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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Wednesday Edition
In Jewelboxing Case Study 15, we talk to polar explorer Ben Saunders
about breaking records, skiing across the arctic, and fighting off polar bears.
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.
Not Quite so
Fresh Signals
So you know, 137 years of Popular Science magazines are now available online.
Song of the moment, Reni Lane's Place For Us.
Still life with coffees.
Edward Tufte Presidential Appointment. How about that?
If you missed it Friday take a few minutes to check the third Layer Tennis Exhibition Match. Photos were shot and uploaded live from all over San Francisco and Toronto while a composer created a soundtrack on the fly.
A brief homage to Franklin Gothic from MoMA. Via Dinosaurs and Robots.
"Wolfe showing up to many meetings with freshly-written material, which Perkins would read, admire, and mostly cut." On this day in 1935 Thomas Wolfe's Of Time and the River was published.
"Can we call ourselves an institution yet?" The sixth edition of The Morning News Tournament of Books kicks off today.
Hollywood gets it right, for the most part.
Welcome to Google, Kansas.
Second trailer for Iron Man 2.
The graphic design of racing cars and Sven Voelker's Go Faster.
"The font that Apple currently uses on its keyboards was developed for Volkswagen in 1979." - @stko.
Old Railway Posters, and lots of them. Via Oded.
The idea that we're offering advertisers real value, that goes beyond just an accounting of millions of page-views is what our ad network, The Deck, is all about. John Gruber knows that well too. He and I will be talking about it, and other things, a week from Sunday at SXSW.
The Lolita of French pop concept albums: Serge Gainsbourg's Melody Nelson, a name that should be familiar to Movable Type users.
"I'd rather sign a contract with a record company than to sign up for the nursing home..." 69 Year old DJ Ruth Flowers.
The secret code names of 37 sci-fi blockbuster films.
"You used to hustle ping pong with David Mamet, right? Yeah." Zulkey interviews Jonathan Katz, who continues to win my vote as greatest person ever.
Tokyo Sky Drive.
Jimmy Gutterman's Greatest Song of All Time of the Day, Ennio Morricone, Once Upon a Time in the West. Hard to argue with that.
To class up your next party: The Sock Monkey Wine Sleeve. As indicated by the strange promotional photo, its appearance will result in your guests feeling a mix of joy, indifference, anger, and dumbfounded confusion.
It won't be long before we'll have to re-edit Dum Dah Dee Dum for Field Notes. So you know, subscribers to our mail list always get first crack.
"The moment it is successfull, kill it." A rare interview with the great Ronald Searle for his 90th birthday.
He shoots, he scores, he shoots, he scores...
Lovely proposed identity for a print & apparel shop by Mattias Mackler, Inkgredient. Via the latest link drop from Michael Surtees.
"We asked some of our friends to film their favorite tweets... The only rules were it had to be a tweet written by someone else and it had to contain the entire tweet and nothing but the tweet." Twitter: The Criterion Collection. Fab.
The Loch Ness Monster Lamp by 2-B-2 Architectur.
RIP, IE 6.
Still life with stout.
"But over time you see yourself reflected in parts of the city, and begin to block out the rest. Certain patches of sidewalk almost feel like they should be worn down by your foot traffic." So great, neighborhood treasures; Pictory.
The secret cities of Yemen.
A house built out of 6 million beer bottles.
From artist Dan Kenneally, Lunchbox. I'll take the Reuben, thanks.
Trailer for The Good Heart.
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.
