A MONTHLY UPDATE FROM INSIDE FIELD NOTES | | Hi, it’s Jim from Field Notes. This is the fourth edition of our new-ish monthly mail, containing a variety of stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Please respond to this email if you have comments, questions, or suggestions. | | TLDR Version: Delicate Balance, Noticing, Holiday Shop, Moments, Lists & Rec, Take Half a Year Off, In-Between, Photos of Joe, 1+2=3 | | We’ve processed a ton of orders over the last couple weeks, and we are seeing some delays in tracking and updates from our shippers. Your stuff is on the way, and your patience is appreciated. As usual for this time of year, shopping early is a good idea. | | Sometimes we overthink things. In an effort to (I apologize in advance for the overworn phrase I am about to use here) surprise and delight our customers, we get caught up in “surprise” as it relates to innovation, and don’t give enough consideration to the fact that “delight” often comes from familiarity. For “Birch Bark” and “Heartland,” our two most recent limited editions, we leaned backwards, into the past, and we’re proud of the way they turned out, and gratified at the positive reception they have received. | | This doesn’t mean we won’t be trying crazy new things going forward. We’re pretty sure you’ll dig the AI-designed, edible, Tik-Tok-collab Memo Books we have planned for the spring. | | A little while ago a notebook brand called Field Notes became all the rage with designers and digital people. On the covers they said: “I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now.” That’s the essence of all this. | | I write in a notebook every day. But I almost never go back and look at what I wrote. Writing in a notebook is about transferring things from the world to your brain, not to your notebook. Your notebook is a lens for looking at the world, not a box to keep it in. | | Friends and the Things They Make | | If you’re in Chicago, or can get here, we’re hosting a Holiday Shop on December 16 and 17 at HQ. We’ll be open Saturday and Sunday from 10 to 4pm and we’ve invited a bunch of our most creative friends to come show their work: The Bird Machine, Busy Beaver Button Co, Ben Blount, Justin Santora, Nerfect, Beside Ourselves, Bees Nisi, Landland, and Dan McCarthy. | | Our Holiday Shop is the same weekend as Renegade Craft Fair, which will be going on just a couple blocks east of us. So come see us both, but maybe bring your credit card to HQ first. | | We’ll have our complete line of products on hand, as well as a selection of “Rarities” from The Archives. Parking plus nerdy type, design and printing conversations will be available. Coffee too. | | We’re always touched when we discover Field Notes have played a meaningful role in people’s lives. Our notebooks have been to hundreds of weddings, serving as bridal party or attendee gifts, or as a repository for many couples’ vows. We even occasionally receive invitations to these weddings, and one of these days we are going to rent a bus and all show up at one. | | We’ve heard from folks using Field Notes to track pregnancies, school grades, medical treatments, romances, family trips, and all sorts of other life moments. Once in a while we get a mail that knocks us for a loop, like this one. Thank you JG, for the note, and for allowing us to share it. | | He could not do much physically, but he enjoyed writing in his Field Notes every day. I would often find him asleep with a pen in his hand and the journal in his lap. He would then wake up and start writing again. He always dreamed of overlanding if he beat his cancer. That was not in God’s plan, but I think the journaling helped him imagine being in the “field.” His field journal was a part of the display at his visitation and funeral along with other items that were meaningful to him. I don’t imagine this is something you thought your product would have an impact on, but it did and I am grateful for it. | | Long productive afternoons
that stretch into golden evenings
are past now Shadows are quick
And follow closely behind us
Then disappear altogether
as days rush into darkness It’s a time for finishing
For planning
For putting things up for the future
and down for the winter Chores turn to mornings
mornings to days
to weeks
to seasons The in-between time has its own rhythm
It’s slower and shorter
but still determined
after all, things do need to get done For the film that accompanied the debut of our Winter 2023 release, the “Heartland” Edition. | | A Highly Caffeinated Bunch | | Note to self. When announcing a photo contest in a mail to a large group of Field Notes people, consider that those folks are likely sitting somewhere with a phone and a notebook handy, and since it’s the morning, a high percentage of them will have a cup of coffee going too. So, if you ask them to send you a photo of a Field Notes and a cup of Joe, pretty much all of them will do so. Immediately. Thanks for the zillion entries. If you missed it, here are the winners of last month’s contest. | | * Coined a long time ago in the Field Nuts Facebook group, “Staple Day” is traditionally observed when a writer reaches the exact middle of a Field Notes Memo Book, revealing the metal fasteners which bind the cover and the interior pages together. | | | | |
