Field Notes - Heartland

ORIGIN STORY
Some Field Notes are “FieldNotes-ier” than others, and our Winter 2023 edition, “Heartland,” might be the “Field Notes-iest” yet. If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that Field Notes were born of the vintage agricultural and industrial pocket memo books that FN co-founder Aaron Draplin has been collecting for years. See Aaron explain in one of our early films, “From Seed.” We’re also huge fans of mid-century printed ephemera like the WPA posters that inspired our “National Parks” Editions.

Putting this all together, we asked artist and screen-printer Dan McCarthy, who illustrated three of the covers from the National Parks Series, to create a rural panorama across the covers of three books, each depicting a different time of day: sunrise, midday, and evening. The results are everything we hoped for, a lovely combination of theme, color, and utility that really capture the spirit of American farm life.

The pocket-size books feature McCarthy’s artwork printed on sturdy 100# Domtar Cougar cover stock. The body of the book is Finch Opaque 60# text with a “Big Sky”-blue 3/16" grid. Each book features a unique set of “Practical Applications” based on the daypart illustrated on the cover. You’ll find these books indispensable whenever you take a moment from your busy day to catch your breath and collect your thoughts — on the farm or wherever else you may happen to be.

Note that the books are packed in a random order, for more variety on display, but all 3-Packs include all three cover versions.

SPECIFICATIONS:
01.
Illustrations by Dan McCarthy, danmccarthy.org

02.
Proudly printed by the good people of Team Concept Printing, Carol Stream, Ill.

03.
Cover: Domtar Cougar 100#C “White,” with a thick, brute force, 4-color application of process soy-based Toyo inks.

04.
Innards: Finch Paper Opaque Smooth 60#T “Bright White,” with a fine, 1-color application of “Big Sky” soy-based Superior ink.

05.
Cover and innards printed on a Komori GL 640L 40" 6-color UV offset press.

06.
Bound with a Horizon SPF-200L “Bookletmaker” stitcher with dual feeder towers, with appreciation to Samuel Slocum, George W. McGill, and William J. Brown, the “Founding Fathers of the Staple.”

07.
Corners precisely rounded to 3/8" (9.5mm) radius with a Challenge DCM double round-corner machine.

08.
Graph grid: 3/16" × 3/16" (4.7mm × 4.7mm).

09.
Memo book dimensions are 3-1/2" × 5-1/2" (89mm × 140mm).

10.
FIELD NOTES uses only the Futura typeface family (Paul Renner, 1927) in its materials.

11.
All FIELD NOTES memo books are printed and manufactured in the U.S.A.