About Dingbats
Dingbats* Notebooks traces its roots to Societe Kamel Bekdache et Fils, a paper-trading company founded in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1800 and one of the oldest established companies in the country. The Dingbats brand itself launched in 2016, applying that family's long history in paper sourcing and manufacturing to a line of eco-friendly, fountain-pen-friendly notebooks and journals built for bullet journalers, planners, and everyday writers.
Every notebook is built around FSC-certified, acid-free 100gsm paper (160gsm in the Pro mixed-media line) inside a vegan-certified PU-leather hardcover, and the company ships carbon-neutral worldwide. The Wildlife Collection, home to our featured pick, wraps that paper in an animal-print-lined cover with a pen loop, elastic closure, and numbered pages; beyond notebooks, Dingbats also makes guided journals for baby memories, weddings, dreams, and reading, plus its own Atopen pens. Coverage from Forbes, BuzzFeed, and Bloomberg has highlighted the brand's build quality and sustainability focus.
Brand website: us.dingbats-notebooks.com
What Dingbats makes
Dingbats's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Wildlife Collection
vegan-leather hardcover journals, dotted/lined/plain — featured on DeskRated
Earth Collection
ecosystem-themed bullet journals, pearlescent covers
Pro Collection
160gsm mixed-media notebooks
Guided journals
baby memory, wedding anniversary, dream, and reading journals
Atopen pens
fineliners and dual-tip pen sets
Recycled backpacks
25L bags made from recycled PET
Why we recognized Dingbats
The DeskRated Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Dingbats earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, used at a real desk, and judged on merit.
Dingbats products we rated highly
Dingbats Wildlife Dotted Journal A5 — Vegan Leather Hardcover, Numbered Pages
A top pick among the dotted journals we tested: 100gsm cream paper that resists feathering and bleed with fountain pens, wrapped in a soft vegan-leather hardcover with a pen loop, elastic closure, ribbon, and an inner document pocket. Its 192 numbered pages support both bullet journaling and free-form note-taking, and it holds a 4.8-star average across roughly 5,000 Amazon reviews, undercutting the premium bullet journals while matching most of their build.
Read the 9 Best Journals of 2026 guide →What earned Dingbats the recognition
- Five generations of family paper-trading expertise behind the brand, dating back to a company founded in Beirut in 1800.
- FSC-certified, acid-free, fountain-pen-friendly paper across every notebook line, including the 100gsm stock in our featured pick.
- Vegan-certified PU-leather hardcovers with no animal materials, plus carbon-neutral shipping worldwide.
- Strong real-world validation: the Wildlife Dotted Journal A5 holds a 4.8-star average across roughly 5,000 Amazon reviews.
- Press coverage from Forbes, BuzzFeed, and Bloomberg recognizing the brand's build quality and sustainability practices.