What's All This Then?
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What's All This Then?
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Friday Edition
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Copy Goes Here, a film by Coudal Partners.
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I had a fun chat with Stephen Callendar and Noah Bernsohn about brand identity and ecommerce on the Commerce Minded Podcast. Expect just a bit of nerdiness.
If you're in Chicago, join us after work tonight (Wednesday) at FNHQ for the "End Papers" release party, and tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Music Box for the Chicago premiere of Gary Hustwit's new film about Dieter Rams.
In glorious standard-defintion, enjoy one of our first films, Copy Goes Here. Man, we were young back then.
Thanks a million to Dan Cederholm and the crew at Dribbble for inviting me to be a guest on the Overtime podcast to talk about Field Notes, Layer Tennis, The Deck and bunch of other stuff. It was a blast.
Who's Fish?
Our KG wrote a short story called "O Death Where is Thy Sting" and now it's been made into a feature film that's debuting at the Chicago Film Festival. Rick Kogan on Chasing the Blues. Can't wait.
"Here, do something with these four letters." Jenna, "OK." Jay, "Sure thing." Phineas, "You got it." Matthew, "Hold my beer." Come meet these folks and lots of others this evening at
FNZN, a free event at our studio in Chicago.
Local note. See you tonight for FNZN? Field Notes Zine Night with tons of talented people, cold beer and more.
KG's son Vaughn is a chip off the old block. These Kids Who Named Their Baseball Team The Illuminati are Winning at Life. Amen.
Very local note, my high-school daughter Grace organized this event to benefit Planned Parenthood at The Metro on May 12. You should come, and bring your kids. Voices For Choices.
Related to the last, it was my love of those GI Joe spots that led to SD adding a pork chop sandwiches line to our CP epic Copy Goes Here.
Curious what's playing in the Field Notes shipping department? Our own DJ Corpse Fingers (aka MossTapes MurkCast and Meester Magpie) has a radio show now. (Yes, that's Dion at the wrong speed.)
A peek in new studio.
TBT, Weaver vs. Reyes Layer Tennis match.
We used to have some fun on Fridays, didn't we?
Speaking of SD and David Pasquesi, here's the film that pretty much sums up the short-attention spans that drive our company at Coudal Partners, Regrets: Hobbies.
Related to the last, we have two ad slots still open in July and a few more in August on The Deck Network. If your product or service could benefit by being in front of millions of curious web, design and creative professionals, give us a shout and we'll hook you up with a nice price.
The folks at Better.fy in Malmo, Sweden gave our advertising network the first Cloud of Fame Award for adhering to the principles of their Ethical Design Manifesto. Thanks for that.
A look back at Chicago's Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011, WGN is featuring their special that includes us and our Above the Sun film, on the storm's anniversary today.
"CBGB to Reopen as Restaurant in Newark Airport" What a headline! It generates such high hopes, then decimates them more with each following word. But we bet you can do better, we haven't had a contest in a while, send your entry to (contest over, email redacted). (We'll send a few winners some Field Notes.)
The Deck Network is booking First Quarter and 2016 schedules now. There are efficient packages available for multi-month campaigns and The Deck can offer a nice price to first-time advertisers too. If you want to get your message in front of millions of curious and savvy readers, start your new year marketing right, and drop a note to The Deck.
We've been uploading 4k versions of most of our Field Notes films to Vimeo for the past couple of years with the idea that, eventually, the service would open up 4k streaming. It looks like that day is getting close.
Our friends at Busy Beaver Button Co. are celebrating their 20th year in business tonight. Congrats, Christen! CP♥BBBCo!
Steve Delahoyde, still making the important films that need to be made: Chicken.
"Oh, god, yes—we're all just panicking and tearing our hair out over here." John Pavlus on our ad network, The Deck and how we will or won't Survive iOS 9's Ad Blocker Onslaught. (Sorry about the cursing Mom.)
John Pavlus on our ad network, The Deck, and ad blocking software. Sorry about the cursing Mom.
We're fine with knowing nothing, our take on privacy, reader tracking and ad blocking from the perspective of our advertising network, The Deck.
Throwback Thursday. Copy Goes Here.
The NYT is making its way through the members of The Deck lately. First Tina on Wednesday and then Aaron today. Is Jason next?
Stumbled on this from 8 years ago while looking for something else. The president we could have had, for America.
The unstoppable Motionographer joins our ad network for web, design and creative professionals today. Need to get your product or service in front of a large, savvy and curious audience? Give us a shout at The Deck.
A couple blasts from the past. Our Field Tested Books Book and our old poetry meme (really), Verse By Voice.
We're part of a cool new thing. Our Field Notes Brand is jumping in with other Chicago companies to support local voices through the Chicago Podcast Cooperative.
Inquisitive #24: A Third Way, I had a chat with Myke Hurley about Field Notes, The Deck and lots of other stuff today. Thanks for that.
The Layer Tennis Championship Match is live today at 1pm CST, featuring Kelli Anderson and James White. John Gruber's Match Preview is live now, Smells Like Vectory. LYT happens because of our pals at Adobe Creative Cloud.
Layer Tennis Semis live tomorrow, presented by Adobe Creative Cloud.
Live today, a Layer Tennis Playoff Doubleheader, presented by Adobe Creative Cloud.
Today's Main Event, Shawna X vs. Matt Stevens live in a Halloween-flavored Layer Tennis match. It's on, and as always, it's presented by our pals at Adobe Creative Cloud.
Steve, Bryan and a pal made a cool coin-flip for this week's Layer Tennis match. Patent is pending on the Shrink-Ray 4000, btw.
ISO one brave warrior for this Friday's Layer Tennis qualifier. Wanna play? Email layertennis@coudal.com.
Jones vs. Montiel was just remarkable on Friday. Layer Tennis, Presented by Adobe Creative Cloud.
USA vs. Canada. Friday Layer Tennis, Presented by Adobe Creative Cloud.
"Imagine the classic game Telephone, but using graphic design." Studio 360 on our Layer Tennis. Thanks for that.
We're hosting live Layer Tennis today, thanks to our pals at Adobe Creative Cloud.
There's no live Layer Tennis today but we're gearing up for a new season presented by our pals at Adobe Creative Cloud. Check last week's Exhibition Matches and, if you want to play, in front of God and everyone else, you might want to get busy.
Some thoughts on Layer Tennis and having another body in the room, from Austin Kleon. Here's his match with Kelli Anderson from Friday afternoon.
The participants for Friday's live Layer Tennis exhibitions have been posted. The whole crazy thing is presented by Adobe Creative Cloud. Thanks for that.
I didn't realize it at the the time this morning, but I guess Nick and I are sorta missing Layer Tennis. Thanks Melissa.
I Read That Somewhere, from the archives, our Field Tested Books project.
Someone put a GoPro in his dishwasher to see how it works from the inside. We did that before GoPro existed with the CP RinseCam 2000. Patent Pending.
I had a blast chatting with Cesar Contreras on Pencil vs Pixel about Field Notes, The Deck and even modern British and Latin American literature. Thanks for that.
Turn the Coudal Partners web design time machine back to spring of 2008 and what do you find? Good ol' Times Roman, set word-by-word, line-by-line.
Down the rabbit hole with Coudal and Jason Fried. Thanks for that, to Mark Bendickson.
Field Notes is not, in fact, sponsoring Reddit's /r/Notebooks section.
Divide and Conquer, I answered a few questions from John Pavlus and a reader of Co.Design's Design for Living series. Thanks for that.
For a short while in the mid-aughts, Coudal and Draplin's Shhh! offensive entirely eliminated poor mobile-phone etiquette, but in the decade since, the messages of the Society for HandHeld Hushing have been largely forgotten.
Local note. February 21st at The Hideout. Just sayin'.
Speaking of fish, who owns this one?
A million thanks to Margot Harrington (mah) for stepping in as our Guest Editor for October. Up next for November is a longtime friend and collaborator, Mark Greenberg (mgb) of Mayfair Workshop, the Coctails, and studio manager for Wilco's The Loft. A list of all of our previous guests can be found, here.
Here's an audio version of All Hallows'.
Local notes. 1. We'll be at NorthernGrade at Millennium Park this weekend for Field Notes. 2. Our pal Andrew Huff is presenting 20x2 at Martyrs' Saturday night with our SD and lots of other funny people.
Vincent Broquaire's Progressbar. Four stars.
Digital is Analog, my presentation from Wellington New Zealand and The Only Conference That Matters, Webstock.
Thanks a million to Myke Hurley for having me on his podcast, it was a blast and we covered a lot of ground. CMD Space #57.
A Night of Sky on Earth.
If you want to get a Dad a little emotional, show him a video from about 8 years ago with his kids doing the voice-over track. Works every time.
A very Unprofessional episode. Thanks for that.
Big favor: You may remember Mrs. BB from the Red Blooded video, She and her team at Foley & Lardner LLP are up for a Webby in the Law category, please throw a vote their way, so she can get a big raise and I won't have to quit Field Notes and find a real job.
We're psyched that Chris Coyier and the crew at CodePen have joined The Deck, our advertising network for design, web and creative professionals. CodePen is place where web designers can show off, collaborate and learn about cutting edge front-end techniques. It's also a great browse for inspiration and solid information. "Demo or it didn't happen."
In good company. Newcity's Design 50. Thanks for that.
My workshop from Webstock in two lovely pages of sketches by Jamjar. Thanks for that.
If it keep snowing like this for a couple days straight, maybe Dawson and Matthew can mount a return expedition.
Mike Reed stopped by the studio on his trip across the States. Thanks for that.
Denied Permission for an Emergency Landing at Clavius, I was on The Talk Show with John Gruber, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Next week I'll be speaking at Webstock 2013 with a ton of other people I can't wait to see. There are still a few tickets available, so if you're in the New Zealand part of the world or can get there, I'll look forward to seeing you too.
In good company on the back windshield of Luke Dorney's 1971 Volkswagen Deluxe Sunroof Transporter. Want to join the fleet?
We've been called a lot of things over the years but rarely "useful." Thanks for that to Melamed Riley.
Thanks to Glenn Fleishman for a fun discussion on a wide range of topics on his podcast, The New Disruptors. Our episode is Any Color But Purple.
I pledged long ago to stop posting about bacon, but this one's too hard to resist: SD made a video about Flesh for Food's secret underground bacon. Hopefully he can score some for me.
Never not find what you're looking for again.™
The people on our guest list are helpful and mostly polite.
In a significant, although not unexpected, move, Mr. Burns endorses Mr. Romney.
Our DW's pet project gets some nice press.
I'll meet you in New Zealand in February.
Sad news that the Black Hole Surplus Store in Los Alamos, NM will be closing soon. Not a big surprise after its founder, Ed Grothus, passed away in '09, but a sad loss regardless. We had the good fortune to be able to spend some time with Ed in the store a few years back for our film series Laboratory Conditions.
Editor Emeritus and CP alumni Susan Everett just returned from a pilgrimage to the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte in Florence, and sent this photo. Thanks for that.
Friday Afternoon. A 2+ year old can of Diet Barq's. Four Daring People. The Adventure of a Lifetime.
Apropos of nothing, the very first product we manufactured and distributed was a hot sauce that we gave away for ten Christmases in a row. It was called Whoa!
A huge thanks to Nick and Nadine of Sonnenzimmer (nn) for stepping in as our Guest Editors for May. Up next for June is Our Man in Chicago and Director of Digital Strategy for Chicago magazine, Scott Smith (ss). A list of all the great people who have helped us out over the years can be found here.
Regarding the Adweek thing, here's the whole story from my Creative Morning presentation last year.
The irony of today's quick profile of us in Adweek is that back in the day, when we were still chasing client work, we would have killed for that kind of exposure. So it goes. Also, although I agree that Layer Tennis is "the most fun you can have with your Photoshop on," we're not currently hosting live matches, but hopefully will be soon.
"That summer I was at an age full of squeamish self-consciousness and shameful secret thoughts, but even I had to admit I had nothing on the blond budding-ballerina protagonist of Flowers in the Attic..." Wendy McClure is a Field Tester. Read a ton of personal reviews online or better yet, buy the book for nine bucks.
In response to a couple tweets asking, "What is it exactly that you guys do for a living?" See this video of a presentation I made for Chicago Creative Mornings.
Hey, any Coudal/Field Notes fans at Ohio University? I'm going to be in Athens, OH this weekend to visit my alma mater, email me! bryan(at)coudal(dot)com.
Tangentially related to the last, a logo we made for a project that burned brightly until we got distracted by something else and decided that "we'll get to that later" and of course, never did. Sigh.
Hey, I got kerned and burned today. Thanks for that.
Someone at Google loves Crown Hall as much as we do. Happy Birthday, Mies!
Two of our very favorites, together. Aaron Draplin at The Walker Art Center.
How does CP look going into the NCAA Tournament? MCJ and DW went to art school, JC, TK, and SD went to schools (two in SD's case, the same school in JC and TK's case) that have a solid basketball history but didn't make the tournament, and my school will beat MS' school in the Midwest Regional Semifinals.
Well, hello there, haven't seen you in a while. I just stumbled on a couple examples of a previous version of our site.
Local note: our very own DW has set up shop at the Andersonville Galleria. If you love all things kitties, head on over to Pussies on Parade, or check out his online shop, here.
Jim Dalrymple's excellent The Loop has joined our ad network for web, design and creative professionals, The Deck. Jim's reporting on Apple, music and other topics makes it a perfect fit. Here's what he has to say about joining.
Local note. Snow is predicted for tonight, but it will need to be a lot of it if DW and MCJ are going to mount a second assault this year.
Personal note: Any Coudal fans in the Ohio University design program that could show me (BB) around Siegfried Hall when I visit in April? Email bryan(at)coudal(dot)com.
When you're your own client, and there's no one to step all over your ideas, what happens? Well for us anyhow, we wind up with a series of three promotional films that hardly ever mention the product, or only mention it tangentially. Fire Spotter, Northerly, Red-Blooded. Hmm, maybe we're onto something?
Local Note: our film, Above the Sun, is featured in Tom Skilling's blizzard special "Snowed Under," on WGN-TV which is running again at 9:30pm tonight, the anniversary of the storm.
A big thanks to Julie and Andy from Letterform for stepping in as our Guest Editors in January. Up next for February is Megan Stielstra, author of Everyone Remain Calm and Literary Director at 2nd Story. A list of all the great people who have helped us out over the years can be found here.
Kevin Guilfoile is the guest on James VanOsdal's podcast this week and talks about his novels, baseball and Wesley Willis.
Coudal Partners "Crois" Tees in action, with Chicago Chief Technology Officer John Tolva spinning at Villians and on Rod Hunting in a BBC video profile of The Post Family. Via Joe Germuska.
"I was still left wondering, 'OK, right, but what does the firm really do?' So, finally, I went to Jim Coudal himself. Here Jim explains things...more or less." JC's recent appearance on The Interview Show.
We're booking Q1 schedules right now on The Deck, our ad network for web, design & creative professionals. If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of savvy and mostly good-looking people, give us a shout. Book more than one month now and earn a discount.
Local note. I'm a guest on tomorrow's edition of Mark Bazer's Interview Show at The Hideout along with Alex Shakar, White Mystery, and an appearance by The Slide Ride! Plus, beer.
"Crossing Racine becomes an epic." from Chicagoist. Thanks for that.
An appeal to the Royal & Ancient Layer Tennis Society.
Our Infrequent Mailings might need to be renamed Really Infrequent Mailings, but we did send one out today, It Turns Out We Were, In Fact, Doing It Wrong. You can sign up to receive future but sporadic mailings in the right hand column of our home page.
I dug this up in response to an email. The keynote for SXSW Interactive in 2006 by Jason Fried and me. It sure seems like a long time ago and plenty has changed since then but maybe at the core, not so much.
A few photos from the Chicago premiere of Gary Hustwit's Urbanized at the Music Box last night.
A big thanks to Emory Allen (ea) for stepping in as our Guest Editor for September. Up next for October is writer John Sellers (jse), author of Perfect from Now On and the recently published, The Old Man and the Swamp. A list of all the great people who have helped us over the years, can be found here.
Here's Dodge Magazine #2, The Lost and Found Issue.
Related to the above, we also collect stuff about Terrence Malick.
The four posters for the doc Urbanized are just great. They were designed by Build. By the way, you are joining us for the Chicago premiere on October 9th aren't you?
Matt Galloway of CBC Radio chats with Gary Hustwit about his new doc Urbanized. Local note, are you joining us for the Chicago premiere on October 9th? Hope so.
As part of this weekend's Slaughterhouse 17 Scooter Rally, I'm DJing at Late Bar tonight at 10pm. And I will definitely be playing this.
Indie Reader's interview with SD about Field-Tested Books, our summer reading project about reading a certain book in a certain place. Thanks for that.
Ian Barlow and the Mozilla Mobile Team are working on Firefox for tablets. We're fairly certain they are going in the right direction based on what they're using to test it. Thanks for that. Via Etienne Segonzac.
"I was enjoying it. I was lost in it. I even remember the moment I put it together that we were on a journey south, same as Huck and Jim. I'm a little embarrassed to write that now; it's so obvious and irrelevant and sentimental, but at the time, it was a revelation." Kevin Guilfoile is a Field Tester. Check his and tons more entries online, or better yet, buy The Field Tested Books Book.
The Deck is our ad network for reaching web, design & creative professionals. If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of savvy, curious and good-looking people, give us a shout. A few slots are open in September. October and November are getting tight already.
Laughing Squid Tumblr Link Blog joins The Deck. Right on Scott.
A big thanks to Aaron Scamihorn (as) for coming in as our Guest Editor for July. Up next for August is another Layer Tennis alum, Gregory Hubacek (gh). A long list of all the great people who have helped us out over the years can be found here.
Hey, we made Copy Goes Here bigger. It's not a director's cut or some kind of special edition. It's just bigger. But you just wait until you see the 3D version we have planned for Christmas.
Uh oh, SD is sounding off about Netflix complainers. You babies.
Chris Gallevo's photoset from Friday's inaugural Creative Mornings Chicago at Gravity Tank, including a lot of answers to the question 'What are you afraid of?" Thanks a million to Tina and Mig for inviting me.
Regarding the last couple posts, Stuff About Stanley Kubrick and Stuff About Terrence Malick.
We'll show you our new Pack and Ship HQ as soon as we're done. BB and SD are hanging shelves today and earlier, BB made a nice sign for the door.
JC chats with Matt from 37signals about how and why we transitioned from client work to products and also a longish piece in more detail, from their excellent Bootstrapped series. Thanks for that, and that. More stuff about this sort of thing, appropriately, on the About Page.
Looks good Ryan. Please update your Vehicle Identification Symbol System. But hurry, we only have thousands left to give away.
"What are you working on?" Thanks for asking, we're working on integrating the unstoppable Dribbble into our ad network of more than 50 sites and services, The Deck. That starts today. If you have a product or service that could benefit from being in front of millions of curious, smart and mostly good-looking people, drop us a line.
"How could my sad little summer camp compare with lurid accounts of John Belushi and Garrett Morris doing bucketfuls of Columbian marching powder..."
Nathan Rabin is a Field Tester. Summer reading season is upon us. Plan well with the Field Tested Books Book.
"Just @coudal'd the Hiace. Badass!"
"I went to bed with Charles Bukowski almost every night. I'd wake up at noon, puffy-eyed and irritable, swearing at him under stale breath." Alissa Walker is a Field Tester. Read all the reviews online or better yet buy the Field Tested Books Book, now just nine bucks.
Proud to be batting lead-off for CreativeMornings move into Chicago, on June 24th.
In answer to the question, "Does every damn single thing you do have to have some sort of veiled reference to Stanley Kubrick in it?" Here's SD.
"What are you working on?" Thanks for asking, we're working on integrating the unstoppable Dribbble into our ad network for web, design and creative professionals, The Deck, starting on June 1. If you have a product or service that could benefit from being in front of millions of curious, smart and mostly good-looking people, give us a holler. We have a few slots available for the summer.
Local note for St. Paul-Minneapolis: along with dozens of other contributors, our SD has several of his photos up for sale tonight at the Art 4 Shelter benefit being held at The Circa Gallery. All the proceeds benefit the very worthy Simpson Housing Services.
A big thanks to Mike Sacks (mks) for coming in as our Guest Editor for April (if you're in LA tomorrow, catch his appearance at Book Soup). Up next for May is Chris Sienko (cs), editor of the experimental music magazine As Loud As Possible and regular contributor to Gapers Block's Chicago music blog, Transmission.
The Chicago Journal picked our Above the Sun as their favorite in last week's South Loop Film Fest. Thanks for that.
Related to the last, one of our Layer Tennis coin-flip films, specifically eno sdrawkcab eht.
For Wills. Stuff About Stanley Kubrick and Stuff About Terrence Malick.
OK, Chicago's 2 1.5 newspapers have been guilty of boosterism when it comes to sports, but I'm not sure they've ever gone quite this far. Also, the first graf sure sounds like an admission of defeat.
Our SD has a story in the newest issue of the travel magazine Afar about what it's like to stay in Norway's amazing Juvet Landscape Hotel. Of course, while there last summer, he also couldn't help shooting a 'Field Notes in Action' photo, too.
Page Two Redo.
Chris Higgins at Mental Floss on The Curators. Thanks for that.
We've been giving the new Stuff About Terrence Malick archives a lot of love lately, but there's some cool new Stuff About Stanley Kubrick in that archive too.
Audio with titles of John Gruber, Michael Lopp and yours truly, very early on a Sunday morning at SXSW last month. 15 12 Slides, Three Writers, Three Ways.
A follow up from a post this morning: right now BB is in the conference room soldering up a storm, following a slight modification of these plans.
A big thanks to Jim Hughes (jh) of Codex XCIX for serving as our Guest Editor in March. Up next for April is Mike Sacks (mks), author of And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Humor Writers About Their Craft and most recently, a collection of his humor pieces, Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason. A list of all the great people who have helped us out over the years can be found here.
Ben Saunders on Twitter.
15,000th follower gets a present.
Local note for those at SXSW: the 11th annual 20x2 event happens tonight at The Ghost Room. Our SD has a film in it, replying to this year's question, "Why Did You Do It?"
Local note: the play our SD was in back in October, The Nairobi Project, was such a hit that it's getting a second, six-week run starting this Sunday night at the Annoyance Theater. It includes a new sequel to "the worst play ever written."
In WGN's "Snowed Under" special, the segment about our film Above the Sun is titled "Blizzard Humor" here, but make sure to watch the whole half-hour. It's really well done.
"I would like to translate your Jewelboxing homepage into the Belarusian language, which is my mother tongue. Is it ok with you, do you mind?" Of course we wouldn't mind!
The Draplin Design Co. of Portland, Oregon (and home to our co-conspirator in the Field Notes enterprise, Aaron Draplin) has joined The Deck Network. Yeah, we know, "What the hell took so long?" Situation rectified. Onwards!
A big thanks to author Jami Attenberg for Guest Editing for us in February. Up next for March is Jim Hughes, curator of both the terrific Codex xcix and the Lego history resource Brick Fetish. A list of all the great people who have helped us out over the years can be found here.
I can't divulge what exactly they're up to, but Bryan, Steve, Dawson, Matt and Jamie (from 37signals) are prepping their gear and looking mighty serious. They're about to head out on a dangerous mission and if things don't go well, we might have some job openings to post on Monday. God speed men. God speed.
I just asked SD why he's planning what he's planning, "Because it's there." He replied heroically. Here's a theme song by Glenn Yarbrough for him. Stay tuned.
Regrets: Hobbies (the film in main image above) won the Audience Award this weekend at the Iron Mule Short Comedy Film Series at 92YTribeca in NYC this weekend. Thanks for that.
A big thanks to Lisa Leone for getting us through a chilly month by serving as our Guest Editor in January. Up next for February, on the eve of the approaching storm of the century, is writer, interactive advertising expert, and author of several novels including her most recent, The Melting Season, Jami Attenberg. A list of all the great people who have helped us over the years, can be found here.
Today's Top-Secret Project test results: DW 157, MJ 77, JC 74, MS 64, SD 42, BB 3.
It's Friday. Missing live Layer Tennis? Yeah, us too. Check our video retrospective of Season Three.
"And that's where I read most of The Chronicles of Narnia: sitting inside a clothing rack, under fluorescent lights, "Knock on Wood" and "American Pie" piped through the sound system from above." Francis Heaney is a Field Tester. Read all the reviews online or better yet, buy the book for just nine bucks.
Fuzzy was on hand to take some behind the scenes photos of the final coin flip from this season of Layer Tennis. This, of course, is my typical editing setup.
A big thanks to the dancers who appear in this week's coin flip: Dana Dardai, J.K. Wickersheimer, Pamela Paul, Tiff Svitko and Terre Vigilio. And extra big thanks to choreographer Erica Reid who helped put it all together. You can see all the Ref's coin flips, here.
Dan Benjamin wasn't feeling well but somehow Jeffrey and I found some things to talk about, including Layer Tennis, in this week's Big Web Show. Man, I need a video pod cast body double.
Jeffrey Zeldman's Match Preview for today's Layer Tennis Championship between Mig Reyes and Noper has been posted, "When We Were Kings." The match starts at 1pm Chicago time, check the time in your area.
I'll be on The Big Web Show with Z and Dan Benjamin at noon Chicago time today.
Related to the last. We had a ton of fun a couple summers ago with an idea sort of like Let's Swap. Then it became really successful and almost ruined us.
Related to the last, if you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of savvy, curious, free-with-their-money, creative professionals, give us a shout at The Deck. Q1 2011 is filling up fast.
The Championship Match is set for Season 3 of Layer Tennis Presented by Adobe Creative Suite 5.
All the Layer Tennis coin-flips, including today's, all in one place.
Weaver, Reyes, Hubacek, Noper. That's The Layer Tennis Final Four. Live Friday.
Two live Layer Tennis Quarterfinal Matches today.
All the Layer Tennis coin-flips, including today's, all in one place.
Software developer Marco Arment's personal site joins The Deck, our advertising network for web, design and creative professionals today. Marco has great taste, an eye for detail and he "conserves exclamation points and avoids semicolons." (Us too.)
Also, we're proud to be part of the next chapter in Laura Brunow Miner's amazing and inspiring online photography publication, Pictory. The companion site to the main "showcases" is the Pictory Blog and it's now also part of The Deck. Looking to get your product in front of millions of savvy, curious and good-looking people? Give us a shout.
Page Two got a makeover this morning. You knew we had a Page Two, right?
All the Layer Tennis Coin-Flips all in one place.
Eye Against Eye and Once More Unto the Breach preview today's live Layer Tennis Playoff matches. The first match starts at 11am Chicago time. Check the time in your area.
Regarding The Deck, Tasteland gets it. Thanks for that.
Pairings for Layer Tennis single-elimination post-season championship tournament have been announced. It's gonna be a blast. More news soon.
Layer Tennis could use a little help.
Ryan Brunsvold is back from the framing shop.
"It's paintball without the welts and riot gear." Loyd Boldman on Layer Tennis.
Friday, our last regular season Layer Tennis Match was played live from Moscow and Cape Town. South Africa. The Playoffs start in two weeks. Also, check out this Qualifying Match played earlier today by Noper and James Donaldson. Amazing work in support of an inventive narrative.
Where are my ads? At MetaTalk, the best thread ever about our advertising network for web design and creative professionals, The Deck.
All 51 Layer Tennis coin-flips, including today's, all in one place.
Tangentially related to the last. Zadie Smith reading Frank O'Hara's Animals, from our Verse By Voice project.
Aside from our occasional Around The World exhibitions, this Friday's live Layer Tennis match will cover the most ground ever, when Oleg Pashchenko of Moscow takes on Adam Hill from Cape Town. Friday at 1pm Chicago. Check the time wherever you are.
2 Qualifying Matches are going on right now and the Main Event, a Halloween Match between Olly Moss and Tom Whalen starts at 1pm Chicago. If it's Friday it must be Layer Tennis.
Related to the last, The Halloween Coin Flip from the Season One match between Jason Santa Maria and Brian Taylor.
It's a shame we had to terrify the Ref so badly for this week's coin flip, because it's the 50th one we've made. Once he's wiped all that blood off, someone go out and get him a celebratory cake. Here's all 50 flips. Whew.
Last night's Layer Tennis Exhibition from Adobe MAX was superb but comes with a warning, Layer 2 might take you to a place you're not prepared to go.
Live today, a special Layer Tennis event. Folkert Gorter and Atley Kasky will be playing in a special exhibition match, from the Opening Reception of Adobe Max 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center and we'll bring it to you starting at 5pm Pacific, 7pm Chicago.
Bring your credit card to Layer Tennis today and help us raise money for breast cancer research.
All the Layer Tennis Coin Flips, all in one place.
Friday's Layer Tennis presented by Adobe Creative Suite, is going to be a blast when Jennifer Daniel takes on Mike Monteiro with layer-by-layer commentary by Jeffrey Zeldman. So get your work done before then so you can waste the afternoon with us.
"...it really was just a couple of shitty weeks spent in a van with four smelly guys who left anticipating the rock 'n' roll summer of their dreams and returned with no illusions." Jim DeRogatis is a Field Tester. Read all the Field Tests online, or better yet, buy the book for just nine bucks.
Today is Wednesday.
Lately we have made a few book trailers for friends. First we did this for 37signal's Work, then we created this one for Rosecrans Baldwin's novel You Lost Me There, and when Kevin Guilfoile was set to appear on Mark Bazar's excellent Interview Show, we helped him out by producing this gripping teaser for his new thriller, The Thousand.
Friday Layer Tennis. Game on.
Some nice reviews of SD's bizarre play, The Nairobi Project, here's from Gapers Block and here's from The Reader.
All the coin-flips, all in one place.
Ryan Brunsvold is back from the framing shop.
Roughly translated, the French find our E-Z Fynd the ultimate solution to the question "Do you have enough chopper viruses because of the Net?"
Starting today, MetaFilter has joined The Deck, our advertising network targeting design, web and creative professionals. Yay for the blue.
Need to get your product or service in front of millions of design, web and creative professionals? Limited Q4 ad inventory is available from The Deck.
"It's your birthday. Someone gives you a calfskin wallet. How do you react?" A post-match Voight-Kampff test with last week's Layer Tennis winner, and possible replicant, Brian Taylor.
Friday was a widescreen movie of a match between Brian Taylor of Scotland and Davin Risk of Canada. Check it out and vote for a winner at Layer Tennis.
A great story on WBEZ's 848 this morning about the play our SD is in, the very ridiculous The Nairobi Project. Opens this Sunday night.
Layer Tennis Game On! And it's a good one too, especially for Blade Runner and Saul Bass fans.
Our Infrequent Mailings have become increasingly infrequent lately, but when they do go out they usually include an exclusive offer on something, a contest or puzzler and a bit about this and a bit about that. We're queueing one up right now, so if you're not on the list, just plunk your email addy into the box at the bottom of the right hand column and hit "subscribe." Then after this new one goes out, you probably won't hear from us for a while. Thanks!
E-Z-Fynd goes German. Thanks Nerdcore.
All the Layer Tennis coin flips, all in one place.
Never Not Find What You're Looking For Again.
Friday's Layer Tennis Match between Frank Chimero and Kate Bingaman-Burt was a ton of fun. Take a trip though the layers and see #10 for a video on what turned out to be the final result, a tie. We spoke to Frank after the match and here's what he had to say.
Local note. Sunday night marks the opening of the play our SD is in, The Nairobi Project. It was written for $50 by a spam emailer in Kenya and is being performed verbatim in all its absurd terribleness.
All the Layer Tennis coin-flips all in one place.
Voting closes at lunchtime for Friday's Layer Tennis Match between Mark Weaver and Scott Thomas. And mark your calendar for Friday the 17th, when Frank Chimero plays Kate Bingaman-Burt, live.
One of these weeks SD and BB are going to run out of ideas but it hasn't happened yet. Here are all 40 Layer Tennis Coin Flips all in one place. I have always liked the eno sdrawkcab and this 70s homage is nice too. Yay Polaroids!. Check 'em all.
Creative Component Design Studio used our Jewelboxing system to make a beautiful short-run of DVDs. Thanks for that to @alanhouser.
The same. But not really.
Big thanks to Herman Yung of Doobybrain for serving as our Guest Editor in August. Up next for September is Mig Reyes of Threadless and Humble Pied. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
Voting is closed and the results are in. Week Two's winner is Joshua Davis, congrats! See how the match played out and read our post-game interview.
All the Layer Tennis Coin Flips, including today's, all in one place. Live Layer Tennis, Dawes versus Davis, this afternoon.
Voting ends at noon to decide the winners of Friday's Opening Day Layer Tennis Doubleheader, presented by Adobe Creative Suite 5.
How to Lose the Race to the Bottom in Online Advertising. The audio from John Gruber and my presentation from SXSW, about The Deck, Daring Fireball and lots of other stuff.
Yesterday's Opening Day Doubleheader of Layer Tennis was really something. Check both matches and then vote for the winners before Monday.
"In honor of the return of Layer Tennis, I've done incredibly extensive research and created a graph showing the side effects of Layer Tennis." Thanks Mig.
It feels like a Friday again. Layer Tennis is live this afternoon.
The Match Previews for tomorrow's Live Layer Tennis Opening Day Doubleheader have been posted.
In the past we've been proud to feature the music of Diego Bernal, Margaret Helen King, Head of Femur and others in our various video projects. We're at it again. SD is putting together a piece from the footage he shot on his recent Field Notes Field Trip. Check these photos for a feel for the subject. If you or someone you know has recorded a song that could use a ton of exposure and would like us to write about how great thou art, let us know. Use the contact link below. Thanks.
Local note. Alison Cuddy of WBEZ's "Eight Forty-Eight" asked me to chat about what I'm doing this weekend. Since all three of my kids are away at camp I came up with a few things that don't involve Legos or 3D glasses.
William Biwer is part of the fleet. Who's next?
Ross Hudgens likes The Old Spice Guy, Iceland and The Deck. Thanks for that.
Stay up late or set your DVR: FotA and the subject of the first part of our Museum of Online Museums documentary, The Curators, Bill Keaggy, is a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, talking about his great grocery list collection.
Our Guest Editor for July is the writer, speaker, consultant, Colleen Wainwright (cw) of Communicatrix. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
"'Why are you reading this book on your vacation?' 'Because all of my money has disappeared and my boyfriend fucked someone else.'" Jessa Crispin is a Field Tester. Read a ton of personal reviews online or better yet, buy the book.
The official song of the Field Notes County Fair edition (and what's been in my head since we started working on it): Perry Como's Delaware.
If you haven't planted your Packet of Sunshine marigold seeds yet, make a tabletop display.
Big thanks to Keith Scharwath for all his great links in May. Our Guest Editor for June is Kristen Richards, editor of both Oculus magazine for the American Institute of Architects' NY chapter and the ArchNewsNow newsletter. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
Shift Option Rinse, featuring our patented RinseCam 9000™.
"And that's where I read most of The Chronicles of Narnia: sitting inside a clothing rack, under fluorescent lights, "Knock on Wood" and "American Pie" piped through the sound system from above." Francis Heaney is a Field Tester. Read a ton of personal reviews online or better yet, buy the book.
Related to the last, for Moms and Dads with creative skills and a kid's birthday coming up.
There's lots of news stuff in our Jewelboxing blog.
The Deck, our ad network for reaching web, design and creative professionals is justthisclose to being sold out for June and July. If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of smart people this summer, give us a shout.
Related to the last. Let's not forget this one from 2008 for America's greatest President.
Related to the last, screen our three poster screening videos.
"I became a born-again bog-trotter, a mock Mick, even though I was as much an Irishman as I was an astronaut or a cowboy." James Finn Garner is a Field Tester. Read all the reviews online or better yet, buy the book for just nine bucks.
Big thanks to Northcoast Zeitgeist for their bazillion great links in April. Our Guest Editor for May is Keith Scharwath, the illustrator and designer responsible for things like the Beautiful Losers poster and titles and GOOD magazine's recent "The Neighborhoods Issue." A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
Six Fridays in two minutes and ten seconds.
Related to the last, Free Drink When Lit, a goofy CP film by SD and Jake Walker.
We coded up a little scoreboard app that displays the last five purchases of any of our products or services and where they're from. Right this minute it reads like this: Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock Germany, Mangakinio Sth Waikato New Zealand, Sarov Nizhegorodsky Region Russia, Burnaby British Columbia Canada and Lomas de los Angeles de Tetelpan Mexico. I love the names of places.
There are a couple slots still open in May and June for advertisers in The Deck. If your product or service could benefit by being in front of millions of web, design and creative professionals, give us a shout.
For Anne, Here's my Halloween poem that you're looking for, To Sweet Hereafter.
We're going to make another retrospective video like this one for the just completed Layer Tennis Exhibition Season. We need a cool song. Do you or your band have one that might fit? Tons and tons of people will see it and we'll link you up all over the place too. Use the contact link below.
I'm quite a bit late with this but Megan Cunningham posted a running commentary about the SXSW presentation that John Gruber and I did on online advertising. Thanks for that.
The participants have been announced for tomorrow's live Layer Tennis "Around the World" match.
Friday's live Layer Tennis Exhibition is going to be amazing. More details soon.
The Vole's bike helmet now demonstrates his love of both football and elegant graphic design. Not so sure about football, but it looks darn good. What does your helmet demonstrate?
We've edited together all the volleys from our recent video editing Layer Tennis match into a single short film. Seen together, it's a mix of bizarre and noir.
A big thanks to the gang at the Canadian Design Resource and Motherbrand for serving as our Guest Editors for March. Up next for April comes the dynamic Ohioan duo behind Northcoast Zeitgeist. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
We've edited together all the volleys from our recent week-long motion graphics Layer Tennis match into one very funny, deeply troubling short film. We'll do the same for last Friday's awesome editors match to screen next Monday.
Melissa's five-year old explains last week's motion graphics Layer Tennis Exhibition. Bravo. In case you missed the match.
Khoi Vinh chats about the geeky thrill of Layer Tennis in a video interview with The Big Think.
Layer X. Fin.
Oh my God. Layer 8.
Layer 7 from Layer Tennis. Holy crap.
Two more in the book, four more to go in our in our week-long Layer Tennis Match. Layer 5. Layer 6. If you're coming in late, start at the beginning.
Layer Tennis: Game back on! Layers three and four are both up. Two more each day this week. Epic.
Related to the last two posts, if you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of smart, curious and good-looking people, give us a shout at The Deck Network. There are a couple slots still open in April, May and June.
Scott Beale encourages you to practice your texting in the latest post at his Laughing Squid, a mandatory bookmark and also a new member of The Deck Network.
Dave Pell's kids refuse to go viral and until they change their minds he'll have to settle for joining our ad network for web, design a creative professionals, The Deck. Welcome.
Layers Three and Four are due this afternoon in the Experimental Motion Graphics Layer Tennis Match going on this week. If the first two plays are any indication, we're in for some fun.
Steve Johnson on the "attack ad" we produced for 37signals new book REWORK in the Trib. Here's the spot, in case you missed it.
The good news is that today's Live Layer Tennis Exhibition won't screw up your entire afternoon. The bad news is, you'll be partially distracted all next week too.
140.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Maintaining Dignity in Online Advertising, a chat I had with Wendy Mitchell.
Newsweek, Dan Pink and Gawker like our Rove-ing of Rove too.
Ezra Klein from WaPo and Ben Smith of Politico have linked up the video we did for 37signals' REWORK. Thanks for that.
A quick note. Sunday at 3:30 in Austin, John Gruber of Daring Fireball and I will be making a joint presentation at SXSW called Online Advertising: Losing the Race to the Bottom. Hope to see you there.
Honored to add a small bit to the growing collection of advice at Mig's Humble Pied. But seriously, what's with my hands?
Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th.
Rework, the new book from our officemates at 37signal is in stores today. We had a blast helping out by making a series of video trailers for the book. Take a photo of Rework in the wild and you could win an iPad.
Page Two Redo.
"I half-smile as she slides the book back to me, and signal for another beer. I am going to need it." Former Field-Tested Books contributor Jay Hathaway had another story to tell, this time of spending his last few dollars in fancy NYC bars while reading John Cheever. Have your own memory of a certain book in a certain place? Send it in!
If you missed it Friday take a few minutes to check the third Layer Tennis Exhibition Match. Photos were shot and uploaded live from all over San Francisco and Toronto while a composer created a soundtrack on the fly.
The idea that we're offering advertisers real value, that goes beyond just an accounting of millions of page-views is what our ad network, The Deck, is all about. John Gruber knows that well too. He and I will be talking about it, and other things, a week from Sunday at SXSW.
He shoots, he scores, he shoots, he scores...
All the Layer Tennis Coin Flips including today's. Props to SD and BB (aka The Ref) for the whole series of 32.
Friday's live experimental Layer Tennis is going to be amazing, confusing or a jumbled mess. Maybe all three. More news tomorrow.
So you know. Here's where to find the old Fresh Signals posts that begin with "So You Know."
A big thanks to Josh Berta for serving as our Guest Editor for February. Up next for March, and proving we hold no grudges over the outcomes of certain Olympic contests, comes the team from Motherbrand, who run the invaluable Canadian Design Resource. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us throughout the years can be found here.
Gumbyfied. sdrawkcaB. 3-D. Breakin'. Huge. What's your fave flip?
Dr. Wolf has spotted a vehicle from our fleet. Excellent. Is your vehicle properly tagged? It is recommended that you update the vehicle identification symbol system on your current inventory of automobiles. It's a free service, but hurry, we only have tens of thousands left.
An awesome, behind-the scenes look at the meanings and methods that drove last Friday's Layer Tennis Match between Nicholas and Khoi. Or, how we started with arrows and ended with skulls.
Layer Tennis was a blast on Friday, with great play by both designers and funny, smart, typo-free commentary from John Nack. More live LYT this Friday. Details soon.
We're playing Layer Tennis, right now.
Lots of chatter in the Layer Tennis Grandstands already, and the match doesn't start for an hour and a half.
Axis and Allies, John Nack's preview of this afternoon's live Layer Tennis Exhibition.
All the coin-flips
from all the Layer Tennis matches including the one that's live tomorrow afternoon.
If today were the day after tomorrow, Layer Tennis would be live right now.
Hey, somebody kicked that countdown clock and now it's working again.
The second trailer from a series we made for 37signals, to promote their soon-to-be-published book Rework has been posted.
Staying Late. the first in a series of trailers we created for our office mates, 37signals, and their soon to be published book. More on this soon.
Our Tablet debuts.
Thanks to all our former Guest Editors (dec) for sending along their favorite holiday/winter links for December. For January, we have Rob Walker (rw) of Murketing, Significant Objects, a regular contributor to the NY Times, and too many other outlets to list. A list of all those brilliant people who will be helping us throughout the month can be found here.
It's too late for Christmas shipping, but if you're in Chicago, Field Notes, Jewelboxing and everything else we've got, including Pinsetter, posters, t-shirts, and more, can be picked up in person through 5pm today. Just select "local pick-up" in your cart.
Monthly ad slots for the first quarter of 2010 are filling up fast. If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of savvy, curious readers, drop us a line at our ad network, The Deck.
Our Layer Tennis partners along with Adobe, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco have been named Adweek's Agency of the Decade. Congrats on that.
Our Field Tested Books Book makes the perfect present for the person who can't decide what books to get other people for presents. Now just nine bucks.
Thanks to Antonio Carusone (ac) for serving as our Guest Editor for November. For December, we've asked all of our former editors (dec) to send in their favorite winter and holiday-related links. A list of all those brilliant people who will be helping us throughout the month can be found here.
In just a couple days Sam has filled in 60% of China. Support this Hopeful Enterprise.
140.
Hope you're planning on having fish for Thanksgiving.
Our pal, and Layer Tennis participant, Sam Potts is in China teaching English and wants to give Pinsetter buttons as holiday gifts to all of his 1,375 students. We're making them as inexpensively as possible for him. Perhaps you might see fit to drop a few dollars on this hopeful enterprise?
Unable to focus. OK with that. twitter.com/coudal.
When Dawson and my kids were younger.
A heads up for Dead Can Dance fans, just a handful of the Selections from North America sets are left.
Mailbag: Jay asks, "What happened to all those faces you were posting?" They're here. Dario asks "What's the deal with Season 3 of Layer Tennis?" We're working out the dates and details. Maggie asks, "Who won the 10th Anniversary contest?" That'll be announced in our next Infrequent Mailing. And finally to Neil, "Yeah, things sure would be different if he had won. Sigh.
Congrats to photographer Mark Menditto for landing a spread in this month's issue of Bark. We were talking to Mark just recently about his using Field Notes to organize that very project.
Some recent Jewelboxing Case Studies: The Setbuild Project, Ben Saunders Polar Explorer, EveryBaby and The Design Office. Go ahead, make a case for yourself.
Roderick Chow was nice enough to assemble a Twitter list of all the previous Guest Editors to Fresh Signals. Thanks for that.
So you know. We have one last-minute opening for an advertiser in The Deck for November. If you have a product or service that could benefit by being in front of millions of savvy, curious and exceptionally good-looking people, give us a shout. We'll do a nice price for a first-time advertiser. Ready. Steady. Go.
A million thanks to Leonard Pierce for serving as our Guest Editor for October. Up next for November is the jack of all trades, master of most, Antonio Carusone. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
We're wishing October had an extra week or two this year. Thanks to all and apologies to everyone we missed. Maybe we'll do it again in 2019!
Hot off the heals of our conversation with Ben Saunders, we present another interesting interview: Jewelboxing Case Study 16: Setbuild Project, which focuses on a studio photography class wherein students build a set to faithfully recreate one still from a famous film.
Win one of ten big prize packages just by sending an email... from 1999. Deadline tomorrow.
Nice photo. Nice bike. Nice Vehicle Identification Symbol System. Write for yours free, but hurry, we only have thousands left.
An interview with JC that originally appeared at Design Glut has been picked up for the September Idealog Magazine out of New Zealand. Thanks for that.
Got something to spell with buttons? Do it with Pinsetter.
Cha Ching to Andrew M, Deb and Andrew R and OK Nic. Thanks for that.
Man it's quiet around the ol' CP Shop today. The next three people who buy anything linked there and then write us an email with CHA-CHING in the subject line will get an extra big bunch of stuff in with their order. Use the contact link below. Ready, steady, go!
For Beth, here's the Layer Tennis season retrospective video you're looking for. The track is Climbing Up Fire Escapes by Chicago band Head of Femur, iTunes link.
We're not in the biz of predicting these things but David Olsen's sneak photo of the iPhone that will be released later today seems pretty cool.
For Deb. Here's the podcast of my chat with Paul and Marcus of Boagworld in London. It goes nicely with Liz and Kegan visiting the CP studio in Chicago.
A million thanks to Andy Ross for serving as our Guest Editor for August. Up next for September is the Paris-based writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
Of course, The Ref knows all of this information intimately. Thanks JT.
Local note: third and final Public Works talk tomorrow.
For another reference regarding the last, you could just ask BB to roll up his sleeve.
Todays' time-wasting Friday afternoon double-feature. How To BBQ a Man and The Spaniard.
Thanks for all the input, we've decided to make a few more changes to our new site design that we previewed via Twitter earlier. The consensus is it needs to "pop" a little more. More soonish.
Kegan and Liz of Design Glut stopped by the CP HQ a couple weeks ago for a chat about starting stuff and creating your own clients. Thanks for that.
Related to the last, a CP vid about Jay, 6 Colors, 1,800 Pulls and 2 Dogs.
Thanks again to Henry Cline for serving as our Guest Editor for July. Up next for August is the very funny writer and comedian Andy Ross. A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
Thanks to Adobe and to all the artists, commentators and fans that made Layer Tennis Season Two a big success. You know how at the end of the NCAA basketball tourney CBS Sports airs an emotional video montage of all the big moments? Yeah, ours is sorta like that, only with much better music.
"Undeniably professional." Our Jewelboxing disc packaging system gets a nice shout out on KK*'s Cool Tools. Thanks for that.
For Coop. Here are all the official Layer Tennis coin flips. My personal faves from this season are eno sdrawkcab eht, Gumby, stick puppets, and of course the breakdance.
Our own SD (and his short films) appears with the comedy stylings of "37 Matt" Tuesday night at Chicago Underground Comedy
Arguably the best yet: Jewelboxing Case Study 15: Ben Saunders, where we talk to the polar explorer and former TED Conference speaker about his record setting expeditions across the arctic, his preparations for each trip, and how to survive a polar bear attack when your shotgun is jammed.
Fast Company on today's Layer Tennis, it "has designers on the edge of their Aerons." Thanks for that Alissa.
Our "Crois" in the Sierras. Thanks Cinnamon.
Layer Tennis Presented by Adobe CS4, Semi Final Match 1 is live!
The Match Previews for today's live Layer Tennis Semi-Finals are up. Aaron Draplin and Greg Hubacek play in the first match. Shaun Inman and Scott Hansen in the second.
Thanks, Fuzzy! Nick Campbell points out that Rainbow Symphony offers free 3-D glasses with a SASE. You'd want the "Anaglyph" Red/Cyan glasses.
The matches are set for Friday's live Layer Tennis Semi-Final Double-Header. Be there.
Layer Tennis playoffs continue today with two matches. Shaun Inman vs Aaron Scamihorn at 10:00am and Scott Hansen vs Jason Koxvold at 2:00pm.
One Semi-Final for 6/26 is set in the Layer Tennis playoffs. The other will be determined during Friday's live double-header, presented by Adobe CS4.
"...an advertising network that pairs great products and great sites in a manner that respects them both." Mandy Brown's beautiful and insightful This is a working library has been redesigned and, we're happy to say, has joined The Deck too.
Our Layer Tennis game, presented by Adobe CS4, kicks off the post-season with a single-elimination tournament, starting on Friday. Office pool anyone?
Related to the last. Layer Tennis Season Ticket Holders watch your inbox for news on the imminent post-season tourney. We need your help choosing the field.
Welcome to But Does It Float, Infinite Summer and Hivelogic, the newest members of The Deck, our ad network for reaching web, design & creative professionals.
Finished #12 (!) with my daughter Isabelle over the weekend, most of this is still true five years later, except now I lose all the arguments, How To Be a Hero with our Jewelboxing system.
A big thanks to the novelist, New Yorker editor, and a favorite Layer Tennis judge, Ben Greenman (bg) for serving as our Guest Editor in May. Up next for June is another man with LT roots, Chicago-based writer, blogger and director, Fuzzy Gerdes (fg). A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
Related to the last. Let's make Amy's first day a memorable and busy one. Order anything from The CP Shop in the next couple hours and get a copy of our Field Tested Books Book free, just in time to pack for the beach! Ready. Steady. Go. Offer ends at 3pm Chicago time.
Welcome to Art School Girl, the newest member of the CP Crew. Amy Rowan (ar) will be helping out with Jewelboxing, Field Notes, the CP Shop and staffing the drive-up window, if we ever get one.
The Layer Tennis regular season is over, no match today! Season Ticket Holders, watch your email next week and help choose the field for the postseason tournament. Now go home and grill something!
This survey was not written by a marketing department.
I was hungry after Friday's Layer Tennis match. and I needed some DVD shelves.
Layer Tennis Scandi-Mania.
Sheesh, it's quiet out there. Too quiet. Order anything from the CP Shop in the next hour and get a nice summer-weight CP tee shirt free. Just write dawson at coudal dot com with your shirt size after you make a purchase. Offer ends at 4pm. Closed now, Thanks all.
Paul and Marcus and I had a nice chat during FOWD in London last week and now it's Podcast #165 from Boagworld. Thanks for that.
Video of JC's talk last week in London.
Since our Jen is moving to SF we have an opening here at CP HQ. We need someone smart and motivated to help us with shipping and running our various retail brands. This is not a design position. It's packing, shipping, organizing and shlepping. But surprisingly, it's sorta fun. We need someone 20-30 hours a week at our Fulton Market office starting right away. Is this you? If so, write michele at coudal dot com.
If you couldn't view Chris Glass' Layer 9 on Friday because of Ref ineptitude, we've fixed the video.
This week's Layer Tennis is underway, featuring Chris Glass vs Aaron Draplin, with commentary by Dave Cuzner of Grain Edit
Local Note: Our SD and his friend Waki made a series of films for an Asheville, NC tourism contest. Sadly, the elders of Asheville, NC felt that exploding squirrels and Peanut Butter Mustaches didn't represent their city. Their lack of vision is your gain, see the films tonight at The Interview Show at the Hideout. Also: Designer/Decorator Nate Berkus.
A big thanks to the whole crew at Remodelista for being our Guest Editors in April. Up next comes the novelist, New Yorker editor, and an all-time favorite Layer Tennis judge, Ben Greenman (bg). A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
A thanks to everyone who submitted entries and congratulations to the winners of our "Anti-Caption Contest" which asked subscribers to our Infrequent Mailings to provide a photo to go with the caption "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Jesse Burden sent in this tragic photo, Mike Brennan sent in this shot, and our favorite, Peter Fletcher's entry, which is fun to speculate about. All three will receive lots of goodies from all our brands. Want to get in on the next subscriber-only contest? Sign up below under "Infrequent Mail."
Yay, Steve's "Greetings Coworker" cake finally made it on Cakewrecks! The joke was intentional, but the handwriting was (poorly) done by a professional. We also liked the balloons that looked like big red, yellow, and blue mussels.
After seven years perfecting it, designer Jennifer Diaz launches her new product: EveryBaby, a huge collection of forms that makes it easy to put together well organized and attractive baby books. We got the chance to talk to her all about it and lots more along the way in Jewelboxing Case Study #14.
It's on.
Regarding Layer Tennis: How and Why I Did What I Did: Nick Campbell, Jason Santa Maria, Brendan Dawes, Chris Glass and Veerle Pieters.
For a little background: today's Ref coin flip was inspired by the openings to both The Thomas Crown Affair and Dr. No. "Dart Muller" sounds like a character who could easily fit into both, using his weapon, the deadly "Muller Dart."
If it's Wednesday it's Layer Tennis Coin Flip day. SD and BB are out somewhere and up to something, but I have no idea what.
Smile.
Today's Layer Tennis Qualifier is live now! Main match starts at 2pm Chicago time.
All the Layer Tennis coin-flips all in one place. The claymation one, the big one, the eno sdrawkcab and of course, this one.
Scott Zeilenga's unused Layer Tennis serve from his 4/10 qualifier match against Sebastian Ebarb.
Sam Brown versus Ted McGrath, Friday's Layer Tennis Presented by Adobe CS4.
DW's how to use the Jewelboxing system video and, tangentially related, our most-requested JB video of all time.
All the Layer Tennis coin-flips.
Related to the last. It's Nice That has been expertly redesigned. As part of the relaunch, Will and Alex have joined us in The Deck, our advertising network for design, web and creative professionals. It's nice, that.
Cars, trucks, bikes, scooters and now acoustic guitars during Beatles' songs. The fleet keeps growing. Join in free.
In honor of tomorrow's All-UK Layer Tennis Match, a collection of English Things by Hwayoungjung. That guy should play LT. Thanks Max.
Regarding the coin flip: Surely you remember who wore #14 for Newcastle United in the late '90s?
Is your vehicle part of the fleet like Jim Renaud's?
A big thanks to our March Guest Editor, the gang at The Denver Egotist (de). Up next for April is the whole team from Remodelista (rm). A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
For those of you noticing that Fresh Signals seems to be missing something lately, you're right. The good news is that Michele (ms) comes back from holiday tomorrow.
Surely you've checked in on the Finals for this year's Tournament of Books at The Morning News?
Jason Santa Maria reflects on playing in Friday's Layer Tennis match.
Local note: Our own SD and FotA Nick Campbell appear at the always-great Show-n-Tell Show, at the Whistler Sunday evening (no cover!). More at Chicagoist.
Sean McCambridge's ingenious jQuery table developed to figure out the answer to our Einstein's Fish puzzler.
Wanna play a Layer Tennis qualifier? Email us some examples of your work!
Five typographic terms using Mexican wrestling as a visual simile. And that's just the first serve from Friday's all-Brooklyn Layer Tennis match.
Chicagoist has some nice things to say about our Layer Tennis craziness. Thanks for that.
All BB and SD's Official Coin Flips for Layer Tennis are archived here.
We have a blast making the "coin-flip" videos for Layer Tennis. Aside from a bunch of filmed episodes we have recently messed around with claymation and virtual 3D. Since this week is all about going analog, the magic word is puppeteer.
Local note for Austin on Saturday. I'll be part of a three-part conversation about creativity at 11:30am with co-conspirators Brendan Dawes and Gary Hustwit. The basic idea is that generally speaking, you should be pointing your audience in the right direction and then getting the hell out of the way. Hope to see you there.
Matt Lee finds that The National Science Foundation can't stop itself from promoting our film, which you can see here. Thanks for that.
The 2009 Tournament of Books is now live. Bettors who backed 2666 by Roberto Bolano will be interested in the first contest. C'mon, let's buy a load of books this week for underprivileged kids. Please lay down $20 on your favorite and consider becoming a matching sponsor.
Objectified poster by Build, metallic silver and black. Sweet. We're co-sponsoring the film's sold-out Chicago premiere and are working on a party too. Stay tuned.
KG's betting advice from last year will be helpful as you handicap this year's Tournament of Books. C'mon, lay down a double-sawbuck willya? You know, for kids.
Our two favorite bearded designers, Chris Glass and Aaron Draplin, who we didn't actually even realize knew each other, worked with Obama logo designer Steve Juras on two government logos that were unveiled today by President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Wow.
You can't say we didn't warn you. The special Chicago premiere of Objectified that we're hosting is now sold out.
We've just released Jewelboxing Case Study 13: John Caserta, where we talk to the Rhode Island School of Design teacher/advisor and founder of The Design Office about his work and the ins and outs of information design.
A thanks to our February Guest Editor, Mister Jalopy (mj) of Coco's Variety and Dinosaurs and Robots. Our Guest Editors for March is the whole staff behind The Denver Egotist (de). A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
Fo the first time in Layer Tennis history we've had to postpone today's match between Jason Santa Maria and Derek Powazek. We'll reschedule it soon, we have been without power at CP since early this morning. Thanks to everyone who offered to help and thanks especially for your understanding.
Jonathan asks, "Didn't you post a four-frame music video? I remember two people chasing each other in and out of frames, and a group of people standing in front of a wall as a guy on a bike rode by." Why yes, we did.
Two great new entries for Field-Tested Books: Zach Sims visits the Clutter House from In Cold Blood and the reason why Dave Santorum-Crespo tastes eucalyptus every time he thinks about Tolkien's Ring Trilogy. Have your own story of "a certain book in a certain place"? Send it in!
For Karen and JT, Here are all The Ref coin-flip videos. A few more seasons and we'll do a box set!
Thanks to Josh Williams who has joined the list of hotshot Executive Producers on our current film projects including the late and over-budget 72° and Laboratory Conditions.
All the talk of how painstakingly difficult it is to make stop-motion films notwithstanding, I think Ray Harryhausen and Art Clokey would appreciate BB and SD's Coin Flip (above) for today's Layer Tennis Match. Check all the rest of The Ref's Flips here.
Please follow Layer Tennis on Twitter for short bits of pertinent information and get your free Season Tickets for longer, less frequent but infinitely more satisfying communiques. Thanks.
Related to the last but not quite so difficult. Whose Fish?, Da Vinci's Other Code and Which Porn Star Ate the Most Hot Dogs?
Just a couple dozen tickets remain to the Chicago premiere of Gary Hustwit's Objectified at The Music Box on April 28th. It would break our hearts if you weren't there to see it with us. Really.
Re: Layer Tennis. Check your local listings for the time in your area.
Crap. We fell to third place. The only consolation is that we're still ahead of that other little Chicago shop in fourth.
An extra special thanks to our January Guest Editor, Alissa Walker (alw) of Gelatobaby. Up next for February is Mister Jalopy (mj) of Coco's Variety and Dinosaurs and Robots (where JC will be guest editing soon). A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.
The CP Fleet is one Subaru Forester stronger.
Local note: I'll be taking part in a Chicago Ad Federation panel discussion tonight at Rockit on Hubbard. The title of the event is "So Now What Do We Do?" If you can't make it I'll summarize my contribution here. "Hell if I know."
Our January Guest Editor is Alissa Walker of Gelatobaby who started linking up a storm on day one and hasn't let up. For more about Alissa and a long list of the other smart, talented people who have helped us out, check our Guest List.
A Simple Act of Faith, January 20, 2009.
In case you missed it, Jewelboxing Case Study 12 is "explosive, dangerous and dazzling."
Just remember, we're right there over your shoulder, or we should be. It is required after all. Thanks to Ray from Halifax.
The next time we do a quickie offer that says "buy something and we'll send you some extra stuff" you might want to pay attention.
Our Guest Editor for January is Alissa Walker of Gelatobaby who has been doing such a great job these last couple of weeks that we're considering ordering this sweatshirt. For more about Alissa and a long list of other smart people who have helped us out, check our Guest List.
Thanks much to Michael Surtees (mst) of Design Notes for his terrific posts in December. Our Guest Editor for January is Ms. Gelatobaby herself, Alissa Walker (alw).
Project 365 is mysterious, but looks like it will be packaged nicely.
If you're like us (in Chicago, and running a few gifts short) remember that Field Notes, Jewelboxing, Pinsetter, shirts, posters, DVDs, books and more great gifts from our shop are all available for pickup at our 400 N. May "Will Call Window" before 5pm today or 9am-noon tomorrow. Simply order online and select "Local Pickup." No shipping charges, instant gratification!
Luz's fleet sticker looks chilly "enshrouded by a frosty window." Is your vehicle up to standard like hers is? You can take care of that free.
Check some very nice early entries to the Best and Worst of 2008 Photo Contest. Where's yours?
Choosing just the right book for someone is difficult. Why not give them 143 books all Field Tested by more than 90 very smart people?
"Important: While at the zoo, try not to lose any of the kids." How to be a hero, and other ideas for holiday gift discs.
Our officemates at 37signals have relaunched the site for their fab contact app Highrise and we had a blast producing the new case study videos.
While we're on the subject, we couldn't be happier to have John Boardley's unstoppable I Love Typography join us in The Deck too.
Starting today we're doing a bit of an experiment and the folks at Newgator are carrying the ads from The Deck, our network for design, web and creative professionals, in the free version of FeedDemon, their popular news reader. People have opinions and ours is that it rocks.
Related to the last. Maybe if you flatter him a bit tonight you might get SD to show the rarely screened The Spaniard.
Local note, our SD is premiering some new short films tonight at The Lincoln Lodge, details here. See you there?
"I had to have it." Our Field Tested Books feature gets reviewed by Book Takes. Thanks for that.
Matt Lee points out that sometime life imitates art. Check the descriptions here which correspond nicely with our home page from the day we launched our short film Copy Goes Here.
Our SD and FotA Kate James (of Schadenfreude) have been nominated for a few Midwest Film Festival Awards for Kid, a film in SD's "Regrets" series. We're not above stuffing the ballot box a bit, won't you help?
For Gracie, here's Michele's "Keywasher" video, starring the RinseCam 9000.
Hey MS, Jonathan Russell's bike is in the fleet too.
Sebastian Georgieff writes about our site via a lovely machine translation, "I have the feeling that these people are very mad. And that sometimes is good." Thanks for that.
Thanks to Chris, Tom, and Wendy at Wire & Twine for a great Farm Party at their beautiful studio.
As a companion to our blog, we've just started a Jewelboxing Group on Flickr. Have a case you're particularly proud of? Join up and show it off.
What to wear for the next three weeks, from our Lowercase Tee brand.
Election results, unwittingly predicted by a motorcycle trade magazine.
Tangentially related to the last, one of MS's puzzlers, Da Vinci's Other Code.
For Amy, here's our Booking Bands project which was used as an example for my pseudo-scientific (emphasis on pseudo) General Theory of Creative Relativity at last spring's SXSW.
In case you missed it Friday, here's the Chicago Public Radio feature on our Field Tested Books project on "Eight Forty-Eight" with Alison Cuddy.
Glad we could help. Ballookey solves a mystery box.
Our Field-Tested Books project will be featured in a piece by Alison Cuddy on Chicago Public Radio's "Eight Forty-Eight" this morning. Thanks for that.
Related to the last. Need a sticker for your guitar? Or car? Or you Sting-Ray?
Austin Heller conducts a field-test on our Field Tested Books Book. Thanks for that.
Chicago's 14th annual Slaughterhouse scooter rally kicks off tonight, Can you find BB in the background of this Fox morning news report? (Hint: he's the only one wearing a helmet).
Just a few of the vehicles that currently comply with our Vehicle Identification Symbol System, including this beauty. Please update your ride. It's a free service. Thank you.
Just finished uploading all of MS' photos from the Field-Tested Books reading in NY.
Local note, if you are in town, be sure to stop by Funny Ha Ha tonight. Just as the name says, it's funny and you'll be saying Ha Ha. We'll be there, will you?
Lots of photos have been posted to Flickr from last night's soiree in NYC. Note to selves: next time a much, much bigger room.
Big thanks to all who showed up last night at our FTB reading at the Delancey. Much fun had by all and I'd like to personally thank Joe for the right cheeseburger at the right time.
As promised: Photos from last night's Field-Tested Books reading here in Chicago. If you're in NYC, we'll be heading out there to do it all again next Monday.
Naz declares there were "no wankers" at last night's event. Amen. He's posted some nice shots too.
According to the New Yorker, our Field-Tested Books event next week in NYC is up against James Frey's appearance in Brooklyn and Joyce Carol Oates reading in Bryant Park that afternoon. No offense to either, but we think we've got a lock on this one as "best reading to attend on July 28th."
We're guessing from the photo accompanying his post about our NYC Field-Tested event that Michael Surtees will be drinking wine that evening.
Dave Caolo ordered The FTBB and it inspired him to catalog a few of his own Field Tests.
CP gets a mention (but no link sadly) in #6. The 10 Commandments of Web Design from BusinessWeek. Thanks for that.
Sound Opinions host, music critic, and Field Tester Jim DeRogatis gives a shout out to Field-Tested Books. His review of reading The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones in a van somewhere in the Midwest is here, or find it in book.
A Frame-Tested Poster. Get your own here (frame not included).
Codder says, "It's very beautiful."
Woohoo! Our Layer Tennis project, which was sponsored by Adobe CS3 and produced in association with Goodby Silverstein Partners won the Bronze at Cannes Lions 2008 in the category "Business Products & Services." Big congrats to Sidney and his team at Goodby and the great folks at Adobe.
We're not usually big on awards but... Our Layer Tennis project, which was sponsored by Adobe CS3 and produced in association with Goodby Silverstein Partners, has been shortlisted for Cannes Lions in two categories, "Best Use of Internet/New Media" and "Business Products & Services." Winners are announced Wednesday. Wow.
"The essays are irresistible reading, and go down like gin fizzes on a hot day." Field Tester James Finn Garner reviews the reviews.
The Beginning and End Are Up To You, a mini-doc on the making of this year's Field-Tested Books poster.
Mark from Business POV was at Seed on Friday and conducted a series of video interviews. He has just posted mine. Thanks for that. More to come.
IT Enquirer interviews our own BB about Jewelboxing and The Art of Disc Labeling. More info at the Jewelboxing blog.
We customized Field Notes for An Event Apart, and we can customize 'em for you, too!
SD and BB are visiting John Solimine of Spike Press today. They're shooting video for the 'making of' our limited-edition poster for the next Field Tested Books feature, coming next month. Here are a couple short videos of previous FTB posters, created by Jay Ryan and Aesthetic Apparatus.
Page Two was updated this morning. Start your Friday with novelist Zadie Smith reading Frank O'Hara's Animals, from our Verse By Voice project.
Seed Conference, Friday June 6 with 37signals, Segura, Threadless. Edward Lifson, Gary Vaynerchuk & us, in this building.
A nice portrait of BB by Naz. Note the steer on the monitor.
Local note: Our SD will be appearing with hip-hop artist Rhymefest and author Marcus Sakey at Mark Bazer's always-great The Interview Show tomorrow night at The Hideout.
A sweet addition to the fleet, a Stingray with a boss slick on the back.
In response to winning the 2008 ToB, Diaz asked, "So do I get a T-shirt with that supercool rooster on it? He's bad-ass." Yes he is. And SE made him.
Just saw John Solimine's latest sketch for our third bi-annual Field-Tested Books poster, and it's fantabulous.
If you, like many, are looking for a scooter this spring, ignore most of the rehashed PR out there, and read these two (1, 2) well-researched stories. (And my site, of course.)
Tomorrow is the last day to enter our "Cover Me" subscriber-only contest. Warning: the competition is very tough already. Don't know what I'm talking about? Join our Infrequent Mailing list, at the bottom of the right hand column, and then watch your inbox.
Video from JC's General Theory of Creative Relativity presentation at SXSW.
Thanks to everyone who came to my SXSW presentation on Saturday. They've just posted a podcast of the audio.
Have you hugged your Pinsetter lately?
That other scooter postcard is okay, but I'm partial to this one.
Jewelboxing Case Study #10: FontShop has just been posted on the Jewelboxing blog. We got a chance to talk to Stephen Coles about the company's new FontStars 2007: Best Type of the Year collection.
Once again, we're up to something.
Our five-part documentary, Laboratory Conditions is also available on DVD.
Oh, boy. The first volley of the first match of today's Layer Tennis concurrent doubleheader is up. Prepare for a few hours of total mayhem, and if you've never checked out the forums before, today is the day, there's a lot going on there, too.
You pretty much have to pay attention when your recent conference is reviewed by Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots.
A PDF of Stephen Heller's Jim Coudal interview from the November/December 2007 Print Magazine (Heller lists the wrong issue).
Our application of sophisticated image-enhancement technology to uncover a major spoiler buried in the trailer for the new film Cloverfield is getting a fair amount of attention today.
Layer Tennis is live with a dreamy illustration by Veerle Pieters.
Our youngest Fleet member to date. Are you part of the tribe?
Our SD, "Not to brag, but when I make a Bar Mitzvah video, I make the kind of Bar Mitzvah video that winds up being talked about by VH1's Best Week Ever."
This afternoon's LT match comes to us from the Brooklyn studios of AthleticsNYC. Here's what their space looked like before they renovated it. Appropriate for a competition eh?
For Sandra, his name is Ed Grothus and yes, we wish we had an uncle like him.
Attention Fleet Managers and other interested parties. It is recommended that you update the vehicle identification symbol system on your current inventory of automobiles. This update is free.
Our studio holiday dinner is tonight. We're having it a new place that we named and did all the identity work for, La Madia. Mmm.
We'll announce the "Let's do Lunch" contest winners tomorrow. If they're local, they win lunch with us here at Coudal, where we talk about: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, um, maybe you don't want to spend lunch with us now.
(cue timpani) David Nakamoto. Aaron Draplin. Commentary by the man that wrote the book on design, Stephen Heller. Today's Layer Tennis match is complete.
Today's live-right-now Layer Tennis match pits Scott Hansen against Rob Cordiner with layer-by-layer commentary from Alissa Walker. Join the conversation in the Forums before, during and after the match.
Richard & Linda from San Diego "...took a trip to the Eastern Sierra. Coudal came along. Sunrise on Mt. Tom near Bishop and in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine." We're always up for travel, get your own Fleet Vehicle Identification Symbol System free.
Marian Bantjes serves and her Layer Tennis match against Armin Vit is underway.
In response to a couple emails from Seed Conference attendees, here's Hobbies, SD's film on passion and follow-through, or a lack thereof. The rest of his "Regrets" series is linked there too, including the profane and hilarious Boxes.
Today's Layer Tennis match is over. Pop into the forums and tell us what you think.
Chris Glass has just posted an excellent volley-by-volley behind the scenes look at last week's Layer Tennis match.
We're not sure why but there was a run on Spelling Sets from Pinsetter over the weekend.
Chris Glass in the remix forums about Friday's match, "If I could redo volley 8." Plus check out this pair of amazing remixes by Bayron, I. II.
Welcome and thanks to Dan Cederholm who has just joined the list of Executive Producers on 72°, our current film project.
Naz seems quite prepared for this afternoon too.
The text isn't online yet, but JC chatted with Steven Heller in Print Mag's big Regional Design Issue this month. The interview features Doug Wilson's Blind Boxes and Billy Davis' Ghosties Prints from our Swap Meat too.
Welcome and thanks to Dan Rubin who has joined the list of Executive Producers on 72°, our current film project.
So you know. A cancellation has opened up a couple seats for our October 29th Seed Conference in Chicago.
Our Seed Conference on October 29th is all sold out. If you'd be interested in attending if we scheduled a second date, drop us a line. Thanks to everyone who registered.
An Antiques-Roadshow-esque story about our latest Swap Meat entry.
"A tale of extreme endurance." SD's interview with BBC5 last night is included in this "Pods and Blogs" episode.
"Intuitively, I knew it all came down the Norwegian." For those of you new to our Einstein Fish Puzzle, here are some resources. Note that these include the answer, so peek after you give up. Joe Maller dissected the walleye. Julian Scott Yeomans employed a brainiac approach. Jayson Makar did a nice job illustrating his thoughts on the whole thing.
CP and Seed get a mention in Brad Spirrison's Tech Matters column in today's Sun-Times.
Einstein's Fish is getting a workout this morning, thanks to NotCot. If you dig puzzlers like that be sure to check School of Government, Da Vinci's Other Code and, of course, Which Porn Star Ate the Most Hot Dogs?
"...this love affair that has been going on for years and years." Our friend and longtime client Mr. William Wirtz passed away last night.
Monster in the Swap Meat! (Cue lightning strike and organ riff.)
New in the Swap Meat: our first Lacework. More soon!
North May Co.
Because of a recent change in policy we are officially declaring today, Wednesday, September 19, 2007, "International Link To Yourself in the New York Times Archives Day," LTYNYT. We'll go first. Rob Walker's Consumed column from the Sunday Magazine about our Swap Meat, Sarah Boxer's Critic's Notebook about our Museum of Online Museums, aka The MoOM, Pamela O'Connell's Online Diary about The MoOM and also and another entry about our Field-Tested Books project.
Thanks to Ben for stopping by the studio and picking up a few Fleet Vehicle Identification Stickers. Keep an eye out for him driving around the Twin Cities. Why not get your very own?
An amazing, new origami piece in the Swap Meat. More soon!
Hello to the red Mazda with a Fleet Sticker that was parked behind me Saturday night at Lawrence & Broadway.
Thanks to everyone who sat through my rambling presentation at An Event Apart Chicago yesterday. Here are links to the films I showed, Regrets: Hobbies, An Unsolicited Response and Copy Goes Here. More films listed on the video wall.
Welcome and thanks to Marko Dugonjic of Zagreb, Croatia who joins the list of Executive Producers on 72°, our current film project.
Kim and Kim. Swapped!
We're biased but it seemed to us that SD stole the show last night at Funny Ha Ha with his newest short film Hobbies, the fifth in his "Regrets" series. If you're at all like us and are better suited for starting things than you are for finishing them, you ought to pay attention.
OK, we're totally not giving up "Little Jim" in the Swap Meat, but luckily he came with a swappable friend.
Science, Art, and Albino Squirrels. A great pair of prints available for sale at the Swap Meat.
C writes that we neglected to include instructions for attaching our Fleet Vehicle Identification Symbol System to a bike and suggested this this application. Excellent. A track disc wheel might be cool too.
Lynne Taetzsch's "Culmination" is certainly not the culmination of the Swap Meat.
Some sweet li'l Ghost Prints, Swapped. Look for more Swaps and Exclusives early next week.
JC gives a quick interview over at An Event Apart. Tickets still available for the Chicago event at the end of the month.
Who wants the last August slot in The Deck, our targeted ad network? Ads appear on A List Apart, Daring Fireball, 37signals,
Waxy.org, YayHooray!, The Morning News,
Design
Observer, Kottke.org, IconBuffet,
Helvetica: The Film, Computerlove, Vitamin,
Fortuitous, Zeldman,
Subtraction, swissmiss, Airbag and
here at CP. More sites to come.
Marbles! Robots! Together at last at the Swap Meat
A new Swap Meat Exclusive print from our neighbor Dan MacAdam of Crosshair.
Who Rides a Vespa? BB does.
Sneaker activism at the Swap Meat.
America needs free paintings. America needs Swap Meat.
Quick new idea for browsing a bunch of our films, The Video Wall.
Nick Campbell, the photographer behind the Comic Book Store Poster at the Swap Meat, came by yesterday to sign all 248 prints. Of the hour and a half it took, here's 20 minutes of the process, compressed into 20 seconds.
06:22
Project83 buys into our "three questions to ask when evaluating a potential project." From the Opening Remarks from SXSW 2006.
New item in the Swap Meat: A box, a hole, and some film.
New Swap Meat item: Kristen's one-off letterpress print, and the Garamond memoir it inspired.
PsssT.
For those busy IT wonks who don't have time to watch the movie, Reg Hardware from the UK summarizes our CP Labs keyboard in the dishwasher experiment.
Our mail is never boring: a circuit-bent Furby becomes the first Swap Meat item to require a video.
Another set of the customer videos we made for 37signals has been posted, profiling Threadless, Organized Wisdom and some design firm in Chicago.
Kyle Jones' Mazda3 is looking good. Upgrade the vehicle identification symbol system on your current inventory of automobiles.
Can't stop the Swap. Check out some of the amazing stuff people have sent in, and our Swap Meat Exclusives.
A piece I wrote a while ago, When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar? has floated back up to the front page of A List Apart today and I'll use that as an excuse to thank all the folks who showed up and participated in my presentation at the How Design Conference yesterday, which covered some of the same ground.
The latest addition to our Swap Meat: a fascinating box of documents from On Paper Wings.
For Whom the Bell Biv Devoe Tolls and Cat Stevens' Cradle. 43 Things is having fun with our Booking Bands project. C'mon, what else you got?
Regarding The Deck, our advertising network, Jon Beattie gets it and has a smart and smart-looking site too.
The Swap Meat takes a nap.
Clunky Robot: "Take me to your Meat!"
After "When is Photoshop Tennis coming back?" and "Don't you want her to love you more than other men?" the question we get asked most is "Do you have any job openings?" To the first we say this, to the second we say "she already does" and to the third we mostly say "No." But now at least we can point people at some other opportunities by carrying the 37signal's Job Board Feed.
We found a bug in the Swap Meat.
Looking forward to meeting folks in NYC at the Future of Online Advertising conference this week and in Atlanta, at the big How confab next week. See you there.
Clark sent a set of pins featuring a variety of typefaces and got back a grab bag full of goodies from Featherproof Books. That's the power of free trade.
Anna Lee sent in some iPod Cozies from Seoul and got back a set of hand-printed cards from Kara in Philly. Swapped!
Chas Bowie describes our Swap Meat as "part leap of faith, part art exchange, part black market." That seems just about right to us.
"...we came full circle –a true fruit loop." DW's gang gets some press.
An older CP video, but still fun, especially the track and KG with the gun.
"Pound, melt, pull, saw, and form." it's Swap Meat Breakup Week.
CAMPBELL IS 8! was set at Pinsetter last night and then purchased ten times from Kansas City. Happy BirtHDay Campbell. While we're at it, here's another kids' party favor idea.
Dig the mighty Bacon Scarf at the Swap Meat. If that doesn't make you salivate, check in early on Monday.
Kitty Kitty, I'll never let the mean lady swap you.
One more swap for the weekend!
45rpm on the island of Kraa-Olah: only at the Swap Meat.
OK, now we're officially buried in Futura Bold so we've closed the door on additional entries for our subscriber-only "Kern-A-Thon" contest (A CP/Veer Joint) from our most recent Infrequent Mailing. If you don't know what this is all about, subscribe to the mail list, below and to the right.
Welcome to Darren Marshall (dm), our intern for the summer and a belated thanks to everyone who applied for the job. You may see Darren post here once in a while, assuming he ever gets out of the Swap Meat warehouse.
Hans van Dijk, who is an Executive Producer on our 72° film project, wrote to tell us that this past Sunday, while he was visiting the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte in Florence, the sunlight coming through the windows showed him something.
Figure out who owns the fish and how to unravel Da Vinci's other code and then you might be ready to decide which porn star at the most hot dogs. A new puzzler is coming soon-ish.
We just finished a fun film shoot about a super-secret client product. Perhaps we'll post a little HD snippet tomorrow, but here's what SD's desk looked like while he and MS were preparing thousands of props.
We've added two more Swaps, including another Swap Meat Exclusive, Erin Zamrzla's Perpetual Calendar.
Vampires? Pirates? Can't lose! The Swap proliferates.
SD and Executive Producer John Tolva are en route to Los Alamos, New Mexico this morning for a location shoot that was motivated by cocktails and a need to scout some vintage computer equipment for our film project, 72°. See how much fun it can be to be an Executive Producer? They'll be updating us with video postcards along the way.
Cultivation at the Swap Meat. Dustin, email us!
What happens around CP after we've had a piece of music sitting on our desktops for more than a year and have an hour before we have to return the dolly to the rental house: Swap Meat: The Show.
So you know. Early-bird registration ends tomorrow for the How Design Conference in Atlanta. JC will be speaking there in June.
Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal, swapped.
Brad Spirrison profiles CP and The Deck for The Bright One this morning in a piece titled Adding Something. Thanks for that.
Planetary activism meets the Swap Meat.
Spring is in the air and Swap Meat is in love with birds.
Another "local pride" t-shirt for the Swap Meat. We're buried in boxes and envelopes, but please keep 'em coming. We've started to send some stuff back out, watch your mailboxes, Swappers.
A letter we just got in from Chad Vavra: "I listened to JC's SXSW conversation last night and loved it. It got me thinking that a social network of unfinished ideas would be brilliant: Open Sourced Failures. Yet while I think my idea is great, true to it's nature, I'm not going to finish it."
Swap Meat is kicking a** and taking notes. So much more to come.
Pinkey learns about forgiveness in a very special episode of Coudal Partners Swap Meat.
CP gets site of the week honors at Artdish.
Two more Swap Meat items catalogued. We spent all day today organizing, tomorrow we start shipping. Good stuff is flooding our mailbox, keep spreading the love.
Two new items on our Swapping page. Tomorrow we're going to clear a path through this stuff and start sending some of it back out. Keep 'em coming!
Two New Englanders swap meat. Is that the mail truck outside?
The fabulous "Batpack" has been added to the Swap Meat. Lots more later this morning.
An Infrequent Mailing just went.
Related to the last. For a trip of a much shorter distance but perhaps requiring a greater amount of endurance, hop in the car with our SD.
Thanks to everyone who packed the room for our presentation yesterday at SXSW, it was a blast. And thanks especially to Brendan and Lou for flying in from the UK, to make it happen.
Looking forward to seeing many of you this weekend in Austin. If you haven't set your schedule yet, the unstoppable Brendan Dawes and I are making a presentation on Sunday called Making Your Short Attention-Span Pay Big Dividends.
I AM 404 and UNDO were ordered from Santa Monica last night at Pinsetter.
Vous êtes bienvenu Baudouin. Jeez, I love the poetry of machine translation. "The minimum that I can make is to return a bond to them for lack of elevator."
When you order something from one of our brands, this is the thanks you get.
Related to the last. A couple years ago we talked Brian into making the pictures for a feature about us in the UK's Computer Arts Magazine. Here's a contact sheet from the shoot. The CP crew looks quite a bit different these days but the location, the carry-out vestibule at Salerno's, hasn't changed a bit.
David Pliska teaches elementary school reading in Eden Prarie Minnesota and used our Pinsetter in class for a number of things, including posing a classic school riddle, and the answer too.
A Fleet Grows in Belgium. [translate] Please update your own vehicle identification system, all you have to do is ask nicely.
You have watched Slowtron's film series of artist profiles titled Western State, haven't you? No? Start with Geoff McFetridge.
Last month, Kevin Cornell created the art that gets woven into our Fresh Signals column. He's collected them all in one place and also given them a nice title that we'll be sure to steal. Bearskinrug's "Signal Flares." This month, they're by Kate Bingaman.
Bear fans have now made XLI the most popular set at Pinsetter. A recent related option is FKINDYCU, or some anagram of that. We're shipping same day on those.
We had quite a bit of fun this season. And we've sold a lot of tees with our Check the Wins concept, designed to track the progress of our now SuperBowl-bound Chicago Bears. Andrew of Element Creative has thought to make a sweet modification to the shirt he bought. Yay!
For Chuck. Here's what you're looking for. Our Booking Bands Contest which started on the chalkboard walls of our studio washroom. Some cover art here.
A reference image for our studio remodeling project. Whaddaya say Jason? Via Airbag.
We post this photo not because it's a beautiful example of garish supermarket-bakery department design, which it is. Nor because it embodies a splendid sense of "naive" or "outsider" typography, which it does. No, we post it because yesterday was Steve's birtHDay and nothing says love quite like a surprise cake emblazoned with the words "Greetings Coworker."
There has been some shuffling in Alexa's rankings of big, important advertising agencies. The WPP Group has jumped into the top 4, taking Y&R's spot and DDB Worldwide seems to be fading a bit. No change at the top however.
Coop asks what we want for Christmas. Either a Red Ryder, carbine action air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time or a couple more Executive Producers.
Thanks to Alex at Neatorama, a whole new group of people are trying MS's Einstein Fish Puzzle. Download it now and maybe it'll shut Uncle Harold up at the Christmas party this year.
Yesterday, a guy from Los Angeles --who, as near as we can tell, is feeling lost-- typeset '404' using Pinsetter.
"For some reason, whenever I'm out of town, I find doing the dishes hard to do." Scott's in NYC
At Pinsetter yesterday, a person in Brooklyn set 'OMG' and another in Fort Lee NJ set 'WTF.' Let's hope they meet at La Guardia during the holidays.
SD just left to take what used to be called The New Century Limited to LA. It's a train. He doesn't like flying and if the past is any indication, he would never make it by car.
To answer a few questions about Christmases past. 1. Yes, we did create a series of custom manufactured and packaged hot sauces called "Whoa" that we gave away as holiday gifts. 2. No, ten years was plenty. 3. Not enough that we can share. 4. Seven or Nine.
Our very own SD is featured in an article in today's Chicago Tribune about "buzz-worthy local filmmakers".
Take a copy of MS's puzzler to your family holiday party and have Einstein's Fish for Thanksgiving Dinner.
JC is a pretty interesting guy, but he's definitely not the most colorful character I've ever worked for.
We have formatted our popular Einstein Fish Puzzle as a portable, printable document so you can fight with your family about something new during the holidays this year.
It was the end of an era here at CP as we collectively drank from the 2+ year old can of Barq's Diet Root Beer just a short while ago. And, for some reason, it warranted making a film about it: Moot Beer.
Traveling next week for the holiday? Need something to read on the trip? You could do worse than checking a Field-Tested Book, or even a Field-Tested Books Book.
A name, logo and tag we created for a fab new restaurant concept.
Local note, Gapers Block is having their Book Club meeting tonight at The Book Cellar. They will be discussing KG's Cast of Shadows. Kevin himself will be there so get yourself on over there.
We've posted the final winners of our Dylan contest. Three lucky people have been notified that they will soon be the owners of Dylan's entire catalog on CD.
We like to think we get all his good links, but our SD is also a news editor for UnBeige on the side. Today he and his cohort Alissa Walker chat with the Tastemakers Society.
We always knew we were walking a tightrope with our 16straight Tees. That was part of the fun. After we almost went belly-up in our very first week when the Bears improbably came back to beat Arizona, we figured no matter what happened after that we'd consider ourselves lucky. Oh, and to all you emailers from Miami, yes, we are aware of what happened yesterday, but thanks for writing to tell us. The shirts are now fifteen bucks.
Edward Lifson was nice enough to have me over to the WBEZ studios for this week's Chicago Public Radio arts show "Hello Beautiful!" It's online now and goes out over the air Sunday at 10am. On the show I mentioned a few sites that I read. Here are those links. The Morning News, City of Sound and The Nonist.
Local note. This Saturday, the Cut and Paste Design Competition will be in town for one night only. It's Mills Vs. Polonsky, Hora Vs. Wasseluk, and much more. Plus, our own JC will be among the judges.
...and in our alternate reality, there are bubblegum cards for Copy Goes Here.
Whew.
How do you get from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Bob Dylan?
Just spent the afternoon packing and shipping hundreds of tees for our 16 Straight project. Yay.
We love when people post their answers to our Dylan contest, like Extra Extra did. There's no danger either, we only count the first submission if two are identical. Hey Jake, send Fred a CD willya?
Starting tonight, our new Sixteen Straight Tees will be available at Mike Ditka's Chicago so you can check off the schedule while you're checking out the pork chops.
"He attends, valley the penalty, and learns: nor always realize you will be valued by your master!" Ah, the poetry of machine-translation. Found in this Brazilian review of our film Copy Goes Here.
Related to last. Nice to see the logo and unis we designed in a historical context.
Local note. We're up to something. Well, actually sixteen somethings.
Quirkeyblog scanned an illustration from Fast Company's October issue and it includes our ad network, The Deck. The text isn't online. Anybody have it nearby? We'll send a present to the first person to email us a pix or scan of the relevant text. Dig our shirt btw.
Our MoOM places at #16 in Yahoo UK & Ireland's Top 100 Weird Sites, putting it ahead of The Center for Prevention of Shopping Cart Abuse and behind the "Dead Animals Society." Good company.
Our swag never looked so good.
We're doing research on archival art and religious relic preservation, various auction models, live video streaming and how to safely and spectacularly blow things up. Want to know why? Make sure you're on our Infrequent Mailing list and we'll tell you what we're up to before we tell everyone else. Subscribe, below and to the right.
Greg Storey signs on as a flashy Hollywood Producer on our next film project, 72°. Thanks for that. Who's next?
Another batch of CGH tees ordered from France yesterday. Hmm? Perhaps "copiez va ici" just isn't the same.
"If that sounds too corporate for you, it's because you haven't yet seen the site." Kyle Monson on including our site in PC Magazine's "Top 99 Undiscovered Web Sites." Thanks for that.
Paul Watson was one of our recent contest winners and he posted a sweet photo of his prize package. Another Paul, Paul McAleer did too. New contests next week. Subscribers to our Infrequent Mailings always get a head start. Sign up below and to the right.
Bob Dylan's Modern Times was released yesterday and sounds great. See Jody Rosen's review at Slate. We're cooking up a new special contest with Columbia Records that will give you the chance to win the album or maybe even all 47 Dylan albums. As usual, folks on our Infrequent Mailing list will get a head start. Subscribe today, below and to the right.
Film and video editing and post-production companies make up a big chunk of our Jewelboxing customer base. For example, Velocite Editorial, in Sydney.
Novelist pulled from her minivan, arrested, and forced to watch Gigli in a Georgia prison, all because of a clerical error: KG covers the scary-but-true story of Joshilyn Jackson.
We're not exactly sure why but lately we've seen quite a run on our Copy Goes Here tees, most notably from customers in Japan. There's not much to it, just the CGH lock-up on the front and a small 'croix' at the nape of the neck on a very high-quality dusty green shirt. A fashion trend? Who knows?
Samantha Stainburn interviewed me for Crain's Chicago Business this week but she failed to ask if I thought headline writers always paid attention to what they are doing. I'd have answered no. Also funny that an article about how businesses can use the web doesn't have any links in it.
If our MoOM had a big, institutional endowment, we might have taken our campaign to the streets.
Re: The Deck, Ontologi gets it.
"The first time I was humiliated in public by a successful novelist I was 19 years old". Former CP'er Kevin Guilfoile recounts the story.
Issue Thirteen is now online for Blueeyes magazine. Of note, JC and SE did the titles for Pocket Towns and Romania, Intangible Heritages of Humanity.
We have an idea for something. If you're a young photographer, looking to specialize in fashion and would like a small project to put in your book and some exposure here, drop us a line with a link to some examples of your work and maybe we can talk. Hit the 'contact' link below.
Regarding the old Blogstop game we initiated on MetaFilter, there's currently a halfhearted attempt underway to try and crank it up again.
A comment in a Metafilter post about our MoOM uncovers a thread we started a long time ago in which the last word of a entry must be used as an acronym for the next entry. Fun.
Um, if I'm using it, I sure as heck am not going to be reading it.
Some very cool panoramic pictures from last night's Pixies concert in Prague. Buy yourself a Pixies Disc and feel like you're there.
La Petite Claudine on Adsense, The Deck, and advertising for personal sites and weblogs. Very smart. [translate]
Jonathan Messinger of Time Out Chicago reviews our reviews this week and calls us "design consultants/web auteurs/mischief-makers." Fair enough.
If W+K keeps doing projects like the one below, maybe someday they'll crack the top ten. Ahem.
"In other news, scientists at Johns Hopkins overwhelmed by volunteers for their latest study".
Putting the 'boxing' in Jewelboxing.
Music From Mathematics, in the 72° blog.
"P.S. Well designed Jewelboxing cases go great with roses, as the ladies love the extra thought."
Chicago's first Tech Cocktail event is being held tomorrow. I'll be there demoing TableTop Interactive, so RSVP and stop by.
72°
Dave Barry's headline today about our Dear Cell Phone User Cards, "Attention, Nobel-Peace-Prize Judges." Thanks for that.
So you know. The most popular ad agencies online, according to Alexa. Hehe.
From the GDC event in Vancouver last week, check JC with lots of type projected on his face.
If you are in Chicago this weekend, don't miss CP's KG at The Printers Row Book Fair. While you are at it, pick up a copy of Cast of Shadows now out in paperback. As stated previously, Kevin is one funny guy and his readings are not to be missed so get on over there.
KG's Cast of Shadows comes out in paperback this month. Want to meet the author? He'll be here tonight and here tomorrow night. Kevin's readings are highly recommended by the CP staff. Not only is the book great, he is one funny guy.
Our first batch of Dead Can Dance - Selections from North America are being shipped out this afternoon. You've still got a few hours left to get your order in that batch. The discs have just arrived, and look and sound fantastic.
Only three more days to win this. Details here.
Best proprietary sandwich ever: the Moonburger from Finkl's Deli (or "Finkels Deli" depending on which page of the menu you're looking at): "Italian sausage patty with melted mozzarella cheese, peppers and onions served on a toasted onion roll." Not to be confused with the "Famous" Moonburger, which is way too far for a lunch run.
Jewelboxing stops cutting corners.
Get your tickets now, only 40 seats left. An Event Apart comes to Chicago and jc is one of the speakers.
"We suggest you have an exit plan after handing over the card." The San Antonio Current on cell phone manners and our Shhh cards. Thanks Jamie.
JC and Jason from 37signals gave the Opening Remarks at this year's SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin yesterday. Here's the audio of their ramblings.
Who needs a global network? I don't mean to brag, but we've finally overtaken that other little creative studio called Ogilvy & Mather and grabbed first place in Alexa's ranking of ad agencies.
Thanks to chicagosports.com for the nice mention of one of
our fave spots from way back when. You can tell how long ago it was by how small we had to compress it. And thanks to buddy Chris Malcolm for remembering it.
Attention Fleet Managers: If you don't have one of these on your vehicle, you may as well call these guys. Order today!
The February rotations are up for The Deck and include first-time advertiser, 2ndSite along with old friends, Veer, Campaign Monitor, Squarespace, Icon Buffet and New Riders. Launching a product or service? Try a roadblock.
Tasty. Our Verse by Voice continues with William Carlos Williams's This Is Just To Say, as read by Claire Zulkey.
A few photos from last night. Thanks Andrew!
Not sure why but we've had a little pickup in interest in our Copy Goes Here tee shirt. Of course it goes best with the DVD of the film, but I guess it is sort of fashionable in a huh? sort of way, all by itself.
You have until Monday to recite a short poem into our answering machine as part of our Verse By Voice feature. But, be forewarned, the bar has been set pretty high by Zadie Smith, Laura Demanski and Yun Joo, to name just a few.
Re: The Deck, Mister Snitch gets it too. "The Deck seems intent on delivering value to all concerned by not allowing ad clutter."
After trouncing Burnett, Thompson, DDB and Y&R, CP takes on Weiden + Kennedy, TBWA and others. This time you can help, in the new Battle of the Ad Blogs.
"It was interesting because I felt like I met someone who was known all over the world," said Gatto, who didn't actually read the book. KG meets with students at Willowbrook High School.
Ever sing a song at the top of your lungs and have your friends laugh at you because you got the lyrics wrong? Don't worry, you're not the only one. This post is in honor of Matt.
Incestuous post? You bet. Jewelboxing, The Show, Dead Can Dance and CP. All boxed up.
Thoughts On Teaching, A Look At Coudal. Shucks, thanks.
Our partner in the unstoppable Dear Cell Phone User Cards, Aaron Draplin, will be chatting about using design to fight back against bad cell phone manners, live on the CBC's Freestyle show today. Sweet.
For a total of about seven seconds we were on CNN last night. In a piece about pal Ian Urbina's book, Life Little Annoyances, Jeannie Moos showed the Dear Cell Phone User Cards we created with the mighty Aaron Draplin. Yay.
We're always talking about our projects that work out but here's something that bombed big time. Earlier in the week we sent out an Infrequent Mailing to the zillions of people on our list. We usually include some sort of contest in each one. You can sign up below for future mailings. Anyhow, we came up with this (we thought) cool idea and no one responded, not even a Nigerian relative of a late Banking Minister. We usually get hundreds of responses and sometimes even thousands. This time we got zilch, and the prizes are pretty good too. Here's the newsletter with subscriber-only stuff edited out. The too-clever-by-half contest is under the header "Contest: Act On This."
Scott Adams on the Dilbert Blog on 'bluffing literacy' which is related to our Copy Goes Here film, except of course for the bluffing part.
Our friends over at Gapers Block have a list of recommended books to give as gifts this holiday season. KG's Cast of Shadows makes the list.
Pinch-hitting at UnBeige for a couple days is our sd, although why he is signing his posts "eva" is a mystery, and perhaps one we don't relly want to solve.
I was put in charge of photos at our CGH party last night. I did a pretty lame job of it.. In CGH-related news, Gapers' Block reports that tickets are on sale for a Coctails reunion show, and they're also playing at rotofugi, to promote the new Coctails action figures.
Our PixiesDiscs website is now in Japanese by default.
Rumor has it that our Museum of Online Museums (MoOM) is in this month's Vanity Fair magazine along with Kate Moss and Princess Diana. The first person to send us a pix of the mention gets a slighty-better-than-mediocre prize. Use the 'contact' link below.
That Night Will Be Gotten! Translation of PixiesDiscs.com begins...
Self Promotion, the Coudal Way!, an interview with sd about Copy Goes Here.
When kg's Cast of Shadows has been translated into international editions, often the title has been changed too. Klon is the Czech version. Can anyone scroll down and help with a translation of this review?
I'm setting the type for the credits of Copy Goes Here right now. Really I am. So, if you've been thinking that you might want to be a flashy Hollywood Producer on this project, well, this is really the last call. You get a special edition of the DVD, a cool tee and other stuff, plus an invite to the 11/16 blowout party. The final cut gets rendered tomorrow darling.
As an addendum to jc's earlier post, sales of the Pixies Newport CD are also quite close to being sold out forever. As you will know, this was a very special acoustic performance by the band.
Jewelboxing is the 'killerest'.
We've updated the Copy Goes Here Production Notes, complete with a clip of "fun with ADR." Also, we welcome George and Dan Elder from Luminair as our newest Executive Producers. We're already in the process of picking out the typeface for the credits, so you've only got a couple of days left to give us the green light.
Jim goes under the iron for an interview, and it's one that keeps going on.
CP, A List Apart and 37signals have collborated on a new advertising network called The Deck. Just launched this minute, The Deck is uniquely configured to connect marketers to a targeted, influential audience of web and design professionals.
Overheard at the studio today, relative to some CGH shooting, "Whatever you do, don't drink the bleach labeled 'iced tea' in the fridge. Or the bleach labeled 'bleach' in there either."
"Hal: Hey, Dave, that was a pretty good joke there, eh? With the pod bay doors? I, I really had you going there. F***, you should have seen your face." Francis Heaney wins the Stanley Kubrick Collection DVD box set, for sending us links to his own 2001 as written by David Mamet and this theoretical AI remix too. Pretty good prize eh? Sign up for our Infrequent Mailings below and to the right so you can be in on the next one.
Yowza. This month's How Magazine. Pages 74-82!
Todd Sattersten, Ben Hayes and Tom Werner are new Executive Producers for our soon-to-be-finished film, Copy Goes Here. So forgive them if they start big-timing you.
Our White Sox are in the World Series! Years ago we wrote and created the "Good Guys Wear Black." ad campaigns for the team. And we still believe it's true. Now if we can only get the Astros through we'll be all set. We designed the Astros' complete identity system, logo and uniforms.
We're pretty sure this is a good thing, to have our MoOM listed in some nice company here. Anybody have a translation?
An Infrequent Mailing just went, including a contest and special Jewelboxing offer. Sign up for the list, below and to the right.
CP readers who are also Dead Can Dance fans who are not on The Showlist, shame on you. Only one word can properly describe something you should have known about very early this morning. "vinyl".
Resfest Chicago this weekend. We'll be hosting a stop on the studio tours tomorrow and taking part in some silliness too. See you there.
After 7 years of wondering and occasional Googling, I finally found info about Daniel "Moose" Brindisi, the honoree of our block of Grand Avenue. Mystery solved. In other Coudal neighborhood news, the Meat Truck is back, we'll work day and night to bring you photos.
Yet again, by popular request, the bags of air video starring Dawson, with commentary by Grace and Spencer.
Derek, Rob and Justin are going to be the first to receive our 'Fleet Vehicle Indentification Systems' in the next day or two. You better hurry though, we only have several thousand left.
If you've visited sites like those for Visa and Volkswagon, among countless others, or have ever used Final Cut Pro, you've seen the work of terrific designer and heck of a nice guy, Ernesto Rinaldi. We got the chance to interview him about his company, 451, in Jewelboxing Case Study 7.
Alex wins a Jewelboxing 20pack with his simple and perceptive entry via StripGenerator to last week's impromptu contest. It didn't really work out that great so here's what we're gonna try next. We have a 20pack for the person who dreams up the next contest and another for the person who wins it. Bang the 'contact' link on the bottom of the page and send us your big idea.
At one time, jw and sd both entertained thoughts of fame. Now that they've both been listed in UR Magazine's "30 Under 30" feature, they've seen the ugly side of noteriety. From the paparazzi to the clingy hanger-ons, it's been a harrowing last couple days. They'd like you to know, however, that they're still just regular guys and none of this has gone to their heads.
In a thinly veiled attempt to garner a product-placement in the movie, the crew at Clip-n-Seal has signed on as Executive Producers of CGH. Well, it won't work. Probably.
Want to buy one of our live Pixies recordings but don't know which one? Well, you have to have the Newport Folk Festival acoustic show, that pretty much goes without saying. After that, we'll attempt to confuse you even more.
Sort of the UK version of Cosmopolitan magazine, Easy Living has a little plug for KG's book,"Cast of Shadows" or "Wicker" as it's known across the pond. Maybe it's their audience but "Hard work at first"?
Votre conversation ne nous intéresse pas. Marie-Eve Morasse's piece on cell phone manners and our "Dear Cell Phone User" cards in today's La Presse. A link would have been nice. Comme service à la nation.
Another nice piece of art submitted by Heidi McDowell showing her, ahem, solution to our second Fish Puzzle, School of Government.
Four Pixies shows added to the schedule. Charlottesville, Baltimore, Brooklyn and Kingston NY.
We hear there's a piece about Copy Goes Here, our film in production, in the September issue of Big Idea Magazine. The first person to send a pix or scan of it to us before we get ours in the mail, gets a present. Use the 'contact' link below.
"Michael Crichton today would have little grounds to complain of the comparison." A rave in The Times of London for KG's Wicker, aka Cast of Shadows.
Enjoy the trailer for CGH and then, if you'd like to receive an authentically coffee-stained copy of the shooting script and other goodies, consider making us roll our eyes when you offer "creative direction" and curse you behind your back by becoming an Executive Producer.
Who needs sleep, when you have fish?.
Damn. Almost cracked the top three.
Our stylish but not-at-all vapid Executive Producers should be receiving their first confidential production packages right about now. We also sent one to Roger Ebert for the heck of it. C'mon Roger, sign up and we'll write you a cameo. And welcome to Michael Kristof who jumped on board over the weekend.
We're sending out a confidential production packet tonight for Monday delivery to the Executive Producers of Copy Goes Here. We have one that's not spoken for yet. Sign up before MS goes to the FedEx office and it's yours.
Jonathan Barlow writes that he's not "the purest programmer. I'm sure there are a lot of things that could have been more efficient. I sort of thought of it as a way to explore all the array functions that I hardly ever use." He's talking about this PHP script he wrote to solve current fish puzzle. Let's see one in Ruby or something else smartguys. All you coders decide who has written the most elegant solution and we'll send them a prize too. And everybody else, no cheating!
Look who's talking.
This month's STEP Magazine calls CP "porous, distinctive and credible." Awww.
We've just finished testing our newest logic puzzler, the fish will rise again! People who have grabbed our RSS feed or subscribed to our Infrequent Mailings (sign up below and to the right) will get first crack at it Wednesday.
A List Apart relaunches beautifully with articles by Joe Clark and JC.
You may have missed this last week and if you missed it on purpose, I do understand.
When sd and jw came back from Target with a lazy susan and a smirk on their faces, and asked to borrow my iPod, i knew it was time for another of their spectacularly inane videos. I was not disappointed.
Don't overlook SD's most excellent work on the wedding video he's talking about in his earlier post. I can guarantee that this wedding video will be watched more than any other wedding video ever produced in the history of wedding video production.
What We're Jewelboxing, Part IV: Inside the Brooke and Jeffrey Wedding Video Industry.
Look in your closet and panic, Fall 2005 Color trends from Pantone.
We love Dianogah and The Bird Machine and Veer. You'll see why soon.
Key to the success of The Show has been Jamie's help. She's been here every day packing and shipping and keeping us organized. But enough about that because Jamie is also Varla Vendetta, co-captain of the undefeated Hell's Belles of the Windy City Rollers Roller Derby League and they have a big match coming up on Sunday. Get your tix now.
Last call for paid-internship candidates for Jewelboxing and The Show starting later this month. Hit the contact button below if you're interested.
MS's 15 Minutes from the past are available. Bet you didn't know that.
If you get stuck, maybe try Jason Clarke's 'Who Owns the Fish?' Helper.
One of our clients is The Chicago Blackhawks hockey team. Our ad campaign for them just got a whole lot better. Let's go.
Late yesterday we asked what we meant when we said "we've run the table today." Jeffrey Windsor was the first of many to know the answer and write us. For paying close attention we'll send him one of these hand-screened and numbered Field-Tested Books Posters created by Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine. We use that term to descibe a single day, like yesterday, when we fill the entire front page with new Fresh Signals.
If you can understand Julien Scott Yeomans's method for solving our fish puzzle it probably goes without saying that you'll be able to solve the puzzle itself. No peeking for the answer though, we're watching. Thanks to Roderick at Make Ready.
Holy walleye! My inbox is jammed with hundreds and hundreds of entries into the Whose Fish? puzzler. Lots of people are 'showing their work' too and some are even right. Keep them coming and thanks to everyone who linked it up. Hmm, maybe we should do this more often?
One new labor ruling I can't imagine JC will be enforcing on the CP crew.
If we had such a thing, Kathy B. from Minnesota would win our 'customer of the month award.' Looking into shipping records on her purchase we came across the fact that she ordered two Lowercase Tees and a Dead Can Dance Selections from Europe disc-set on the same day. For her loyalty, we're sending her a Field Tested Poster, free of charge.
Brandy Agerbeck, an artist in attendance at Gapers Block's "Authors' Roundtable" earlier this week, created this fantastic graphic facilitation, covering all the topics from the evening.
We are slammed today getting ready for The Show's recording of tonight's free concert at Millennium Park featuring Danilo Perez with Angel Melendez and the 911 Mambo Orchestra. A few of us were lucky enough to attend a rehersal last night and with the way that sounded and this it ought to be a great night. Hope to see you there.
By request. What is he doing?
Scott is bored at a conference. Oh boy.
Listen to this and then see how your version could land you backstage with The Pixies.
CP, The Show and Jewelboxing are going retail for an afternoon.
KG's Cast of Shadows has been nominated for a Great Lakes Book Award in the Mystery category. He's got my vote, if I had one.
Lots of planets in alignment this weekend in Grant Park. We'll be there in force, recording and selling the Pixies set at Lollapalooza for The Show. Stop by and say hey, we'll all be in these red tees. Also, if you're lucky enough to be backstage, enjoy the food and atmosphere from our favorite caterer. They're keeping tabs on things this week through their blog, Sugarbuzz.
Beside being named as one of Time Magazine's 50 coolest web sites for 2005, our MoOM (Museum of Online Museums) has been chosen as number 16 in Yahoo UK's Top 100 Weird Sites. BTW: The galleries are being rehung for the summer showing.
If you don't subscribe to our RSS feed because you want to be updated on things other than just Fresh Signals, we thought you'd want to know that other site updates, (like the MoOM, the left column, Depth of Field, etc.) are blended into the 'Fresh' feed so you'll always be on top of everything.
Just posted a quick contest to our PixiesDiscs blog.
Friend of the Agency, Nick Campbell, sent along this photo he took yesterday in Evanston of a large window display with COS front-and-center.
Nice interview with our studiomate, Jason Fried of 37signals, a 'cool friend' of Tom Peters, whose site CP designed last year. Incestuous, yes, we know.
We hope this doesn't cause a stir, but yesterday we decided to do something more than a little stupid.
"It is sometimes a little static and I do not understand all. But it is harshly interesting!" Machine translation of a note about Copy Goes Here posted at Au Cafe des Mammouths.
We've just put up a new Jewelboxing Case Study with the founder of Heavenspot Studios. You may not know their name directly, but you definitely know their work.
Yowza. Our MoOM, the Museum of Online Museums, was just selected as one of Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites for 2005.
This is the answer to a couple emails this morning. Why yes, in fact the link and accent colors on our site do change frequently, in fact it happens just about every time the main image on the home page is switched out. Our fancy name for it is the Variable Color Palette™ and it's managed by a little PHP app we wrote. Funny thing is, nobody ever seems to notice, until we use pink. Thanks for asking.
News from The Show regarding Dead Can Dance and Pixies later this week. Join 15,000 other fans on the Showlist to get it first.
Pixies contest winners have been posted at pixiesdiscs.com. Note that Shawn Kelley was not in violation of the Shawn Kelley Rule as of the date of entry.
We'll be right back after this short commercial announcement.
Reposted for my kids in Jax. Junior Jewelboxing!
Sam just emailed to say the whole Computer Arts UK magazine profile on the studio is now online. And so it is. Maybe we should try to photoshop Steve in the front right where Ant is looking sad and Dawson by the door where Ry is looking studly.
BB and SE went on a roadtrip to Indy last night. Here's what happened.
We've just posted a doozy of a contest on pixiesdiscs.com. We'll give CP readers a hint: It's not mousse.
"Cast of Shadows is a masterpiece of intelligent plotting.." Salon picks former CP partner Kevin Guilfoile's CoS as one of it's summer must reads.
One thing about buying online display ads that has always bugged us is how they get stale really quickly. So we're trying something new for Jewelboxing with Boing Boing this month. Today's ad copy, ripped from today's headlines.
Our Infrequent Mailing went out at 1:06 Chicago time. In it, we asked ppl to send a pix of themselves in a Pixies tee, or with a Pixies disc or at a Pixies show and we'd give the first three we received a free limited-editon disc set. Those were spoken for by 1:12. Congrats to Maggie, Becky and Joe. We'll be in touch.
Scott takes a job. Of course, that means new tube-socks.
Mostly serious design tips for non-designers using our Jewelboxing system.
"The Show aims to reshape the business by forgoing instant customer gratification in favor of better-sounding recordings." Plus pix of the crew looking all-serious-like, in The Meter, by Bob Mehr, in this week's Chicago Reader.
Speaking of BB, he's heading to Cleveland tomorrow for Amerivespa, the national scooter rally organized by the Vespa Club of America!. You'll be able to order the bb-designed collateral online next week, we'll post the link when we get it. Since it seems most scooterists also happen to be graphic designers, look him up if you're there.
Quite possibly everything you will ever need to know about our BB is contained in this thread at pixiesmusic. [reg req]
Live from Portland right now with the Pixies, on the first night of the tour.
You may have noticed (unless you read us only via feed) that we've added the unstoppable House Industries to our list of Support Mechanism partners. If the idea is that by advertising here, companies are going to reach people like us, then this is a lock to be successful, as we're true fans of the House's work and attitude towards design and type. And you probably are too.
We head out to join the Pixies in Portland tonight and hope to see you along the way. JW will be blogging the tour for us here. If you're thinking of ordering one of the disc-sets you might want to do it today. Orders rec'd before midnight will also get a free disc of a special performance by the band at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on June 8th.
Philly to Key West in hi-performance cars. Proposal to sponsors in hi-performance disc packaging.
"I had a case of these around for presentations, but I hadn't had a chance to play with them yet. After doing a routine backup yesterday, I had a bit of fun and gave my fonts a nice home. Nothing that's come out of my ink jet printer has ever looked so cool."
We redid our RSS feed for Fresh Signals to help you get them even fresher. Of course we're using Chicago's own Feedburner technology. We've added a system to tip you off when there is a new main feature or significant other change in the non-Fresh Signals parts of the site as well.
The next person who orders from Jewelboxing and sends crew at jewelboxing dot com the phrase "oh kiss my ass, oh let it rock" gets a Pixiesdisc in the bargain. Ready, set, go. Gone. It was so close we had to give it to both of them. David's and Jody's asses will be kissed .
Jewelboxing Case Study 3: Rafael Macho. Big talent. Awesome credentials. Great reel. Nice guy.
We've made some more progress on the JB tv spot. Where are we going to run it you ask? Remember you heard this phrase here first: Media-Squatting.
In our Infrequent Mailing of last week we gave away a lot of stuff. Nat Davis won the Pixies Disc sets by being a first-responder. Jeremy Cox won a boxing poster for his essay claiming Rocky III "is not only the best boxing movie ever made, but easily the best example of art by humans." And so did Lawrence O'Toole, for merely cutting and pasting Jake's soliloquy from the last reel of Raging Bull into his entry. "So give me a stage, where this Bull here could rage, and though I could fight I'd much rather recite." The rest of the winners soon. Sign up below so that next time you'll know what the heck we're talking about.
Laffs and yukz will be in full bloom come Friday for the season closer of the ever popular Lincoln Lodge. A three-day blow-out of the most popular acts of the year, featuring our own SD on Friday night for the big finale.
An All-Contest Edition of our Infrequent Mailing went out yesterday and in it we're giving away a bunch of stuff. If you're on the list but don't seem to be getting the mailings maybe this will help. They always come from info at coudal dot com and the subject line always includes the words "Transmission from Chicago". So check your spam force-fields.
Case Study Number 2: Woxy has been posted to the Jewelboxing blog and demonstrates an interesting application of our product, with lots of nice action pix of a recording studio in Cincinnati run by "a small outfit of DJs and a geek."
News from our latest project, The Show is going out early this week. Sign up for The Showlist to hear it first.
The Jewelboxing tv spot post-production saga continues. This week: Scoring Decisions.
The next disc-set we sell at Dead Can Dance Discs will bring our total sales up to 99% of this limited-edition. Thanks to everyone who purchased, you (and anyone else on The Showlist) will be receiving an update about your disc and some other really big news in the next day or two.
Our tv commercial production for Jewelboxing is moving right along. SD is going to need some input on choosing just exactly the perfect music track for the final product. This is probably not the right one. Nor is this. Watch the Jewelboxing blog tomorrow for more information.
"You're presenting the presentation business -- that's doubling the pressure to look good!" From today's JB Blog. Plus, an older entry that answers a common question, with a video demonstration, Making a Salami and Swiss Cheese Sandwich or Using Our New 2-Disc Hub.
La Pollution Sonore. Le FranÁais peut Ítre grossier au tÈlÈphone aussi, ainsi FranÁois a crÈÈ une version de nos 'Dear Cell Phone User' cartes.
We have some big news to announce concerning The Show in the next couple days. People on The Showlist will hear it first.
The CP/Jewelboxing Infrequent Mailing that is scheduled for early May will contain our best subscriber-only offer for Jewelboxing product ever. Sign up for the list below.
Get a head start on Showreal, a Newstoday, Jewelboxing Joint. Comp up your design-reel packaging and win the stuff to make it real.
One of about a million things we're working on this week. An identity for a new CP company set up to handle shipping and fulfillment for Jewelboxing, The Show and something else we're dying to tell you about. But won't. Yet. (Thanks to 1800's Ephemera where we found inspiration and the envelope scrap.)
Jennie Yabroff's article this weekend in the NY Times about making mix discs for weddings caught our collective eyes. Although Jewelboxing wasn't mentioned, it certanily would have made a nice addition, as proven by Peter Fishman and Dara Mochson, who sent us this Jewelboxing-held mix a couple months back.
Michiko Kakutani gives Kev's CoS the once over in today's NYT. "What's striking about Cast of Shadows is that Mr. Guilfoile, in his first outing as a novelist, does all this with a lot more panache than Mr. Crichton has demonstrated in many years." Yay.
"As I headed out on tour last month to promote my first novel, this was the situation I most feared: giant stacks of shiny red books, a pen in my hand, and an audience of one." CP's very own Kevin Guilfoile reports on his tour to promote his new book Cast of Shadows. Via TMN.
Justin Goodlett gets it. We like his site too.
"In 1974, a radio transmission was sent from Earth into space, in hopes of reaching an alien civilization. Something was listening...and it's calling back." More info at the Jewelboxing blog.
We're working with our friends at The United Center, along with Don King Productions and HBO Sports on the promotion of the Golota/Brewster fight on May 21. If you're free at lunch today you might want to stop by the UC to witness the open press conference. It's going to be magnificent as only a Don King press conference can be. Here's a peek at what we're doing.
A little local plug: "Rhyme Spitters," a terrific feature documentary about a hip-hop competition held here in Chicago last summer, premieres tonight, 9pm, at Inn Joy, 2051 W. Division. Features a snazzy little animated opening by our own SD.
A little local heads up: SD will be appearing this Thursday, April 14th, at a reading held by author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal. It all goes down at Transitions bookstore, on North Ave., at 7pm. More info here.
We've just posted a great piece of work from the Free the Slaves organization up on the Jewelboxing blog. An amazing project they have, and terrific designers to boot.
When you see something about us in print, scan it or take a picture. If you're the first one to send it to us, we send you a present. Like the Jay Ryan poster we're sending Joan, who saw this little notice about our MoOM in the new Macworld Magazine.
Chicago calendar note. Tuesday, April 5th is the next installment of the monthly Influence series at Sonotheque. JC is presenting with Brian Ulrich, Michael Coleman & Elizabeth Cline and Andrew Huff. Plus, lots of great music. Download a big-ass poster here.
Chicago calendar note. Tuesday, April 5th is the next installment of the monthly Influence series at Sonotheque. JC is presenting with Brian Ulrich, Michael Coleman & Elizabeth Cline and Andrew Huff. Plus, lot's of great music. Download a big-ass poster here.
Our DCD FAQ is up.
Jake Walker (jw) is one of our partners in The Show. We're trying to get him to move from Boston to Chicago so we can lean on him to help with other stuff at the studio too. Meanwhile, we've asked him to help us keep Fresh Signals fresh. Welcome.
A note to any of our clients who happened to read Z's really nice post today. When we talk about "freeing ourselves from the tryanny of clients," we don't mean you. You're open-minded. You're generous. You allow us the room to do great work. It's those other 'clients' we're abandoning. The ones we never introduced you to.
"We wanted to tell you how phenomenal we found the new paper stock. We were totally unprepared for the difference it made." More at the Jewelboxing blog.
Want to see the CP studio while you try on new pants? It's been reported to us that the video SD shot for Viva Voce here is now playing in retail stores 'round the country. The first spotting was in an H&M in DC. If you happen to see it elsewhere, drop us a line.
We've rec'd lots of entries to our Crash Ballet Redeux contest. You have just a few hours left to be one of them.
Peter was one of our recent limerick contest winners and he was nice enough to take a picture of the prize he received down under.
We've just finished updating our FAQ for the Jewelboxing System with lots more tidbits of helpful knowledge. More at the blog.
Publishers Weekly has a big spread on the development of the cover art for KG's Cast of Shadows and they show a crop of iterations from the process. Unfortunately it's only available for subscribers. Nevertheless, this might be the only time we get to show the dual-cover version we developed based on an already existing group of visual elements. So here it is. We like ours best as it it speaks directly to the intelligent shadow or doppelg‰nger theme of the novel, does it in a clean modern 'Knopfian' way and yet still feels like a mass-market thriller. But then again, we always like ours best. That's how we are.
At the risk of sounding like an NPR tune-in schedule, KG will be on Eight Forty-Eight at 10am Chicago time today, talking about CoS.
First time CP visitor? Visit our About Page for a quick overview of what we're doing here. You might want to stop in at The MoOM, check some of the films we're hosting and even browse the the barely-organized-but-chock-full-of-coolstuff archives of previous Fresh Signals while you're here. For regular updates, subscribe to our Infrequent Mailings below.
This post is a bit belated but that's ok because now when we say what a smart, dedicated guy he is, we actually have some evidence to back it up. Welcome to the CP team to Joe 'call me' Dawson (dw). Dawson is helping out with Jewelboxing and The Show and variety of other projects.
Just in from the soundcheck in Dublin, "Dead Can Dance will be doing approximately 20-30 minutes of brand new, never-heard material in their set each night of this tour."
Another incredibly unique project sent in to us from a Jewelboxing user. It involves, among other things, Alaska and walruses. More at the blog.
Regarding Jason's nice note, we have a single ad slot open in March and April and then some later in the summer. Sell us something and we'll sell you an ad.
A new company, straight outta the CP Labs.
CoS in NYTBR!
Two signed first-editions of CoS are gone, three remain. Get snapping. See 'At Last,' to the left.
Once again, we were sent a project that uses Jewelboxing that made us think, "Hey, this really is a pretty cool system." Updates in Examples + Inspirations. Also, if you haven't heard yet, make sure you read up on the snazzy new paper we're using now.
A NY Times article on fast casual dining will be of interest to certain CP clients but it's also notable for its funny reference to the "fresh but mostly ill-conceived sandwiches" at Panera Bread.
Here's a beautiful use of our Jewelboxing system, from 2 Peas 1 Pod.
G4 is rebroadcasting the episode of "The Screen Savers" that features our very own Society for HandHeld Hushing cards. Tonight at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific.
We're looking for a student or somebody with some free hours, who'd like to pick up a little extra cash working on Jewelboxing at our studio. It's not particularly glamorous but it could turn into something more. So, if you're interested, .
Without giving too much away, quite a few people figured out clue #2 from yesterday's Infrequent Mailing, a few more werejustthisclose and a couple resorted to outright begging. If you still have the mailing, doublecheck it. We didn't ask for the name of the painting, now did we? You can succeed on The Trail without figuring out these pre-game hints, but you'll be much better off with them in your pocket.
Love is in the air over at the Jewelboxing blog.
JC will be interviewed about Dear Cell Phone User cards on ABC Radio Overnights in Australia today.
Our Pixiesdiscs project rolls along. Check the customer reviews of the discs at CDBaby, these are for the last show of the tour, a very, very late night affair at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. I can vouch for them, I was lucky enough to be there and the experience was tribal and is captured in the mix.
It's messages like the one we received recently from Kate Bingaman that make us really happy we started Jewelboxing. More at the Jewelboxing blog.
Radosh has 25 copies of Kevin Guilfoile's novel Cast of Shadows (I believe that's 24 copies more than the author has). He's giving them away in a series of contests. (The first contest: create a contest. Sneaky!)
Bb's motorscooter site has been on hold for a while as he's been redesigning American Scooterist, the Vespa Club of America's quarterly magazine. If you've got any interest in vintage scooters, Join the VCOA now to get the first Bb-designed issue.
Heard about all things open source? We're joining the revolution over at the Jewelboxing blog. Also, updates in Examples + Inspirations.
The prize pool and competitor count for The Trail is growing. Thanks to Powell's Books,
Icon Buffet,
Aesthetic Apparatus,
Rotofugi,
5inch,
Basecamp,
Pixies Discs,
Campaign Monitor and
Veer. You are standing into danger.
Kevin Broome of Industrial Brand in Vancouver has his "ear to the rail" and he's way too kind to us. Thanks Kevin, flattery will get you places but it won't get you any extra help on the Trail of Tears.
Wonder what we do at the studio when we're snowbound? We conduct highly-scientific research, of course. More at the Jewelboxing blog.
Wooo-hooo! KG's book is officially a book today. Read the excerpt here.
ToT updated, including the initial prize list.
The Trail of Tears gets its own page for news and updates.
JC just finished a live interview on Australian Radio National Breakfast, about our Dear Cell (Mobile) Phone User Cards.
Today's unexpected torrent of vistors to our MoOM comes courtesy of a 'related web sites' link appearing with this story about Leonardo's workshop.
I was going to use this nice little set of colors for a project over the weekend but changed my mind. Do with them what you will.
An Infrequent Mailing just went out. Don't miss the next one, subscribe below. If you have already subscribed and didn't get it, maybe this will help. Even the mighty Campaign Monitor can't defeat cranked-up-to-eleven spam filters. The 'from' address of our mailings is always info at coudal dot com and the subject always contains the phrase "Transmission from Chicago".
Our studio-mates from 37signals have been really busy and putting in a lot of hours lately. Here's why. Ta-da Lists. We are not compulsive list-makers but our intern Ryan started one a while ago and now we have the perfect tool to keep it going.
Greg at Airbag posted a little competition for a logo design and started quite a heated discussion about "the devaluation of design" and the like. We'll let you decide what's right, but part of the devaluation involves one of our Jewelboxing kits in the prize package. In other JB news, check the packaging Sean Klassen created for some mix CDs.
Rachel Metz posts a nice story on cell-phone manners or the lack thereof at Wired News this morning and the "Dear Cell Phone User" cards [pdf] we created with Aaron Draplin get a prominent mention. JC, "We don't really want to be responsible for a confrontation in the shoe department of Nordstrom's or anything."
Just to test, we've been trying various sections of the Trail of Tears on a very few, trusted people. Now they hate us.
The next Carson Workshop is almost full. So hurry up already! Check out the Jewelboxing blog for more info.
KG's Cast of Shadows gets a nice mention in Julia Keller's Winter Arts Preview in ysterday's Trib. [reg req] We'll have some other news about this in the next couple days.
Each month since being invited to participate in March, we've contributed a single favorite site to Well Vetted's link bonanza. Here they all are.
Atomic Revolution Comic Book
Degree Confluence Project
Making Sense of Duchamp
ni9e
Remind Me
A Murder of Scarecrows
Ecotonoha
Compositionals
Eye Contact
Andrea Buchanan wrote a nice account of using our Jewelboxing system to create photo CDs as gifts. Andi is the author of Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute
of It and is managing editor of LiteraryMama.
We have word from some friends in London that our "Dear Cell Phone User" cards were featured prominently in the Sunday Times. If anyone has the paper and a scanner handy, we'd love to see it. Send to info at coudal. Thanks.
Live Meeting 'Blogging for Business' Wrap Up.
JC and Anil Dash will be taking part in a complimentary online seminar on Blogging for Business via Live Meeting this Thursday.
Download this and then tell that girl who's blabbing about her haircut to the fourth person in a row to shut her cake hole. But in a nice way. Well sort of. A Draplin/Coudal Joint. For the good of the nation.
JC will be taking part in a complimentary online seminar via Live Meeting on Thursday, December 16th with Anil Dash, VP of Biz Development of Six Apart. The topic is 'Blogging for Business.'
This morning shoud be fun. CP is being profiled in an upcoming issue of Computer Arts Magazine and we've managed to talk Brain Ulrich of Not If But When into taking the photo that will accompany the story. More after the shoot.
If you can't wait until spring to read our KG's debut novel Cast of Shadows, sign up with Knopf's 'First Reads' program and you might get an advance copy. Most of us at CP have read it now and unlike Kevin, it's grim, violent and relentless. It goes without saying that it's smart too.
SE and I are getting started on a client project that involves a look that comes out of historical airline emphemera. Now that's an assignment. Here's some of the links in our ref file. Pan Am. Lufthansa. Airline Timetable Images. Airline Ads. Of course, this gives us yet another reason to visit the awesome The International Museum of Flight Attendant Uniforms.
Ant made a cool little ad for our Jewelboxing Newstoday sponosrship.
Clarin.com is out with a nice article (in Spanish) by Ariel Neuman about our Photoshop Tennis.
Jon from Veer writes, "Our local student radio station got Geoff McFetridge to do their campaign this year and produced some nice t-shirts! If you want one, order quick." Geoff is featured in Western State 3, part of the artist documentary series we're hosting for Slowtron.
At one insurance claim per 2000 insured cars, dr's LeSabre is the least-stolen car in America. Because suburban moms don't steal cars.
Why we love Brandon Backe and Jeff Kent!!!!
CP blogger Scott Smith's short film about a guy breaking all Ten Commandments before breakfast is up at Atom Films. Go watch it again. Please give it one star for each two commandments broken.
Looking for a program to read our recently updated RSS feed? Mac users might want to check out the slick and simple NewsFire.
The last time we got a gold star I think it was for finger-painting. Ad-Land on the invasion of the advertising blogs.
We had lots of people write us about the Coudal/Jewelboxing internship that became available when our previous intern Carlos Barillas took a fancy-schmantzy job at another web design firm. Only one person bought a Jewelboxing 20pack, created a clean, beautiful design featuring his own photography, and sent it to us as an application. That person is Ryan Sievert (rs) and we're happy to have him join the crew.
Check this beautiful CD case design for a Stigmato Inc album, which sounds great btw. The blog entry references our Jewelboxing system but we have no idea what it says. Can somebody help with a translation please?
That David Burn sure seems like a smart guy. (3rd graf)
DaBitch writes "The last question's answer was Jim Blandings the ad exec that Cary Grant played in the film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Looks like adgrunt Alex managed to stump everyone here with that question - and that makes him the king of superb ad trivia and the lucky winner of a 20-pack of those ever-sexy Jewelboxings!" Another Trivia Chain contest at Ad-Land, another winner.
Jewelboxing sponsored a contest at Worth1000 and this is what came of it. While you're there, check this movie titles contest too.
Last week we noted why KG has been slacking off lately when it comes to posting. Today, we find him in good company with Gabriel GarcÌa M·rquez, Edward Gibbon, Graham Greene and The Brothers Grimm on Knopf's list of their authors.
JC was interviewed about the MoOM, our Museum of Online Museums, by Art Chimes for this week's Our World radio show from The Voice of America.
Phillip has a slight problem with Jewelboxing. If your problem is paying for a system, perhaps you should try to win one by putting together a song list that gets you from London to Chicago for The Big Smoker. Or, if you're more visually inclined, take the perfect summer snapshot and submit it to the PhotoForums new Photo Challenge contest.
Syndication and its Discontents. JC is looking for input at Signals vs. Noise today.
We don't often point to our client work here, but we've recently redesigned the home page for the Tom Peters Company and while it's a nice clean implementation of a bloggified corporate site for a company that really "gets it," the most interesting thing to us is the TPC's belief that "fast prototyping" is a messy but essential method of introducing any new service or product. He who makes the most mistakes wins. Rather than holding a project back while every pixel is tweaked (something we're frequently guilty of) they said, "Do what you think is right and let's get it out there so we can learn." Man, is that refreshing and empowering too. The plan is to move the insides of the site over to the new look and feel over time, 'getting dressed in public' if you will. We sure appreciate the job but not as much as we appreciate this new perspective. Note: Thanks to all for the bug catches and nice comments too.
Old faves and new stuff for summer too at The Quiet Life, commercial home to the subject of Western State Numero Uno, Andy Mueller.
JC will be speaking at Design Madison this week with Eric and Drew from Slowtron. They'll be showing their latest film, 'How to Barbecue a Man,' the Citizen Kane of short, comedic films about cooking people in a backyard. If you're in the area, come by and say hello.
Kristin and Ben complete the CP Baby Trifecta! Joining Milena Bedell and Max Guilfoile is Miss Hallie Jane Albert. Huzzah. We're elevating the Ear Infection Warning Level officially and permanently to Yellow.
Fresh from Slamdance! "The Sparky Award for Global Anarchy Winner is ìWestern State #3î which profiles the artwork of Canadian genius, Geoff Mcfetridge. Directed by Slowtron." Huzzzah for Eric and Drew. We've been lucky to have hosted all three episodes of Western State here and rumor has it Number Four is just around the corner. We'll try to get a word with the directors as soon as they're finished with their post-festival bender.
There it is. Slowtron's Western State Three: Geoff Mcfetridge, part of the ongoing series we have been proud to host here at Coudal, is listed in the program schedule for the Slamdance Festival to be held in Park City, Utah later this month. Huzzah.
CP welcomes our new intern, Carlos Barillas (cb). We're teaching him a few things today, but we're pretty sure he'll be teaching us a few things along the way.
In case you didn't see this when it was posted over the holidays, designer Brendan Dawes used our Jewelboxing system for the packaging of his video "Voices in the Subway." We were glad to be able to add that to our Examples + Inspirations page.
Given that Bryan and Kristin and Kevin are all expecting first children shortly there has been an overabundance of Daddy and Mommy talk at the studio lately. Some of it has spilled over to The Morning News where Kev has taken part in a roundtable of new and soon-to-be new fathers. Speaking from experience, you guys don't have a clue what you're in for.
Our Bryan Bedell's 2strokeBuzz, "Kicking Ass and Leaking Gas," is featured as a part of the "Fashion of the Times" supplement to yesterday's New York Times Magazine, (reg. req). Whoohoo, "a slick Web magazine and a groundbreaking zine in its time."
Kevin's saga at The Morning News continues. Madelyn Murray O'Hair In Hell: The Mad Minister From Circle Six. In the fourth chapter of Madelyn's adventures in the underworld, a controversial film has Hell up in arms! If you need to get caught up, here are the previous installments. I, II and III.
As TMN points out this morning, "The New Yorker 2003 has officially become McSweeney's 2000."
A couple CP hardball notes. Starting today, we're creating a series of humor features for The Chicago Reader. The Chicago Baseball Consumer Confidence Index plots the hopes of fans of Chicago's two baseball teams against time on a graph and generally cracks-wise about things baseball. You can find it in the Our Town pages of the paper's first section. On our site for Fox Sports Net New England, we edit a weblog that serves as a daily diary for Red Sox fans. Today's guest column there by Tony Pierce also speaks of Chicago's hope, or lack thereof.
Fabio Sergio of Genova had some swell things to say about us at FreeGorifero, and we appreciate it, but even better than that, he pointed us to this excellent Quicktime panorama of San Miniato al Monte, the church above Florence where we found the model for our studio logo.
Rachel Osterman looks at the ways in which companies, including CP, are using weblogs to manage workflow and streamline internal and external communication. In today's Chicago Tribune business section. (registration required) Much more on the subject can be found at BloggingWorks.
Sandra Guy profiles CP in a piece in today's Bright One, aka, the Chicago Sun-Times. Funky? I dunno. Free-wheeling? I guess so. "Weblogs are a real opportunity to make it more efficient and economical to communicate with vendors, customers and employees." For sure.
The WSJ's Startup Journal has reprinted Matt Fogel's Inc. Magazine article about CP and blogging.
"Iíve been in the studio recording songs for my album," said the grasshopper.
The ants said, "You should have been collecting corn. Now youíre going to starve to death." From Kevin's piece at TMN today. The Indignant Correspondence of Folksy Ken Oakley.
We made spot #2 in FilmMaker Magazine's The Super 8. Mostly thanks to our presentation of Slowtron's fine Western State series.
Our Dave Reidy wrote a dispatch from Paris that appears in Issue 3 of The American Journal of Print.
Our own Dave Reidy read at The Hideout as part of an event hosted by the folks at Pindeldyboz.
JC tries to explain this Fresh Signals weblog thing to Inc Magazine.
"A television show rolls into town, interior designers and carpenter in tow. Two sets of neighbors trade houses in a decorating scheme to surprise each other. Sound familiar? Well, it did." Transcending Spaces, by Kevin Guilfoile, at The Morning News.
A new woefully underpaid but earnest and talented intern joins the CP team. Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Vitagliano.
Our own Dave Reidy will be reading at Wordsworth in Cambridge, MA tomorrow night at an event celebrating the release of Pindeldyboz 3.
Pindeldyboz 3, featuring dr's story "Long Live the Superlative," comes out today.
Our own Kevin Guilfoile made an appearance at the Hammes Bookstore on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame. He read stuff like this and signed stuff like this and this
So long France, the Irish advance. BB's latest futbol permutations and possibilities are live at the 2strokeBuzz
World Cup notebook.
"Uncomfortable," a story of dr's, was reprinted in the Richmond, VA weekly Punchline as part of the May 30 Fiction Quarterly issue. For those of you who fail to live near Richmond, the piece can be found here.
"Certain sites try nevertheless to create forms of completely different competitions, like Coudal Photoshop Tennis. On this site, where the level of play is accessible only for talented professionals, it is necessary to clash two by two on the same image, by adding each one to it its turn a new copy until reaching ten exchanges.... It seems that by controlling it, one can make the difference between the artists of Sunday and warlike truths of the pixel." Apologies to Cyberpresse for the Babel Fish translation.
dr has a short story in the upcoming issue of Pindeldyboz, to be released Summer 2002. Preorder it here. The introduction to the issue is written by Ben Greenman, whom our friends at The Morning News have interviewed definitively.
jc has a piece featured in Jen Sharpe's Pirate Radio broadcast tonight (4/17) as part of the The Free Biennial in NYC. You can tune it in at 10pm at 99.9FM. Jen writes, "As for reception, I put up my antenna last night, hooked up my transmitter, and did a test broadcast. The show came in best on Ave. B, South of Thompkins Square Park down to about Houston." If you're not in the city, the show will be streamed at the same time at sharpeworld.
kg has some advice for religious recruiters trying to capitalize on recent developments regarding the American Catholic Church, in his column at The Morning News.
Thanks to Charles from little green footballs for the php script for our favorite new toy. Check the log of the last 50 referrers to coudal.com.
We have one of these in the office for a test drive today.
kg's commentary for NPR's On the Media has been archived on the web.
We have been asked for the names of everyone who scored 100% in the Rock and Roll quiz and, it being an elite group, we are happy to oblige. In addition to our winners, announced earlier, the following people, in no particular order, were 12-for-12: Allen Boudreaux, Dennis Mahoney, Ace Guillaume, Nick Terzich, Patti Sturr, Tim Thompson, and Rosecrans Baldwin. Rosecrans wins honorable mention for having the earliest reply with all correct answers. There should be a prize for that, but there isn't.
Some of the most fun we've had at cp over the years has been creating Houston Astros commercials (heck, we got to meet George and Barbara Bush, Bum Phillips, and Clyde Drexler all in the same day). The team has just posted eight of those spots Òsome going back to 1996Ò and asked their fans to vote for their favorite.
For those of you in Chicago, the DezmOpium Fandango was announced recently. Visit Dezmin's Archives for details. Both kg and dr will read, as will friend of the agency John Warner.
KG and friend of the agency John Warner, wrote the book and CP built the site, My First Presidentiary, a scrapbook from George Dubya Bush, coming this spring from Crown and Modern Humorist.
KG has a piece up at McSweeney's today. "Painted entirely with dots."
Our own dr has a bit up at The Freedonian this week.
CP's own DR has a new piece up at Verge Magazine.
CP's own Dave Reidy riffs on Taoism and Hemingway at Verge Magazine.
cp's Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner have an article up at Salon today "In which a grizzled veteran actor (Martin Sheen) and a pretty new songbird (Mandy Moore) mount inspiring letter campaigns to thwart third-party candidates and support the Vice Big Dog." Very funny.