Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover  ·  20 pieces  ·  5 customisation techniques  ·  Singapore, January 2025

Genesis Core: 8 Jalan Besut

A limited edition commemorative notebook for Commonwealth Kokubu Logistics

When Commonwealth Kokubu Logistics (CKL) opened their new logistics facility at 8 Jalan Besut, they wanted to mark the occasion with something that would last. Not a plaque, not a certificate — a book. One that each member of the core team would keep.

The brief that came to us was unusual. The director wanted 20 individually personalised Leuchtturm1917 notebooks — one for each person who had played a pivotal role in making 8 Jalan Besut happen. Each book would be numbered as part of a limited series. Each would carry the recipient's name on the cover. And inside each one, a unique Haiku — written personally by the director in both Japanese and English — dedicated to that individual.

Twenty notebooks. Twenty different poems. One month to produce them.

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The notebook

The Leuchtturm1917 A5 Medium Hardcover in Navy was chosen for its colour — close to CKL's corporate identity — and for the quality of the cover material, which takes blind debossing with exceptional detail. The standard 80gsm paper provided a clean interior surface for the custom-printed pages without the need for specialist stock.

The customisation

Five techniques were applied to each notebook, working from the outside in.

1. Cover blind deboss — project identity

The cover carries the project name: GENESIS CORE / 8 JALAN BESUT, with CKL's logo mark embedded within the lettering. Blind debossing — no ink, no foil, just the impression pressed into the cover — gives the branding a quiet authority. The detail level on the logo, including the fine bar chart icon inside the letter O, required precise artwork preparation and careful execution. The result is sharp, permanent, and entirely premium in feel.

2. Individual name — matt silver deboss

Each recipient's name appears on the lower right of the cover in matt silver. Twenty different names, each debossed individually. This is what separates a corporate gift from a personal one — the moment someone sees their own name on the cover, the object becomes theirs in a way that no generic gift achieves.

3. Spine — UV print

The spine carries the full company name — Commonwealth Kokubu Logistics Series 1 — printed via UV. Clean, precise typography on a surface that most customisation suppliers overlook entirely. When the notebook sits on a desk or a shelf, the spine is what you see. It matters.

4. Paper sleeve — full colour

A full-colour printed paper sleeve wraps each notebook, featuring an aerial architectural render of the 8 Jalan Besut facility alongside the CKL logo. The sleeve contextualises the gift — it tells the story of what's being celebrated before the book is even opened. It also protects the cover during handling and gifting.

5. Interior — personalised printed pages

Inside each notebook, two custom-printed pages. The first: a letter from the director, addressed by name to the recipient, explaining the significance of the project and the choice of Haiku as a poetic form — a reflection of CKL's Singaporean-Japanese partnership. The second: the Haiku itself, written in both Japanese and English, unique to that individual.

Each book was also numbered — 1/20, 2/20, and so on — making every copy part of a named limited series: Genesis Core, Series 1.

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The process

Total production time was one month. The longest part of the process had nothing to do with the physical production — it was waiting for the Haiku. The director wrote all twenty poems personally. Each one required thought, revision, and sign-off. When you're producing a gift of this nature, you're not just a supplier — you're working around the creative process of the person who commissioned it.

Multiple rounds of artwork proofing were required: cover deboss positioning, name placement, spine copy, sleeve design, and interior page layouts — each element checked and approved separately before production began. For a run of 20 pieces with this level of individual variation, the coordination is more demanding than a standard bulk order of thousands.

Delivery was completed in Singapore in January 2025.

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What this project demonstrates

The Genesis Core notebooks are not a volume play. They are the opposite — a small run executed with a level of craft and personalisation that makes each piece genuinely irreplaceable to its recipient.

What makes Leuchtturm1917 the right notebook for a project like this is the combination of cover material quality (which takes debossing cleanly and holds detail well), the colour range (Navy matched the brief without compromise), and the brand positioning — these are notebooks that recipients recognise as premium objects worth keeping.

The director of CKL didn't commission a notebook. He commissioned something that each of his twenty core team members would put on their desk, open, and remember.

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Customisation options used in this project

Technique	Where applied	Detail
Blind deboss	Front cover	Project name and logo mark with fine internal detail
Individual name deboss — matt silver	Front cover	Unique per recipient, 20 different names
UV print	Spine	Company name and series number
Full-colour printed sleeve	Cover wrap	Architectural render and corporate logo
Custom interior printed pages	First two pages	Personalised letter and unique Haiku, addressed by name

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Commission a corporate notebook project

We are the exclusive authorised distributor of Leuchtturm1917 for Singapore and Malaysia. Corporate notebook projects — from straightforward logo embossing on bulk orders to complex, individually personalised commissions like Genesis Core — are handled directly by our team.

If you have a project in mind, the earlier we talk, the more we can help with. Brief us on your quantity, your timeline, and what you want the recipient to feel when they open the box.