cheap wood…
