How Field Notes Went From Side Project to Cult Notebook. “One by one we fired all our clients because this Field Notes thing was getting bigger and taking up more of our time…”
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“There’s never been a piece of type on any Field Notes material that wasn’t Futura or Century Schoolbook, two beautiful, hardworking American fonts,” Coudal says.
Well, Futura was designed by German Paul Renner in the late rwenties of last century. How does a
Sorry, hit a wrong button. Cont:
How does a trained designer get this wrong?
To be fair, there's been many hardworking Americans that were born in Germany.
I was confused by that, too! But instead of looking it up, I made the mistake of thinking, "Oh, weird, I guess Futura is American???" Thanks for straightening that out.
It's kind of a strange thing to get wrong—and being wrong, it strikes a weirdly jingoistic note. As a Futura fan myself, I don't think it takes anything away from the font to know it was developed by a German for a "radical affordable housing project." (Via Futura's fascinating Wikipedia page.) Field Notes notebooks are so emphatic about saying "PROUDLY PRINTED AND MANUFACTURED IN THE U.S.", which, I'm happy for you, Field Notes, and I'm gonna let you finish, but the best notebook are actually manufactured in Japan.
Sorry folks, I must have misspoke during the interview. Aware of the history of Futura.
jim
We have given credit to Renner on the inside back cover of virtually every note book we have ever made. Also, Morris Fuller Benton where appropriate.
I think I learned about Field Notes from Kottke.org. I know that's how I discovered Coudal's Jewelboxing. And I think Jim Coudal was involved with The Deck platform. Anyway, Field Notes are one of the great loves of my life and my obsession with them went into overdrive when I discovered the Field Nuts group on Facebook many years ago.
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