What's All This Then?
This site is edited by Coudal Partners, a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago, as an ongoing experiment in web publishing, design and commerce. [Next]
What's All This Then?
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Monday Edition
What are you Jewelboxing? (pdf)
Coudal Partners
Field Notes Colors Subscriptions
A digital still camera, a shopping trip to a craft store, some moss and a shiny pop song from a band from Canberra, Australia who we found through Twitter. Those and about 30 hours are the ingredients that made up this video about our first year of Field Notes COLORS. Thanks a million to Margaret Helen King for Amen.
How Smart Are Your People?
Check Out the Big Brain on Brad
Our logic puzzlers are perfect for starting arguments at home or at work. Einstein's Fish, School of Government, Da Vinci's Other Code and, of course, Which Porn Star Ate the Most Hot Dogs? C'mon Brainiac, let's show 'em what you got.
Vox Vocis
Poetry After the Beep
On a whim, we asked people to read their favorite short poems into our answering machine for a project we called Verse By Voice. And they did, creating maybe the first-ever poetry meme. Make sure to listen to novelist Zadie Smith reading Frank O'Hara's Animals and Laura Demanski reading Gerard Manley Hopkins' Spring and Fall. Note: we didn't include what is surely not Christopher Walken reading EE Cummings, but that's worth a listen too. Jim talked about this project during his appearance on Public Radio's Hello Beautiful! and the photos are courtesy of Sam Javanrouh's Daily Dose of Imagery.
Vehicle ID System Update
I Brake For Quasi-Religious Symbols
We have word that recently two readers in New York, who followed our guidelines for updating their vehicle identification systems, pulled up alongside each other at a traffic light and celebrated their common bond by honking and pointing. Excellent. Our plot is beginning to take hold. Write for yours free today, but hurry, we only have tens of thousands left.
A Retail Experiment
Today Is Not Wednesday
We're all about experimenting with stuff. Recently Michele came up with a totally simple idea for a promotion for our Field Notes Brand. We've done dozens of "buy two get one free" and "save $10" and "free shipping" offers over the past couple years but this time we decide to do something completely straightforward, without any preconditions, and make it as simple as possible. Here's what we offered. Results? We booked hundreds of orders and only a very few people bought a really cheap thing, like three pins from Pinsetter for $3, in order to get the $10 freebie. (We're looking at you Norway.) Anyhow, as with everything else it seems, simple always wins. Maybe we'll do it again someday. Maybe we won't. Subscribe to our mail list at the bottom of the right hand column to find out.
A CP Film Copy Goes Here
How Do You Spell Courage?
For the proper effect, check the trailer first and then please take a few minutes (eleven actually) to watch our short feature film about words, pictures and bravery, Copy Goes Here. In case you missed it, here's what our home page looked like when we debuted the movie.
a short film that seems longer
Long Day’s Journey Out of Iowa
Our Steve Delahoyde is a man with an iron will. An iron will, a subcompact, a girlfriend and an idea on how to make a regular drive more, er, interesting. Note: All the driving worked. Claire and Steve are now Mr. and Mrs..
Two For The Dead
All Hallows’
It's often lost in the candy-coated, super-styled proceedings of the holiday, but Halloween is really all about departed souls and dealing with loss. Also for Halloween, Jason Santa Maria has collected some short writings on the subject of candy. Jim has contributed a warning in verse. Heed this well, young costumed beggars.
Einstein's Puzzler
Whose Fish?
An annual tradition. It's never too early to start planning what your family is going to argue about at this year's Christmas party. Enjoy the day and remember, our Albert Einstein's Fish Puzzle is available as a nice-looking, free, printable PDF file. It's perfect for proving to your Uncle George that he's not all that, brain-power wise, and it's certainly more enjoyable that talking about health care.
Vermouth and Beauty
Perfect
Many things are debated in this studio: Politics. Sports. Books. Film. Especially film. While there may be room for argument on this subject, there's very little room for vermouth. We're not sure why you'd want to, but if you'd rather order up something different from the bartender, you'll find a ton of ideas in our huge collection of Friday Drink Links.
Not Quite so
Fresh Signals
1960's Scandinavian design logos.
More George Lois Esquire Covers.
From the pebbly matte steel skin to the zippery feel of the margin controls and the interchangeable "golfball" element, the Selectric stands as an icon of industrial design and a shape that still defines an era of modern business. The designer? Eliot Noyes. Maybe you don't know him? Maybe you should.
"In one swift stroke, the age-old and artificial separation between copy and design was dissolved." ADC HoF Robert Gage.
Still more on design in the 60's, "I finished up three ads, went on vacation to St. Thomas, depressed, came back two weeks later, and I was a star." An outstanding interview with Helmut Krone. And, highly recommended, The book.
Related to the last, George Lois and the stories behind his twelve favorite classic Esquire Magazine covers. Priceless. Via Kottke.
"...translates the visual insights of his age into the patterns of everyday life." Steve Heller on becoming a designer in the Age of Aquarius.
Alex Merto's steamy typeface.
The ads "tended to use tropes borrowed from science fiction and from mid-century modern design to convey a sense of fantasy and possibility around the process of technological emergence that was erupting." Better Than Apollo: The Space Program We Almost Had, Alexis Madrigal chats with Megan Prelinger about her fabulous-looking new book Another Science Fiction. Cha-ching.
The human body as a subway map. Fab.
So you know, 24 fast food restaurant secret menu items revealed.
Saturn's moon Helene from Cassini.
"Airlocks provide a buffer zone between incompatible environments and are a perfect example of how architecture can function as a spatial interface." YOU SUCK: An Airlock Lexicon.
Very cool, vinyl record grooves under an electron microscope.
Masterpieces of minimalism or cheap furniture? An artist or an ape? Familiar-looking online quizzes as art satire.
Silence Television, illustrations and prints by Gianmarco Magnani. Sweet lines and machines. Love the "Forgotten Monarchy" series. Via Netdiver.
Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th.
Gruber just posted this great piece of historical nerdery by Tandy Trower, "The Secret Origin of Windows," which lead me to hunt for the tale of IBM's TopView and the complete OS/2 timeline. I'm going to stop now before the rest of my afternoon is consumed with something like AmigaOS.
The history of proposals for moving sidewalks in New York from around the turn of the last century.
Everything is Terrible announces their pick for World's Most Action Packed Action Movie, 1987's Deadly Prey.
Here's what was going on in Italy in 1979: Stefania Rotolo Goldrake Live Appearance.
The commercial work of director Joachim Back, who just won an Oscar for his short film The New Tenants. Scroll down and start with "Milkman."
The NESynth in action. Via Peachfuzz.
Real doctors review each episode of the medical drama tv show House.
James Patrick Gibson's New Type York, a daily archive of images of typographic artifacts. Via @H_FJ.
Just in time for spring, bike lanes on Google Maps.
At Last- the full story on how Facebook was founded. Via MeFi.
Related to the last, Restoring Modernism, a video interview with Ron Krueck, lead architect on the project.
Mies van der Rohe's 860-880 Lake Shore Drive refurbishment by Krueck & Sexton, a spectacular job, nicely photographed and presented by Dezeen. Via a guy who has lives there, Edward Lifson.
I'm so ready for Friday, the new Apple product looks totally amazing.
For those heading to Austin for SXSW, Sarah Hepola took an extensive breakfast-taco tour.
Ditoria, a sweet short film about letterpress. Via The Casual Optimist.
In the tradition of our Booking Bands project, welcome to the Indie-Rock Delicatessen. I'll have the Will Old Ham with a side of Calexicole Slaw and wrap it up so it's OK to Go. Thanks Matthew G.
Southern Depictions, an exquisite set of black and white portraits by Donna Pinckley.
A couple of Field Notes notes, Poppytalk customized some FN for a swag bag at a screening of Handmade Nation. Brandon McLean included FN in a collage called Source Material Installation at a Urban Outfitters in Ybor City. Spring comes early today for FN mail subscribers.
Back to the Cover Page.
Find a JobIcon Key
What all those little square icons in Fresh Signals mean.
A post from our monthly guest editor. The complete
listing af all the people we owe favors can be found here.
We love these products so much we even paid for them.
A post with this icon may well end up in our Museum of Online Museums.
About Depth of Field.
Not to be missed.
A Friday Drink Link. Hic.
Film feed. Short attention span video theater.
Having to do with our Field Notes Brand.
What we just talked about at lunch.
A Thing We Made:Field Notes
Field Notes Brand memo Books and more. "I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing it down to remember it now." A CP/DDC joint.
Some Other Things We Made:
We hated the options available for custom packaging DVDs and CDs so we created a brand that gives creative professionals and hobbyists the tools to make great stuff. Here's a bit from the latest Jewelboxing weblog entry:
"If you want something that isn't available or doesn't exist, there's no reason not to just make it yourself." Read the entire post.
Pinsetter: Spell with buttons.
The Deck Network. Interested in getting your product or service in front of millions of savvy, curious remarkably good-looking people? Give a shout.
