Film Archive

Behind the scenes of the set construction and shooting of Spade and Archer, the short film that accompanied the release of The “1943” Edition and the reissue of The Maltese Falcon, from Field Notes Brand Books.

Our Winter release is the “1943” Edition and includes unique Two-Way Memo Books and Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon,” published in a special format by Field Notes Brand Books.

For our 68th Quarterly Limited Release, The “Fall Flowers” Edition celebrates three late season blooms that are here for us when the days get shorter and colder.

An interview with the author of “Is a River Alive?,” Robert Macfarlane, whose writing and research flows through our Summer Limited Edition for 2025.

Our 66th Quarterly Limited Edition celebrates and explores a chapter in American design and typographic history through a Chicago institution, The Beverly Sign Co.

We revisited a some of our favorite materials, details, and production processes to create a brand-new and old-fashioned 3-Pack, the “Vintage” Edition for winter 2024.

Our 64th Quarterly Release celebrates the art of Rex Brasher and his monumental work, “The Birds and Trees of North America.”

Our 63rd Quarterly Release is dedicated to organizing your time, life, and the things that you love. Get it together with the “Index Edition.”

Chicago artist, muralist, and designer Emmy Star Brown‘s work evokes the creativity of our youthful selves for the ”Flora” Edition.

Field Notes 2023 Winter Release Release is the “Heartland” Edition. It’s a throwback to the origins of Field Notes and independent American agriculture.

A Fall classic. Like the tree it is named for, The “Birch Bark” Edition is simple, practical, and timeless. With debossed covers a touch of color and light graph grid pages inside.

Summer 2023 finds us pushing a favorite printing technique to its limit, in a collaboration with Studio on Fire in the Twin Cities. Check the process in this behind-the-scenes look.

Premium paper for sketching surrounded by cover illustrations of four American cities that come to life when you color them in. The “Streetscapes” Edition for the Spring of 2023.

For the Winter of 2022 we’ve composed a quartet of 2-Packs highlighting the interplay of ink and paper, The “Kraft Plus” Edition.

A visit with the Nashville’s venerable Hatch Show Print, our partner in the design and production of our Limited Edition for the Fall of 2022.

Re-imagining the past through vintage postcards to coincide with our 2022 Summer Release, “The Great Lakes” Edition. Thanks to Carl Sondrol for help with the score.

A helpful guide to identifying the change of seasons for our latest Quarterly Limited Edition, “Signs of Spring.”

A bit of behind-the-scenes footage from our shoot for the “Ignition” Edition.

Get organized and inspired with the Weekly Planners and Checklist Journal of The “Ignition” Edition.

A crafty treat for the season from our “Harvest” Edition.

A visit with illustrator John Burgoyne, who created the cover art for our Fall 2021 limited release, The “Harvest” Edition.

The journey is the destination. Start your next one with our latest limited edition for the Summer of 2021, the “Trailhead” Edition.

We’ve made a lot of notebooks since we started our Quarterly Limited-Edition series, and for most of them we made a film too. Those went pretty well, mostly...

After they've been used and filled up, every Field Notes is unique. We made the “Snowy Evening” Edition that way right out of the shrink-wrap.

A compilation film, put together for an online trade show, featuring the song “Miles and Miles” by our new friends from Texas, The Vandoliers.

Meet the Presses. A short documentary on the American Letterpress community, and the artists who made our Fall 2020 limited edition.

It's a hard-working memo book… Meet Field Notes’ “Heavy Duty” Edition from the Summer of 2020..

Uncovering our new notebooks specifically formatted for your D&D roleplaying adventures.

Sparked by some discussion online, Bryan made this quick video of a simple hack to reverse the inside pages of our new “Heavy Duty” Edition.

The “Vignette” Edition Memo Books aren’t finished until you personalize them. Get busy.

We were too busy shipping Notebooks to send Christmas Cards, So we made this instead.

A slide show about the theme of our Winter Seasonal Limited Edition for 2019, the “Group Eleven” Edition.

Combining technology and craftsmanship to make “Autumn Trilogy,” our Fall 2019 Release.

The Box Set is a collaboration between Field Notes and their favorite band, and it comes to you via Chicago.

A enlightening trip to Great Smoky Mountains Nation Park for our Summer 2019 Release, the “National Parks” Series.

We a little help, and without permission, we made this film about our Spring 2019 Release, the “Mile Marker” Edition.

You now have two choices when it comes to 6-Packs of our classic Field Notes Clic Pens.

Uncover the secrets of the “Clandestine” Edition. There is more to this limited edition than meets the eye.

Cary Suneja demonstrates the art of paper marbling to accompany our “End Papers” Edition.

Sevim Surucu demonstrates the art of paper marbling to accompany our “End Papers” Edition.

19th Century hand-marbled patterns were reproduced for our “End Papers” Journals. Here’s a present-day demonstration of that craft.

NASA has Cape Canaveral, Florida. We have Manchester, Iowa. Check what we did to, um, launch the “Three Missions” Edition.

Two American coastlines, each embossed with foil over a 3-Pack. Also, a film dedicated to one, sorta dumb, idea.

For the story behind the creation of our “Adventure of a 2-Pack” we chatted with Jay Ryan, the illustrator of Haxley’s adventures.

For Winter, The “Resolution” Edition features Checklist Journals and a Date Book. You know those people who always seem to have it all together? Now you can be one of them.

An homage to the beginnings of the mass-market American paperback industry, our “Dime Novel” Edition took 157 years to make.

Reverse the direction. Staple the other way. Break on through to the other side.

To build a fire is to build a community. Our summer release is the “Campfire” Edition. Buy a couple, then buy s’more.

Ideas don’t follow a schedule. Be ready, with our new product, created with Bellroy.

How to make a huge roll of custom-duplexed cover stock. Hint: It’s really messy.

Not everything goes exactly right around HQ. Luckily we can keep track of our mistakes with these hard working, safety-yellow Memo Books

Moving around the calendar year to recap subscriber editions from 2016.

Foil, embossed covers, PUR-bound orange spines and extra stuff makes this edition slick and perfect for the holidays.

Visit the Field Notes Shop in Chicago for all our products, press-sheets, rarities and nerdy design conversations.

We built a lunar surface in the middle of our studio and rented a super-high-speed camera. Our Fall 2016 Edition is aptly titled “Lunacy”.

With the help of John Dickerson of Face the Nation on CBS, we reinvented an American classic, the Reporter’s Notebook.

We print our subscription boxes in-house to ensure they’re up to snuff. Check out this very brief film of the screen-printing process.

We checked two items off our wish-list for this edition. Matching covers and interior pages and perforations. Now you can rip out a page cleanly for note taking and leaving.

Field Notes co-founder, Aaron Draplin has been “rescuing” vintage agricultural notebooks for years. Here he talks about what inspires us and shows selections from his flat files.

Our Winter 2015 Quarterly Edition was printed with nearly-magical “photochromic” ink that changes color when exposed to sunlight. Indoors, they’re white, outdoors they’re blue!

The beauty of the Shenandoah Valley opens up to illustrate the words of Thomas Jefferson, for the release of our Quarterly Edition for the Fall of 2015.

Our Quarterly Edition for the Summer of 2015 is a custom slip-case containing six memo books to help you tackle specific DIY projects. Your Dad called. He wants one.

2015’s Spring Quarterly Edition was six months in the making and sales benefitted the fantastic Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Wisconsin.

A chat between Hamilton Wood Type Museum's Jim Moran and Field Notes’ Aaron Draplin about all things type, design, and our Two Rivers edition.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the Quarterly Editions for 2014: Shelterwood, Arts and Sciences, Unexposed, and Ambition.

The very meta look at the making of the Ambition edition for Winter 2014, which included a stop at the gilding process the books underwent at Indianapolis’ own, Liberty Book and Bible.

Using science to measure the value of a Field Notes year-long subscription. Proof!

A holiday film, “Write,” was produced and directed by Matthew James Thompson of North of New York for Field Notes Brand. Enjoy.

In the Fall of 2014, we wanted to keep our Unexposed edition a secret, so for the promotional film, we intentionally blacked out any view of the finished product and bleeped out all the descriptions of it.

For 2014's Arts and Sciences edition, we made 7 short films, attempting to blend scientific study with artistic expression; the world all the better now for our dedicated exploration.

In conjunction with Adam Savage of Tested.com, we created the UAS Flight Log, to help track Unmanned Aerial System flights.

A look from start to finish, from tree to book, in the making of the innovative Spring 2014 release, the Shelterwood edition, shot in the wilds of Illinois and Wisconsin.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the Quarterly Editions for 2013: America the Beautiful, Night Sky, Drink Local, and Cold Horizon.

For the coming onset of the Winter of 2013, and the launch of the Cold Horizon edition, we thought it would be handy to offer up a valuable set of tips for surviving those colder months.

Celebrating thoughtfully-brewed beer, esteemed local breweries, and favorite neighborhood watering holes. The Drink Local edition features two 3-Packs, Ales and Lagers.

For our Summer 2013 Quarterly Edition, Night Sky, we went to the Great Basin National Park in Nevada to make this short film. And a really long one. 6 Hours and 21 Minutes of “Anti” Time-Lapse in 4K.

For the America the Beautiful edition, released for Spring 2013, we put the word out by creating a series of roadside ads in the grand tradition of Burma Shave signs. It was muddy work.

A demonstration on how to apply the decal which shipped with each 3-Pack of our America the Beautiful edition in the Spring of 2013.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the Quarterly Editions for 2012: National Crop, Day Game, Traveling Salesman, and Expedition.

Upon discovering one of our shipping envelopes had fallen down into the elevator shaft, we mounted a daring attempt to rescue the order.

For the Day Game edition, we published a book by Kevin Guilfoile about baseball, memory and, fathers and sons. Read an excerpt and order A Drive into the Gap here.

A love letter just in time for Valentine’s Day, and forever after, featuring the Field Notes Red Blooded edition.

Bryan French sat down to talk with us about French Paper's connection and commitment to the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, in connection to our Two Rivers edition.

Field Notes co-founder Aaron Draplin commandeers the camera to talk about how the band, Red Fang, uses Field Notes.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the Quarterly Editions for 2011: Dry Transfer, American Tradesman, Fire Spotter, and Northerly.

A Field Notes Midwest Workshop project to celebrate the launch Northerly, our Winter 2011 Quarterly Edition.

With the launch of the Fall 2011 Quarterly Edition, Fire Spotter, a field trip to document a tower in northern Wisconsin.

Professor Bedell demonstrates how to get the best use out of the Dry Transfer edition, released in the Spring of 2011.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the Quarterly Editions for 2010: Packet of Sunshine, County Fair, Raven’s Wing, and Balsam Fir.

With the launch of our Pitch Black edition, we gathered up a bunch of other iconic jet-black objects and shot them in glorious, full-color black-and-white.

The Balsam Fir edition for Winter 2010 included an interesting process of Hot Foil Stamping, which was something that sounded like it definitely needed filming.

Our very first film documenting how an edition gets made from start to finish, this for the production of Raven’s Wing in 2009.

To launch the release of the County Fair edition, we took a field trip to the Monona County Fair in Onawa, Iowa and set up a booth.

An experiment created during the launch of the County Fair edition, using packs for each state to form the whole U.S. of A.

A look at the world's first (and only) Field Notes Vending Machine, built and maintained at Chicago co-working office, Space.

For the production of our Steno, we decided to go out, shoot some footage at the printers and binders, and show how they’re made.

A quick roundup of all of our Quarterly Editions from Winter 2008 to Winter 2011, all in one long orderly line.

Jim and Bryan discuss the ideas behind, and the making of, the first Quarterly Editions: Butcher Orange, Butcher Extra Blue, Grass Stain Green, Mackinaw Autumn, and Just Below Zero.

A stop-motion recap of our very first, and very colorful, year of Field Notes Quarterly Editions.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Sweet Tooth” edition film.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Mile Marker” edition film.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Night Sky” edition film.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Mile Marker” edition film.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Workshop Companion” edition film.

Steve and Bryan’s behind-the-scenes commentary on the “Lunacy” edition film.