Taking dry-erase creativity on the road
by Kate Rutter
I have a new favorite thing: portable whiteboards.
I generally cruise the dry-erase supplies section of the office-sundries stores when I’m shopping, just to see if anything new and exciting has come out. And recently, I found this: cling-able dry erase sheets that stick to darn near everything!
I got a box of Easy Chart Dry Erase Sheets and put them up around Adaptive Path. And really, these are terrific.
Why do these rock?
- They are movable. You can move ‘em… use ‘em… erase ‘em… move ‘em again…reuse ‘em and generally make any room a creative whiteboard space. This means that any flat, mostly clean surface can be a whiteboard. And that means that you can bring your creative juices to bear just about anywhere.
- They stick great. Jesse tested them on: regular painted walls, glass, concrete columns, wood and bulletin boards and they clung just fine. Apparently the only thing they *don’t* stick to is another whiteboard. Go figure.
- They are a nice size: 23″ x 30″. This is smaller than most whiteboards (especially compared to the Adaptive Path monoliths) but perfect for creativity in tight places. And you can put up them together if you need more space.
- They are foldable. That’s right, I’ve carried one in my purse folded up in a Ziploc bag for the past month (taking it out every couple of days, using it and re-folding) and with a few shakes and a smooth to get the kinks out, it works just fine. Now if only whiteboard markers were as portable…
- You can make a template out of them. Draw a standard screen size in permanent marker and
prototype away. When you erase, the whiteboard marker comes off, but the permanent template stays on. Good for Elevator Pitch working sessions, device prototyping and screen sketching.
When combined with the yummy Tul dry erase markers, these are a match made in heaven. Go portable with your creativity!
Details: Easy Chart Dry Erase Sheets, made by Venture Products LLC. They come on a roll, and you tear off each sheet, kinda like a garbarge bag. About $20 for a box of 12. I got mine at OfficeMax.
Caveat: I’ve searched all the usual office supply suspects, and I can’t find an online source for these. I have a call into the manufacturer and when I hear back, I’ll update the post. If you track down a place to order online, please post a comment. Otherwise, sneaker-buying is recommended.
April 30th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
They are cool and make a good impression on clients. They’ve been around about 10 years; still pricey for what they are.
Here’s Avery’s version:
http://www.shoplet.com/office/db/RED24391.html
Does this brand erase reasonably well? I’ve ended up using the giant post it easel pads more often because they smudge less, and didn’t find we erased that often.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:53 am
Wow! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for this week – a way to easily throw together and tear down a design room. Thanks for sharing. One question though – have you ever used the sheets, left the sketches/doodlings/etc. on them, and then folded them up? I was curious as to whether or not the dry erase marker smudges when taking them mobile.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Thanks, Diana. Glad to hear your thoughts. I wish I’d known about them for the past 10 years.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Hey Jason: I’ve not transported sheets very far, but I did notice that if you leave the markings on for a while (over 2 days) then it’s a lot harder to erase them. Once the marker dries, it sets, and I’ll bet you could move them with no problem. But I wouldn’t fold them when they are still easy to erase.
Note that once the marker has set, you can still clean the sheets by using a whiteboard spray cleaner and a paper towel. It doesn’t seem to hurt the sheets to do this.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
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June 5th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I have also bought this product and have had nothing but good experiences. Easy Chart works much better than other products. I once bought a competitive product called GoWrite!. It constantly fell off of the wall – causing embarrassing moments during meetings
Dan
November 6th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Did you hear back? OfficeMax no longer carries the Easy Chart and we love them. Thanks.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
YES!!!! someone please get ahold of venture products. Their website sucks, but this is an incredible tool to use and have used it at previous offices. It’s so easy!! bring this back
January 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I found another site with both the blank and graph/grid sheets. I haven’t ordered from them yet, but I wanted to pass on the site home page for Louisiana Association for the Blind Store:
http://www.orderscenter.com/cart.asp?MerchantID=LAB00001
under Office supplies >> Presentation boards and accessories
http://www.orderscenter.com/cart.asp?MerchantID=LAB00001&Action=Catalog&Type=Department&ID=21&Offset=50
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
I just tried to order from LAB and got “Your Zip Code is outside of our service area. Delivery cannot be made to this address.” (I’m in upstate NY) – maybe Louisiana only? Maybe someone from LA could order a bunch and resell on ebay?
February 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am
These things are the coolest. However, I cannot find them in the office supply stores anymore (Office Max used to cary them.) They came and went quickly. I recently bought the last 8 packages in the store because they were obsoleted, and double discounted. What gives?
May 14th, 2008 at 7:30 am
In the U.K, we can’t get either of these products! I might have to order the TUL pens from the US just to have them, sigh, but can’t find any way of getting the Dry Erase sheets. If anyone finds an online source, I hope they post here…
May 14th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Update: I’ve again tried to contact Venture Products to no avail. Looks like the sheets are no longer available at Office Max, so I’m tempted to see if San Francisco is in delivery range from LAB. I’ll also try to find out who supplies them. I wish these were easier to find! I’ve used all my original ones up and now am hankering for more.
In response to Rachel in the U.K.: The Tul marker line is a private label of OfficeMax, so if you can order them via OfficeMax and get them delivered, that would probably work.
I’ll post any updates I have here in the comments.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I’ve just ordered a similar product here in the UK from http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/