Friday, December 16, 2011
Field Notes ♥ Busy Beaver
We’ve been both fans and customers of the Busy Beaver Button Co. since forever. They’ve made buttons for Pinsetter, for Field Notes, and for a lot of our personal projects, too. So when Michele said, “Would you want to go over and film with them?” we were immediately out the door. We hung out in their office for a couple of hours, talking to founder Christen Carter, and put together this short doc, hopefully capturing a little of the greatness that is Busy Beaver (and along the way, showing how a Field Notes button gets made).
Fused I Say, Fused!
Field Notes: Making of Balsam Fir from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
The inside covers and interior pages of the Balsam Fir notebooks were offset-printed in “Wet Bark Black” at Envision Graphics in Bloomingdale IL, then the covers were sent to Diecrafters in historic Cicero, IL for hot foil stamping. This is FIELD NOTES’ first foray into foil stamping, and the process is shown in the video above. The press is a Kluge EHE 14×22, manufactured by Brandtjen & Kluge in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Hot foil stamping is fairly similar to letterpress printing (as seen in our Raven’s Wing video) but instead of ink, colored or metallic foil (or holograms!) are fused onto the paper with a heated die, In this case, a snow-white matte non-metallic ‘foil’ was used, rolls of the material can be seen mounted above the printer. Each roll was aligned to a specific print position on the sheet to minimize wasted foil. The finished covers went back to Bloomingdale to be cut, assembled, bound, trimmed, round-cornered, belly-banded, and shrink-wrapped, and they’ll be in your hands soon!
Letterpress and Rounded Corners
Wings: Making the Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Sort of like “How It’s Made,” but with much cooler music. Our new film is about about the making of the Fall COLORS edition, “Raven’s Wing.”
Introducing THE STENO
Field Notes: Making of Steno Book from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Enjoy this quick film about the production process behind THE STENO. The covers are silk-screened. You might also be interested in our previous printing films covering letterpress and foil stamping.
We’ve been listening. Devoted Field Notes fans have asked for a larger notebook, something to keep on their desks to go along with our pocket-sized and portable originals. So today we’re announcing the new Field Notes Brand STENO BOOK.
THE STENO is 6″ by 9″ with a black, Double-O Wiring spiral binding at the top, so it lies flat, open or closed. The cover is a beefy 60 pt. “Super Duty Chipboard” from Newark Paperboard Mills, and there are 80 pages of Gregg-Ruled, Finch Paper “Opaque Smooth” 70# text paper inside. We’ve been testing them here and frankly, we wonder how we ever got on without them. They’re the perfect form to keep open on your desk at all times.
Some History on Fire Spotters and the Star of Our Film
Field Notes Fire Tower from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Located in Oconto County, Wisconsin in the Chequamego-Nicolet National Forest, just two miles from the community of Mountain (pop. 860) and just off Forest Road 2106, the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower rises 93 feet, well above a tree line crowded with pines, oak, and maples. The Model LS-40 tower was built in Chicago in 1932 by the Aermotor Company, and was erected by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, first several miles east-southeast in far more isolated location reachable only by foot trail, and then disassembled by the CCC and moved closer to service roads in 1935.
In use for nearly forty years, from May through September of each year a trained fire spotter would live at the site, spending every daylight hour up in the cab keeping watch for smoke, reporting possible fires via phone to a central Northern Wisconsin fire suppression station. At one time rich with thick forests, which in turn created a massive lumber industry, the area was prone to raging fires like the 1871 Great Peshtigo Fire which resulted in thousands of deaths, twelve completely decimated towns, and millions of scorched acres. Incidents such as these created a dire need for towers like the Mountain Fire Lookout.
Originally surrounded by small living quarters, a latrine, and storage sheds, the tower itself is now all that is left on the site. The last fire called occurred on April 25th, 1970, and it is one of only 2 remaining towers from the original 19 that were built in the immediate area. After its decommission, it served briefly as a radio antenna/relay for local ambulance and law enforcement services. Between 1993 and 1994 the site was rehabilitated and converted into a public site. The Mountain Fire Lookout Tower was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Happy Holidays!
Field Notes Brand: The Northerly Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
Our thirteenth FIELD NOTES COLORS release, for Winter 2011, is called “The Northerly Edition,” and as always, we’re trying a few new ideas.
It's that time of the year again - Happy Holidays!
Wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
You can make your holiday a special one.
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