Best & Worst Photo Contest

Whaddaya Got?

A Greyscalegorilla/CP Joint. Pair up your best photo shot in 2008 with your worst and post 'em to Nick's Flickr Group. We'll make some random judgments and dole out prizes from Jewelboxing and Field Notes.

The Field-Tested Books Book

I Must Have Read That Somewhere

Announcing our biggest, best edition of Field-Tested Books yet. We looked over the shoulders of lots of smart people while they read lots of interesting books in lots of familiar and unfamiliar places and now you can too. All the Field Tests from this new collection and previous years are online. Plus, we've created a sweet, new, limited-edition poster with Spike Press and we're totally excited to say that the first-edition of The Field-Tested Books Book, a paperback containing 143 selected reviews, is also available for purchase. We'll be making a donation to First Book for every one we sell, so order a book for yourself and help us buy a truckload of new books for underprivileged kids. Buy one today, we'll ship it today.

Note: Our Field-Tested Books project was featured in a piece by Alison Cuddy on Chicago Public Radio's "Eight Forty-Eight".

The Museum Of Online Museums

Collective Intelligence

Tons of new listings, like The Museum of Bad Album Covers, have been posted for the fall at our Museum of Online Museums. The MoOM was featured on All Things Considered and in the NY Times. It was also selected as one of Time Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites and was discussed on a recent episode of NPR's Hello Beautiful! Consider joining our Museum Board, a subscription comes with a coffee mug but none of the snootiness so often associated with the patronage of cultural institutions.

Vox Vocis

Poetry After The Beep

On a whim, we asked people to read their favorite short poems into our answering machine for a project we called Verse By Voice. And they did, creating maybe the first-ever poetry meme and since April is National Poetry Month we thought it was appropriate to feature it again. Make sure to listen to novelist Zadie Smith reading Frank O'Hara's Animals and Laura Demanski reading Gerard Manley Hopkins' Spring and Fall. Note: we didn't include what is surely not Christopher Walken reading EE Cummings, but that's worth a listen too. Jim talked about this project during his appearance on Public Radio's Hello Beautiful! and the photos are courtesy of Sam Javanrouh's Daily Dose of Imagery.

I brake for quasi-religious symbols

Vehicle Identification System Update

We have word that recently two readers in New York, who followed our guidelines for updating their vehicle identification systems, pulled up alongside each other at a traffic light and celebrated their common bond by honking and pointing. Excellent. Our plot is beginning to take hold. Write for yours free today, but hurry, we only have tens of thousands left.

Field Notes Called Out

Stuff This

Our Field Notes Brand Memo Books and related products have been showing up on a lot of Holiday Gift Lists lately and we sure appreciate it. They make for a perfect stocking stuffer or even a place to write up your list. Did we miss your list here? Write us using the "contact" link below. Ars Technica Art of Manliness Manly Gift Guide The Examiner Core 77 Gear Patrol Lifehack Positive Space ReadyMade Magazine (print) This Next Turntable Labs Uncrate

About A Tuesday Night

What a Time
and Place to Be Alive

(Bigger Photo) Most of the CP crew and our families and friends had the honor and the privilege of being in Grant Park Tuesday night. Truth be told, that party really started forty summers ago. We owe this celebration to those who chanted then in that very same field, who chanted in defiance of people who would seek to bend America to their small-minded and selfish wills. As we we cried and hugged while Barack spoke of justice, equality and pride it was all we could think about. It was true then and it's true now. "The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching. The whole world is watching."

A CP Film Copy Goes Here

Inaction Heroes

For the proper effect, check the trailer first and then please take a few minutes (eleven actually) to watch our short feature film about words, pictures and bravery, Copy Goes Here. In case you missed it, here's what our home page looked like when we debuted the movie.

An SD Film Regrets

Passing Fancy

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 to the fifth film in Steve's "Regrets" series, Hobbies.

Layer Tennis The Final Fiasco

Forth and Back

It was a long, amazing Layer Tennis Season, relive it here while we start planning the next one. The matches were presented by Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 , the weapon of choice for creative people and Layer Tennis players everywhere. The project has just been shortlisted for Cannes Lions in two categories, "Best Use of Internet/New Media" and "Business Products & Services." Winners are announced Wednesday.

Each Row A Minute 2001 Redux

Cinematic DNA

If you're looking for an endorsement as to why you should purchase one of the few remaining Brendan Dawes' 2001 Cinema Redux prints here's some news. Brendan's project is currently on display at The Museum of Modern Art in NYC as a part of their Design and Elastic Mind exhibition. The photo above is from this week's opening reception. If that doesn't impress you perhaps the fact that the prints are luscious, large, limited-edition continuous-tone Lamda proofs will.

Brendan's thoughts on Redux, The Things Around Us.

December Guest Michael Surtees

Design Notes

Michael Surtees (mst) runs the great, aptly-titled design blog DesignNotes, which, like Michael himself, began in Canada and is now based in New York. By day, he is the Design Director of Daylife, which develops methods to help organize the world's news. He's also helps run the Ten:15 project which asks readers to send in photos of what they're looking at at 10:15am, publishes pieces in publications like New York magazine, and regularly walks around taking interesting photos. And this year, we were honored to have Michael contribute to Field-Tested Books as well. Whew. Keeps busy, doesn't he?

A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.

Other recent features are listed on Page Two.

Fresh Signals

The Bubble Blowers Museum. Thanks Marilyn. jc-today

Slashfilm's got the new trailer for the film to premiere at Sundance in January, Taking Chance. ms-today

So you know, the best movie posters of 2008. ms-today

Gorgeous retro breadbox. ms-today

To go along with JC's Apollo 8 post below, from today's NYT, Not-So-Lonely Planet. ms-12.24

Pretty much the coolest sled ever. ms-12.24

As long as we're reviving old traditions, how about the one where we post this link before holiday weekends? Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. Just beautiful. jc-12.24

Field Notes in Action. jc-12.24

Project 365 is mysterious, but looks like it will be packaged nicely. jc-12.24

Here is a post for all the kiddies out there, Track Santa!. ms-12.24

A nice roundup of 30 unforgettable movie opening title sequences . ms-12.24

If you were friends with the Eames' back in the day, what kind of Christmas card would you send them? An obvious choice would be an Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair with Metal Legs dressed as Santa. mst-12.24

A "gift" to Fleet Foxes from two fans in a forest. Via the blog of Casual Poet, who also carries Field Notes in Singapore. Thanks for that. jc-12.24

So you know. How to crank up a Nerf Dart Blaster to 500 rounds per minute and add a round counter. Via Mefi. jc-12.24

The Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast. jc-12.24

Smart print campaign for Scrabble from JWT Chile. jc-12.24

"The calendar itself seems lifted from an Edward Hopper painting, or more likely from the set of a film noir thriller or a Tracy and Hepburn film." Birmingham's City Paper on Field Notes. Thanks for that. jc-12.24

Illustrator Scotty Reifsnyder took the lyrics from the Johnny Cash song The Man Who Couldn't Cry and turned it into a gorgeous children's book. Via Design Milk. ms-12.24

So you know, Buzzwords for 2008. ms-12.24

Trailer for the Tim Burton produced animated film 9. ms-12.24

For Raegan and Jenna, make your own R2D2 droidel. ms-12.23

Vintage photos from the dawn of the Soviet era ms-12.23

Top drinks for 2009. Thanks Andrew. jc-12.23

Gorgeous leather bag with embossed numerals from the Didot typeface, made by Cole Haan for the Assouline Boutique. *Sigh* Via NotCot. ms-12.23

Custom Creature Taxidermy Arts. Too late for this Christmas, but there's always next year! bb-12.23

Photos, drawings and technical details on Lovegrove Studio 2's Alpine Capsule project. jc-12.23

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! bb-12.23

Dave Allen is a surviving member of an endangered species - a professional bookbinder. Via Things. jc-12.23

Ambigram logos. dw-12.23

One idea a minute for 27 minutes... mst-12.23

Nice to see how dogs, band names and gig posters can work hand in hand as Dog Art Today proves. Via FitaCola. mst-12.23

A visit to the Zappos corporate offices. Via Grow a Brain. ms-12.23

Round trip with the Endeavour. ms-12.23

Trailer for the movie Weather Girl. ms-12.23

Put bacon on a website. Like this. dw-12.22

Page Two contains the previous 35 Fresh Signals, recent features, a key to the icons and the categorical archives.

Grab our blended RSS feed here.

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15 Minutes

Aaron Evans [?]

The Producers

Claire Zulkey
Howard Mann
Carlos Parrilla
Damien Newman
Drew Myler
Grant Hutchinson
Skipintro
R.BIRD
Karen Labenz
Andrew Figgins
Mark Powell
Mike Keen
Chet Yeary II
Greg Storey
Matt Lee
Jeremy Quinn
Grant Unrau
Debbie Millman
David Demaree
Charles Adler
Paul Joyce
S.J. Barlament
Stephen Vance
Sam Potts
John Tolva
Cameron Moll
J. Thomas Lowell
Hillman Curtis
Gridiron Software
Loyd Boldman
Heidi J Nyburg
William N. Kilarjian
Mario Van der Meulen
Simon Angling
Colin Scroggins
Inline Studio
Witold Riedel
Alan Hawkins
Marko Dugonjic
Chris Bernard
Matt Mullenweg
Alexander Muse
Dan Rubin
Thomas Mackechney
Dan Cederholm
Eric Mersmann
Ben Edwards
Brian Seethaler
Lightburn
Matt Haughey
Bill Keaggy
Pierre Mai
Kevin Hamm
Andre Torrez
Greg Hoy
Issa Breibish
Drew Stauffer
Abby Urban
Christopher Ebmeyer
Jeffrey Rutzky
Robert D. Whitson
Hunter Weeks

Your Name Here

the pitch

You can be an Executive Producer of our new short feature film, 72°. If you've always wanted to be a hotshot Hollywood player, or you just want to lend a hand to the project here's your chance.

A Thing We Made:
Jewelboxing

We hated the options available for custom packaging DVDs and CDs so we created a brand that gives creative professionals and hobbyists the tools to make great stuff. Here's a bit from the latest Jewelboxing weblog entry:

"If all the snow we got last night is any indication, winter is officially here. And with winter comes the..." Read the entire post.

Some Other Things We Made:

Field Notes Brand "I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing it down to remember it now." A CP/DDC joint.

Pinsetter: Spell with buttons.

Limited-edition, professionally mixed and mastered, custom-designed live performances on CD. That's The Show. With partners like The Pixies and Dead Can Dance. More news soon.

Lowercase Tee: For politically and otherwise active kids.

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