Editing The Pen Addict 334/transcript (section)

== Notebook Design Discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' I just replied in the chat room. I don't think so.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I think it's more distracting. Because the lines are so close together and they're so heavy. It, from just glancing at it, it looks like a full grid. Maybe if there were like the vertical lines were fainter, you know, like they were just like in a much lighter ink. Maybe that would help. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's how a lot of the Japanese writing pads are. So they'll be lined and then they'll have a faint vertical. Right. And this is a same tone vertical. I'm going to give this a shot because I have a specific project that I'm just starting on and I think it might be good for this notebook. So I want to give this one a fair shot and see what I think. Like, I adore, let me just go out and say something you probably all know already. I'm a Chad Doan fanboy. I love his design style. Like the look and feel of his products.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. You are straight in the Doan zone, right? Like you were. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I am in the Doan zone. So this is just beautifully designed. Extremely well made. It's a really good price too. So these are five by seven notebooks. You get a three pack. How much is it? I think it's 12 bucks. Yeah. 12 bucks for a three pack of five by seven notebooks. It's pretty cool. What we haven't talked about yet is always been my favorite product of Doan paper, which is the Idea Journal. That's the big bulky thick cover, double wire bound, you know, crazy sturdy notebook. So this is that style. The dot plot is that style of notebook with the thick covers and the black cover like he did for the moon camera.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yes. Seriously huge wire rows, like really big wire bound.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a hardcore notebook in the best way possible. Like this is like my dream notebook. The gridded one, the grid plus lines. The dot plot, I think it's going to be good too. So it's dotted, but let's see, they're, they're wider than normal. They're a half inch spacing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' The 0.5 or 1.27 centimeter squares effectively is where the dots are plotted. This one I like way more. Yeah. Because it is, you know, it's not restrictive on you and it gives you more space. Like this one, I, this one, I totally get, like I get this.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. So, but it's a different type of dot layout. I don't, it's, I mean, it's a dot grid, but it's not a dot grid. Like you'd normally think of a finer, like a five millimeter square gridded pattern. It's big and wide.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This reminds me of some paper that I used to use in mathematics in school. Had like, I don't remember why, but it had like seriously chunky dot grids. So, you know, I, I'm down on this. I think this one looks, looks pretty cool.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I'm actually going to go for the box car first to try that one out just because it's so weird. I want to see how I can, how I can use it and if it works for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Last paper good, Myke. I think everyone knows what this one is. The new field notes clandestine edition. So it came out yesterday. I do not have them in hand. They have not arrived. They've shipped of course, and they've been released on the field notes site. What are your thoughts on this one?

'''Myke Hurley:''' So I don't feel like it's worth playing the game this time because I expect we both feel exactly the same about this, which is that it's like, it's a cool idea. I mean, black on black is just like, you're really appealing to a seriously core part of the field notes audience. But I reserve judgment on these until I see them because I think it's all about that cover. And from the way they've described it, it's like, it's called urban grave, metallic crown foil laid in an enigmatic dark matte finish surface. I need to touch it and see it. And I bet it's going to be a favorite of many, right? Like, it's like Raven's wing mark two, effectively.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah. But they've done that before. They have pitch black now. I'm not like super thrilled by it. I mean, I'm pretty much on this on the same page as you. Like, it's fine. It looks awesome. It's going to be great. It's going to sell well. All those things. I mean, we clearly hold them at a different standard, fairly or unfairly. And like, they did like everything they should do for this, for what they are as a brand for this edition. And it's really good. I want to get them in hand, test them out, see what they're like. I do like the puzzle aspect of it, even though that's not really my thing. Like, I'm not going to participate in trying to figure out all the secrets and all that stuff. But we do have listeners that do. As a matter of fact, the Take Note podcast already has a shared spreadsheet. We'll link in the show notes of people collaborating to try to figure out the answers to the puzzles in this edition. So I think that's what this edition is about. It's more about the collective puzzle making than necessarily the edition. Because, like, we've got a lot of black notebooks from them. Like, it's not going to go into, like, my heavy rotation of what notebook I would use. So it's perfectly fine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because the subscribers get a cipher wheel. And there's, like, a code written inside of the notebook. So, you know, like, we always, we look at the year. So this has been a year now, right? So we had Coastal, Three Missions, Endpapers, and Clandestine. Or Clandestine. Clandestine feels to me like a back pocket idea. Right? Like, because this one, it feels like it fits comfortably in what they are able to produce on an easier basis. Right? Like, would be my assumption. And again, I'm really not trying to, like, make assumptions about the way that these companies work. But, like, just as an outsider's perspective. So it's like, we have this idea. It's a fun idea. People will really dig it. We'll use it when we need to use it. That's how it looks. I mean, this may have just been something they came up with, like, a week before. And they were like, we got it. But it is, what I'm trying to say is, it is of the three, of Coastal, Three Missions, or say the four, Endpapers, and Clandestine. It's clearly the most true to regular form. Right? Where it is a plain cover with a cool print of the name and then a fun idea that wraps around it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' The funny thing is, I am one of the more traditionalist Field Notes fans. Right? The more basic the edition, the better for me, in general. And I think this is number four out of the list of four releases this year. Yeah, it probably is.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, I reckon it'll be number three for me because Endpapers just doesn't do it for me.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, like, it's a really good notebook. Like, it's going to be good. So, yeah. Great edition. Fun movie, right? Little stealth movie.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, easily their most high-budget looking. Like, this movie is very, very good. It looks like, honestly, it was a clip taken out of a high-budget movie. Like, it is shot fantastically. It is lit very well. Like, very, very well done promotional movie for this one.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, so it's like a minute and a half long. I can't imagine the work that went in to just capture that minute and a half.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, it looks like a pretty, pretty serious thing that they've got going on. But, yeah, I think that this is a fun edition. This looks like it's going to tick a lot of people's boxes. You know, I reckon it will rank probably number three for me in the year. But I will say, you know, like, we've said it before, but now we have all of the additions so we can say it. Like, this is probably Field Notes' best year.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, like, there'll be other years where this notebook would be the number one. Yeah. Right? That's how good a year they had, in my estimation.