The Five Star Mead tag line is “built to last,” which is pretty accurate given that I acquired this clipboard thing so very many years ago that there seems to be no record whatsoever on their website of it, so I can’t tell you what it’s actually called. In my daily quest to sublimate the anxiety of this nightmare world into random little drawings, this clipboard has become for me a sort of portable desk (my actual desk has become a monument to how many unorganized objects I can pile on it without them falling over).
My DIY notebooks are great, but need a harder surface behind them to draw on, which this clipboard provides perfectly with its fairly firm plastic. The fabric trim all around makes it comfortable to hold onto. The lever to open the clipboard folds down, for those times when I need to put down my pencil and stare off mindlessly into the screaming void of existence but don’t want my pencil to stage an escape of its own. The metal on the clip did rust at some point, but that defect was easily covered up with some washi tape.
But the real bonus about this clipboard is not one but TWO pocket systems on the back. Up top, the big pocket holds standard-sheet-of-paper-sized documents, with a Velcro flap to keep them securely in place. On the bottom, a smaller zippered pocket which fits pencils, writing utensils, smaller notebooks/bits of paper/what have you. It’s an altogether quite handy little organization system that I’ve used in the past for several keeping-track-of-official-and-important-documents projects, and now simply use to hold my sketchbook.
I’m pretty certain I got this from Crazy Alan’s Emporium easily over half a decade ago or more. Do these clipboards still exist in the wild? No telling. If you see one though and would like a handy clipboard for yourself, I recommend it.
No Pen Intended 