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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Tuesday Edition
Short Attention Spans = Big Dividends.
Jim's talk at last year's SXSW.
Coudal Partners
Stuff About Stanley Kubrick
The portrait of Stanley Kubrick above is by Antony Hare and is available as a big, beautiful print. We can attest to its power, we have one at the studio. As you probably have noticed, Kubrick is a bit of an obsession for us.
It All Started In the Washroom
The Lionel, the Richie and the Wardrobe
A while ago we hosted a quick contest called Booking Bands in which we asked people to combine the name of a book with the name of a band. We received thousands of entries, posted a ton of them and then randomly selected three and sent those people the book and a CD from the band that they mashed together. The process of coming up with funny or unexpected associations in this contest became a central part of JC's presentation at SXSW, A General Theory of Creative Relativity.
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.
I Read That Somewhere
A Certain Book in a Certain Place
It debuted last summer but it's just as essential today, check out hundreds of books Field-Tested online for planning your summer holiday reading. For portability and ease of use pool-side, you can't beat paperback Field Tested Books Book which is available now for just nine bucks.
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.
CP Labs: Shift Option Rinse
Shift Option Rinse
Can you really clean your computer keyboard in the dishwasher? With the help of the RinseCam 9000, Michele created a short film to find out.
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
Nice webcast... webcast... webcast... webcast.
The Videogame History Timeline dating all the way back to 1791.
By that, SD means this. Is it wrong to fall in love with a woman sipping juice in a robot suit from 80 years ago?
A batch of great behind the scenes photos of Fritz Lang productions, including the one from Metropolis we've grown so enamored with. Thanks Henry.
The Pen Spinning World Tournament. Via BB.
From photographer Ryan McGinley, The Highfliers.
Nice set of six porcelain espresso cups on a bamboo tray with inset saucers.
From an occasional series, Great Moments in Fresh Signals History. Thus Spake Zarathustra as played by a local school orchestra. Vans and the Places Where They Were. The Eisenhower Interstate System in the style of H.C. Beck's London Underground diagram. Lamentation of the Father: Laws Concerning Food and Drink. Panic's lost 1982 artwork, found.
A good, quick response to yesterday's collection of abysmal, absurdly-expensive Super Bowl spots: Have You Ever Wondered Why So Many Ads Are So Bad?
"It seems like a fulfilment of my childhood romantic notions of what I wanted to be when I grew up." Facts About Projection, Temujin Doran's ode to his job as a projectionist at London's The Screen on the Green. Via Doobybrain.
Justin Van Genderen's Star Wars travel posters. Via the Laughing Squid.
"You're six miles up, alone and falling without a parachute." So you know, how to survive a 35,000-foot fall.
This gigantic arrow is "a dynamically rotating electronic LED screen that allows passers-by to send in their favorite location and coordinates via text or email."
Sumedicina, a data fiction project, that tells a story through infographics.
American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life is closed at The Met but still lives online. A look back at the exhibition.
"All of the images featured on this site were captured using Apple's second-generation iPhone and Apple's iPhone 3Gs cameras. Images were processed using various iPhone photography applications only." Fab, from photographer Jeremy Edwards, iPhoneography.
Song of the moment, The Dixie Cups' Iko Iko. Via gmt+9 (-15).
The Whitney Museum of American Art has created a series of videos promoting the artists, curators, and events for the upcoming Whitney Biennial 2010, check them out here.
Stunning fireplace that will set you back a cool $9,700.00, the Zeta fireplace.
"The Haitian Poster project seeks limited edition sets of posters from artists, designers and design firms from around the world. The donated posters will be sold online to raise money for Doctors Without Borders." Read more here.
Loved this book, could not put it down. I had no idea this was even being made, trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Knit Meat.
The 9 Hours, a brand new take on the capsule hotel concept, designed by Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S.
The Nicolas Cage Adventure Set comes with 9 vinyl stickers and a double-sided play backdrop, allowing you to recreate you favorite "I have to warn everybody! Math is coming!" moments. Via bblinks.
"A dream world, drawn with sepia-colored ink on cream-colored ceramic. Magical forests, childhood memories, tree houses..." "Les Maisons Enchantées" 21 piece service set.
Related. The Catcher dust jacket, designed by Michael Mitchell. From the Little Brown first-edition and the Grosset & Dunlap 1952 reprint. (Scan via Scott Lindberg.)
"There are strict rules about JD Salinger's covers. The only copy allowed on the books, back or front, is the author name and the title. Nothing else at all: no quotes, no cover blurb, no biography." Seb Lester's typography for Salinger reissues from Hamish Hamilton.
Not to be clicked on after lunch on a Friday afternoon: Sound Sleeping's Drum Sleep Aid / Relaxation Tool allows you to mix your own batch of sleep-inducing loops. Via J-Walk.
That's Why I Chose Yale, "an introduction to undergraduate life at Yale College." It's also a musical. And one that knows how weird that is. Via Doobybrain.
j-me's Tape Dispenser is a C90. Cha-ching.
Orchestral trailer for Gorillaz' new album Plastic Beach.
@Astro_Soichi's twitpics from space.
A look at the Glass Plus and the Twin Wall, two new pint glass designs developed through the British government to try and curb glass-based violence.
Putting Weird Things in Coffee is exactly what it sounds like and fantastic because of it.
Check the dude over the newsreader's right shoulder.
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:
"At Jewelboxing HQ, case safety is #1 (employee safety is around #3 or #4, well below cake and beer safety). That's why we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of bubble wrap." 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.
