In 2002, Doane Paper founder Chad Doane sat in a meeting about retail packaging and noticed something small but telling: Half the room used lined legal pads, while the other half used grid notebooks. Two camps. One table. It felt unnecessary. What if both patterns lived on the same page? He jotted down the idea and filed it away.

In 2005, after three years of effort and sacrifice building a Midwest based skateboard company that ultimately did not last, Doane found himself with time, frustration and an old idea worth revisiting. On Nov. 8, 2005, staring at a blank Adobe Illustrator artboard, he built the Grid + Lines pattern. A simple website followed, allowing anyone to download the PDF for free.

On Dec. 22, 2005, Cool Hunting noticed. Then others did too, including NOTCOT, Core77 and Lifehacker. The idea spread. Soon, people were asking for paper they could actually hold. Doane found a 50 year old school supply manufacturer in Arkansas and produced the first run of Doane Paper writing pads. They sold quickly. For the next two years, that pad was the company.

In 2008, with a recession looming, Doane expanded anyway, adding small pads, idea journals and utility notebooks. Around the same time, a relationship formed with The Pen Addict, introducing Doane Paper to people who cared deeply about everyday writing tools.

In early 2009, Uncrate featured the Black Utility Book. Orders followed. The first three months of that year outpaced the previous three years combined. Gear Patrol and A Continuous Lean followed with coverage of their own.

The first custom project arrived in 2010 with Red Wing Shoes: a chipboard utility notebook featuring a vintage illustration of the company’s headquarters. More collaborations followed, including uniball pens, UNIONMADE and the Colorado Office of Tourism. That same year, WIRED gave the Daily Arsenal Kit an 8 out of 10 rating.

In 2011, Doane collaborated with Jon Contino on a limited run of hand lettered utility notebooks and introduced DP Leatherworks, a small line of Horween leather goods made in the United States.

In 2013, the first of two Mountain Briefcase collaborations launched with longtime friends TOPO Designs. That same year, a redesigned website featuring illustrations by Jeremy Collins established 2013 as a benchmark moment in the history of dp.

In 2015, to mark 10 years of Grid + Lines, Doane introduced Moon Camera, a pattern inspired by the crosshairs found in NASA Apollo photography.

In the years that followed, Doane Paper continued to evolve in quieter, more incremental ways. Its notebooks found their way into Inc. Magazine, inspired new formats drawn from railroad ephemera, and were handed out at Gear Patrol conferences. The line expanded to include a reimagined composition book produced with Roaring Spring Paper Products, and in 2024, a simple No. 2 pencil made in Tennessee with Musgrave Pencil Co., small additions that reflected an ongoing interest in refining the everyday tools people actually use.

In 2025, Doane Paper marked its 20th year of making tools for thinking, planning and doing. To celebrate, two new additions joined the lineup. The reengineered Large Idea Journal, the company’s most requested notebook, returned with a renewed focus on the experience of interacting with Doane Paper’s signature Grid + Lines pattern. Production was brought closer to home, allowing for tighter control, improved precision and higher overall quality. Alongside it came the Father Bag Company + Doane Paper Lazy Sunday Tote, a straightforward carryall made for everyday use. Twenty years in, the work continues: simple goods, made to be used, meant to last.