March 10 – Nebraska Lumber Dealers Convention (La Vista, NE) Canadian Music Week Begins (Toronto, Canada) – One of the “Real Big Days” listed on the Field Notes Calendar
We’re maybe not as hip to the new sounds as we used to be, but we know getting written up on Pitchfork still means something. According to the ‘Fork, we’re featured (or at least pictured) in The Report, a new zine/DVD/cassette/compilation thingy published by Chocolate Bobka. We don’t recognize a single damn artist on the tracklist, so it’s surely great and we’re ordering it right now to get in on the ground floor, like we wish we had with Slay Tracks.
P.S. Yes, that’s Jane’s Addiction in their trailer. Ironic? Not sure.
Speaking of our fingers, and their placement on the pulse, we’d never really thought about what boots match nicely with FIELD NOTES, but SLAMXHYPE kindly tells us we look good with Mark McNairy boots. McNairy seems to be all about reinventing the classics, so the pairing makes sense to us.
I’m a big fan of your notebooks and I was wondering what font you used when printing them.
Well, Antonio, we could talk about that all day! As you will find in the extensive technical specifications on the inside back cover of any FIELD NOTES memo book, we use the typeface FUTURA, designed by Paul Renner in 1927. You can learn more about Futura from Wikipedia or Typophile. It’s a versatile sans-serif typeface, and it has remained popular with designers since its inception. Renner was not associated with the Bauhaus, but Futura is definitely of the same clean, geometric, modern mindset.
IKEA’s decision to switch from Futura to Verdana in their catalog and signage caused a huge stir in 2009.
Director Wes Anderson is sort of obsessed with Futura. Most of the text in his films (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc.) is set in Futura.
If you happen to have Futura installed on your computer, the headlines on FIELD NOTES BRAND website look a lot better (Otherwise, they’re in Helvetica!).
And last but not least, FIELD NOTES BRAND has been named as the presenting sponsor of The Morning News’ 2010 Tournament of Books, continuing Coudal Partners’ long involvement in the tournament. We’ll have much more news on that as spring approaches.
This weekend we got two emails, one from my old friend Zach Matthews, and one from Jim’s old pal David Sutton. Both were wandering the streets of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and saw our Mackinaw Autumn FIELD NOTES in a shop window. Both of them were thoughtful enough to send us an eerily similar photo (David’s is on the left, Zach’s is on the right). The shop in question is dijitalfix, which you may remember from Michele’s Brooklyn Field Trip. Thanks, David, Zach, and dijitalfix!
Limited-edition FIELD NOTES COLORS “Mackinaw Autumn” 3-Packs sold out in presale via our email list, but there are still a few available at selected retailers or via subscription.
Writer Tyler C Hellard used FIELD NOTES to chronicle two days without modern technology for Calgary’s Avenue magazine. Avenue sent more FIELD NOTES to illustrator Kelly Sutherland, who used them for a series of illustrations for Hellard’s story “The 48-Hour Luddite.” There’s a taste at Hellard’s blog Pop Loser, hopefully we can share the entire story when the magazine comes out next week.
And if you’re sensing a “back to nature” theme here, you’re right. Patrick Ng, from Hong Kong FN retailer City Super, came across a perfect complement to “Mackinaw Autumn” FIELD NOTES on a trip to Korea: the “Leaf It” kit, a series of leaf-shaped Post-It-type notes.
Here in our beloved midwestern U.S., the temperature is dropping, the winds are brisk, and real leaves are starting to change color and fall, providing us with an endless supply of colorful bookmarks. It’s our favorite time of year but it’s always too brief in Chicago, where it’ll start snowing in a week or two. Of course, we’ll have limited-edition FIELD NOTES COLORS ready for winter, too, don’t miss out, subscribe now!
We’ve got lots of internet love coming our way lately. The “FIELD NOTES in Action” Flickr group has been busy, including great photos from jcm5399, who used FIELD NOTES to draw a schematic (above) of his Les Paul (RIP), and Radioboy who created an ad-hoc FIELD NOTES puppet theater. Also on Flickr, Owash has included our notebooks in his cigar-box travel kit.
Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Bryan Monroe appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper and Soledad O’Brien at the Michael Jackson memorial service, with FIELD NOTES in hand.
And finally, summing up our product with great eloquence, Blaine Hogan calls FIELD NOTES his idea capturing machine.”
Thanks, everyone, we truly appreciate the support! A few “GRASS STAIN GREEN” notebooks are still available through our FIELD NOTES COLORS subscriptions: get our limited-edition COLORS notebooks (and other goodies) four times a year before they sell out! Plus, we’ve got plenty of graphed, ruled, and plain notebooks in our online shop and at retailers worldwide!
A huge thank you to Edina and all the great folks at the Capsule Show that was held last week in New York. We met a ton of really cool people, handed out a bunch of samples and already have a mess of new stores that want to carry Field Notes. And we got some great press as well, thanks to the New York Times for the nice photo and shout out in their review of the show.
Our Michele is at the Capsule Show in NYC, hyping FIELD NOTES amid independent fashion designers and “streetwear labels.” If you happen to be a buyer for a hip clothing boutique, stop by our 6×2′ glass table and say “hi.”
If not, check back later this week to read about Michele’s tour of Brooklyn’s finest FIELD NOTES retailers.
We were surprised and honored to find FIELD NOTES highlighted today in Kevin Kelly’s “Cool Tools”, along with a DIY lamination tip. Thanks for the kind words, John and Elon, we really appreciate being included in such great company!
While we’re typing here, we should probably let you all know that the summer “COLORS” limited edition FIELD NOTES will go on sale in the very near future. Subscribers, your two 3-packs will ship automatically. Mailing list subscribers will get first dibs on the rest. Our first two COLORS editions sold out before we offered them to the public, and these are the coolest yet, so if you’re not on our list, sign up now.
