Grade A

Gabriel Benderski writes, “I would like to share with you a project that I recently finished where I used my “Pitch Black” Field Notes as my main tool. I challenged myself to create many lowercase “a”s with a square counter shape on a 3x3 grid. Result: 245.” Check Gabriel’s A+ video too. BTW, Pitch Black will be back in stock very soon.

All Quiet on the Midwestern Front

The period between the Spring and Summer Quarterly Limited Editions is generally fairly uneventful, except of course, when it isn’t. Behind the scenes, there’s a mountain of stuff in the works. We have five different products in production currently, in a variety of locations. That means lots of press checks, film/photo shoots, copywriting, coding and deadlines. All will be revealed pretty soon. Let’s just say that right now is a very good time to start a year-long subscription with the “Utility” Edition. A very good time.

Also, the shop in Chicago is open weekdays from 9 to 5 and we’re planning some fun events at HQ. For example, on Thursday, April 27th we’re hosting FNZN, Field Notes Zine Night. Come on by for art, drinks and fun. Also, go directly to your Workstation Calendar right now and circle Saturday, May 6th, and make a note that you are going to be busy that day. Trust us.

INSIDE EDITION

In case you’re curious, we’re selling approximately four Engineer Graph 3-Packs of the “Utility” Edition for every three we sell with Ledger-styled innards. We didn’t really have any idea which would be more popular. At first, graph was way ahead, but ledger has been steadily catching up since them. 

“We love genuinely useful and well made pieces of everyday carry here at Coolector HQ and the Field Notes Brand Utility Notebook definitely falls into that bracket.” Thanks for that.

If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the accident-prone film that accompanied the launch. Safety first! And please don’t mention any of this to OSHA.

FOUR STARS

Yesterday (April 4) marked the 100th birthday of Chicago’s iconic and much-loved municipal flag. Robert Loerzel wrote a nice piece today about its origins.

“Rice won a contest the city was holding for a flag design — a contest he just happened to have written the rules for — and the City Council officially made it the municipal flag on April 4, 1917. A third star and a fourth were added later.”

More on the flag’s vexillological superiority in the description of our Chicago “Hometown Series” 3-Pack.

ROUND TRIP

We’ve added quite a few new retailers recently, in lots of places. Welcome to the iconic Corner Drug which has been serving Woodland, California since 1897. Also Papier & Stift, which is located on Butzbacher Germany’s beautiful Market Square and then back to California for Kuarto, an eclectic shop in Long Beach.

If there’s a shop in your neighborhood that should be carrying Field Notes Brand products, drop us a line about it. If we get in, we’ll send you some presents.

Various and Sundry 

Thanks to Outside Magazine for including us in their recent post on 20 Pieces of High-Quality Gear for $20 or Less.

“Somebody making notes on Shakespeare from the same century as Shakespeare.” Some day in the 2400’s one of your relatives is going to take one of your Memo Books onto Antiques Roadshow. Write neatly.

Aaron Draplin designed the cover for John Hodgman’s new book, Vacationland. And it’s a beauty. Aaron is on his spring tour, if he’s anywhere nearby, make a point to go see him, you won’t regret it.

Now that the The Morning News Tournament of Books is over for this year, check the comment stream for tons of great recommendations of books that may or may not make it onto the “long list” for next year. Also, there are a few of our special edition Field Notes memo books available. Pick up a couple and help us raise money for kids and 826 National. The ToB and 826 sponsorship is pretty much our favorite of the year. Yay reading!