There’s always been some of the American “can-do” spirit about Field Notes. When designer Aaron Draplin couldn’t find a simple notebook, he created one and, with the help of designer Jim Coudal, transformed it into the ubiquitous tool of students and creatives everywhere. No surprise, then, that in the latest edition of their Field Notes 3-packs, they would choose to honor one of the greatest “can do” endeavors in the nation’s history: America’s early manned space missions. And how they chose to do it…well, that was pretty “can do” as well.
To start with, each of the three memo books celebrates one of the space programs – Mercury, Gemini and Apollo – with a photograph from each of the respective missions printed 4-color process on the front cover, with an “Orbital Silver” metallic ink and aqueous coating added to bring it all to dramatic life. On the back you’ll find key dates, locations and personnel information for that particular program. The 12 pt. Westrock Tango C1S [Get Swatchbook] sheet it’s printed on makes for the type of cover you’ve come to expect from Field Notes – stiff enough to withstand everyday use without feeling like an unyielding hard-cover one. The grid on the inside pages is printed in extremely light “Firmament Gray” ink on 60 lb. Finch Opaque Text [Get Swatchbook].
All very nice, you say, but surely there must be more? Oh there most certainly is.
The larger-than-usual backing card for the 3 pack cleverly features the continuing clouds of exhaust from the rocket on the cover of the first notebook, and actually houses three punch-out sheets that enable you to build paper models of each of the three space capsules – “1:50-ish” in scale, as the detailed instructions explain.
This was actually trickier to create than you’d think, as they had to choose a paper that was heavy enough to function as a model, yet light enough to be rolled into the cylindrical parts that make up each spacecraft. The designers chose an 80 lb. Domtar Lynx Cover, with 7 spot colors printed by eDOC Communications, which also printed the notebooks. When assembled, the resulting pieces are…oh heck, I’m going to say it: Out of this world.
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