A Deep Dive

Jump into six quadrillion gallons of fresh water with Field Notes’ Summer 2022 Quarterly Edition. “The Great Lakes” set of five Memo Books celebrates Lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Indigenous peoples’ deep knowledge of these five glacier-carved lakes served them well for agri­culture, hunting, and trade. Today, the Great Lakes continue to connect Midwestern manufacturing towns to the rest of the world. These waterways have brought people together for thousands of years. If you grew up around Marquette, Manitowoc, Mentor, or Mississauga, the Great Lakes are your frame of reference, and anywhere in the region feels like home.

Our Chicago HQ sits just a couple miles from Lake Michigan, so a Great Lakes set has been on our minds for years. Neenah’s vibrant Cobalt Techweave cover stock gave us inspiration for the isometric triangle rendering of the lakes found on the covers, with each book’s featured lake highlighted in silver ink.

The inside pages feature a light-gray graph, with a fold-out spread in the back of each book featuring a map of each lake’s cities, landmarks, depths, shipwrecks, ferries, and more. You’ll also find a few paragraphs about each lake’s history, lore, and aquatic life, plus a full page of geological data.

Letters Home from the Shore

While researching the Great Lakes, we came across some vintage linen postcards that led us into the fascinating world of Chicago’s Curt Teich & Co, who developed and marketed millions of vibrant “C.T. Art-Colortone” postcards in the first half of the 20th Century. We set out to recreate the Teich process and style as closely as possible using a combination of old and new methods. It all started with a visit to the Newberry Library, then an epic 1,300-mile road trip, all documented in our latest film. The postcards are included free with subscription shipments or can be purchased separately.