Field Notes: Heartland

From Field Notes:

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.

1. Illustrations by Dan McCarthy, danmccarthy.org
2. Proudly printed by the good people of Team Concept Printing, Carol Stream, Ill.
3. Cover: Domtar Cougar 100#C “White,” with a thick, brute force, 4-color application of process soy-based Toyo inks.
4. Innards: Finch Paper Opaque Smooth 60#T “Bright White,” with a fine, 1-color application of “Big Sky” soy-based Superior ink.
5. Cover and innards printed on a Komori GL 640L 40" 6-color UV offset press.
6. 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.”
7. Corners precisely rounded to 3/8" (9.5mm) radius with a Challenge DCM double round-corner machine.
8. Graph grid: 3/16" × 3/16" (4.7mm × 4.7mm).
9. 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.
12. Limited Edition of 30,000 3-Packs.
13. UPC: 850032279260