What's All This Then?

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What's All This Then?

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Thursday Edition

Michael Bierut, Jason Santa Maria, David Pasquesi, and many more
review literary experiences at Field-Tested Books.

Coudal Partners

Film on Paper

Above is a detail from a magnificent 1974 Cuban poster for The Godfather that was found while we were hopelessly and joyfully lost in the archives of Eddie Shannon's Film on Paper. Matt Singer wrote about the site for IFC. Here's a large collection of imagery from Ñiko, the designer of the Godfather poster.

Field Notes Brand Books

Fathers
and Sons

“My first memory is of my father carrying a hammer into our bedrooms and smashing open our piggy banks on the night Roberto died.”

"Play Ball!" Forty-one seasons ago, Roberto Clemente slashed a double into left-center field, recording his 3000th regular season career hit. That hit would turn out to be his last. The bat he used is the central object in Kevin Guilfoile's book, A Drive into the Gap, the first title from the publishing imprint of our Field Notes Brand. The book has garnered great reviews and is a story about baseball and memory, and fathers and sons. See a film, read an excerpt and buy a copy of A Drive into the Gap here.

Here's a longer excerpt, plus some nice video features from ESPN The Magazine, and to learn how the whole thing came about check this Gapers Block interview with Kevin.

Want a Milk With That?

You Know, For Kids

2001: A Space Odyssey Howard Johnsons 1968 Children's Menu. A fabulous find by John Sisson. It doesn't explain the film much, but really, how could it?

Field Notes Where We’re From

Seeds, Tractors and Fences

Aaron Draplin talks about Field Notes' heritage in a short film, From Seed and a small portion of his collection of agricultural themed American memo books from the last 100 years are now online at the Field Notes site. Tangentially related, Bryan and Jim walk through all 17 limited-editions we have made so far, in four very nerdy videos.

At the Very Moment

Gone Off

Luminant Screen Shapings is a photographic series of old tube televisions taken at the very moment they are switched off. The TV picture breaks down and is abstracted to its essential element: light... In contrast to the Luminant Point Arrays the Luminant Screen Shapings show black and white televisions." —Stephan Tillmans.

Copy Goes Here A Film

How Do You Spell Courage?

"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.

A Very Short Attention Span

Regrets, I Have a Few

Are you better suited for starting things than you are for finishing them? Are you easily distracted? Do you find it hard to concentrate on any one thing when there are so many other things to check out? Yeah, us too.

Spring From Field Notes Brand

If It Was a 4-Pack We Would Have Included “Fruited Plains” Too

The spring limited-release for Field Notes is made up of three picturesque memo books. It's the America is Beautiful Edition, we also made a film to go along with it. As usual it's only slightly related to the product, except in spirit of course. As an added bonus we shot in the film aspect of 2.35:1, Hello Cinemascope!

In with every "Beautiful" 3-pack is a classic water transfer decal, perfect for the back window of your muddy old pick-up. Here's some tips on how to install it properly.

Stuff About Stanley Kubrick

Denied Permission for an Emergency Landing at Clavius

Jim and John Gruber chatted recently about 2001: A Space Odyssey and other things on this episode of The Talk Show. For over ten years we've been collecting links and tossing them into various categories. As you probably have noticed, we're a bit of obsessed with a certain film director. In honor of a recent Chicago screening of a new 70mm print of 2001 A Space Odyssey, spend some time in our big messy archive of Kubrickian links.

Free Vehicle ID System

In Lieu of Your Family as Happy Stick-People

We have word that two readers in New York City, 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. More recently, John Heslop's vintage Toyota HiAce is looking badass in Wales. Our plot is beginning to take hold. Write for yours free today, but hurry, we only have tens of thousands left. BTW, who has a green Mini Cooper with the Fleet sticker in Chicago?

The Museum of Online Museums

Department of Collections

Check the exhibitions now showing at The MoOM and our "MoOMumentary," The Curators. The galleries will be rehung for the Spring soon.

May Guest Eric Smith

Hobo Lookout

Eric Smith (esm) is a Chicago-based designer and creative director currently working with Guaranteed Rate, located just five blocks from his home. He's spent time as Design Director for BenchPrep, a Lightbank funded start-up, and at Playboy doing both print and digital design. His two sons keep him busy providing assistance with all things Star Wars. In his free time, he draws Mythical Beasts, and keeps a constant eye out for the Hobo typeface on his blog, Hobo Shelter. For the month of May, Eric joins us as our Guest Editor.

A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.

Other recent features are listed on Page Two.

Fresh Signals

Swedishness. ms-yesterday

Watergate: The Video Game. There goes your 1972. I mean afternoon. bb-yesterday

Building A Human, an instructional film made by The Visitors for Human Collaborators on Edité-Frignim (Earth). dw-yesterday

MS: "Can I get one of these?" JC: "No." MS: "But NASA says it will boost my productivity!" ms-yesterday

Photos from Giro d'Italia 13, Stage16. Yowza. Via Veerle. jc-yesterday

Civilized London, Portugal Walking Tours and Verdant England. Fantastic "Travel Posters" promoting Delilah Dirk and The Turkish Lieutenant, a graphic novel by Tony Cliff. jc-yesterday

Fans dropping four figures for their own Daft Punk robot hemets. Via Stereogum. esm-yesterday

Amazing gifs from Istanbul-based artist Erdal Inci. More can be seen here. esm-yesterday

Wood Geos by Haley Ann Robinson. dw-yesterday

It's hard to beat a simple, dramatic demo. BBDO Moscow for Mercedes-Benz Smart. jc-yesterday

The Daily Mail has a look at some of the entries in this year's Weston Sand Sculpture Festival. ms-yesterday

"Clichés work because they are clichés." Bill Gardner on current trends in logo design. Via Quips. jc-yesterday

A new Man of Steel trailer. Plus this, "What? Guys, it's O.K. It's Superman. He's the king daddy. You should all be bowing down to him." Dave Itzkoff on "respecting the S." jc-yesterday

A rare piece that's both nerdy and fascinating, methinks. Tony Kroch uses a single famous sentence to examine the evolution of English, Protesting Too Much, for Language Log. jc-yesterday

jc-yesterday

Related to the last, "Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human beings if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat. But I want you to remember one thing, the folks back home is a countin' on ya, and by golly we ain't about to let 'em down." jc-yesterday

Relink for a hump day smile, a collection of nice Kubrick cinemagraphs. Via Matt Zoller Seitz. jc-yesterday

Chicago - Five Great Buildings. Via Chicagoist. dw-05.21

Categorizing People Running for Trains in Slow Motion. sd-05.21

Droga5's clever promo for Qantas airlines: Stories for Every Journey, a collection of books, with their lengths timed to those of varying flights' distances. Short film about it, here. sd-05.21

Trailer for the documentary about racing in the Midwest: R/C Racers. sd-05.21

A Grizzly ate his GoPro. ms-05.21

A lovely collection of time-lapse videos of our beloved city. ms-05.21

If you're anything like BB and me, you are anxiously awaiting Sunday's premiere of the new season of Arrested Development. Luckily for all of us, NPR has this wonderful guide to all the running gags from the first 3 seasons. mcj-05.21

"I put all the dishes away, is that OK?" and other questions that get all women horny. By Claire Zulkey. jc-05.21

The ornate tombstones within a cemetery in the small town of Ieud, in northern Romania. sd-05.21

For 600 days Yu Yamauchi lived in a hut near the summit of Mt. Fuji, getting up while it was still dark to photograph the sunrise every day, from the same location. dw-05.21

Clash box set with all five albums remastered. #TOBTM. jc-05.21

Hipsters rejoice! You can make some cash by just being you. ms-05.21

Drawn, one of our favorite illustration sites, is no more. dw-05.21

Volocopter VC1, an electric "multi-copter." jc-05.21

Footage of Oklahoma tornado forming yesterday. Sheesh. jc-05.21

James White gets The Great Discontent treatment and in case you missed it, last week was Jason Fried. jc-05.21

So you know, Fillmore East Shows 1968-71. jc-05.21

"...current maps, as we know them today, are obsolete." As demonstrated by this video, the size and shape of a place can be displayed in ways that go beyond strict geography. Timemaps incorporates public transportation and time of day to redraw The Netherlands according to the relative time needed to travel between places. Brilliant. More from the creator Vincent Meertens, here. jc-05.21

Related to the last, check The Scott Expedition, the site for Ben's next journey. We're proud that Field Notes Brand is a sponsor of the journey. jc-05.20

"My next expedition. I'm planning to set out to complete Captain Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Antarctic expedition for the first time. At 1,800 miles and nearly four months long, it will be the longest unsupported polar journey in history, and it's the biggest challenge I've ever taken on." Gear Patrol interviews Ben Saunders jc-05.20

Coast Modern looks great. "From LA to Vancouver, a legacy of inspired living by the pioneers of West Coast Modernist Architecture." Local note, it's screening on the 25th at Chicago Filmmakers. jc-05.20

Video for Kid Francescoli's Blow Up. dw-05.20

"The new visual system is thus like an elastic band." A swell new identity program for Haus der Kunst, Munich's public museum for contemporary art. Via Frank Chimero. jc-05.20


Page Two contains the previous 40 Fresh Signals, recent features, a key to the icons and the categorical archives.

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