The Pen Addict 123/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 123 |
| Title: | He'll Always Be Huckleberry to Me |
| Release Date: | October 6th, 2014 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | Scott Fuller |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 123 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 123 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 123 |
| Length: | 5858 min <br />0.967 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to episode 1, 2, 3 of The Pen Addict on Real AFM. This week's episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by lynda.com, where you can instantly stream thousands of courses created by industry experts for a free trial. Visit lynda.com slash penaddict and hover, simplified domain management. My name is Myke Hurley and I am joined, as always, by the man with the plan, Mr. Brad Dowdy.
Brad Dowdy: You've been waiting all day to do 1, 2, 3? I mean, has that been exciting you, like while you've been sitting at your desk all day?
Myke Hurley: It literally only came to my mind as I was about to say it. I just looked at it, I was like, oh, it's 1, 2, 3.
Scott Fuller: Oh man, perfect number, perfect number, this worked out fantastically.
Guest Introduction
Brad Dowdy: Oh, we got a new voice on the show, Myke.
Scott Fuller: Hey, who's this guy?
Brad Dowdy: We got a guest today, Myke. We have Scott Fuller from the Studio Temporary. Absolutely. Welcome, Scott.
Scott Fuller: Thanks, guys. Myke, Brad, thank you so much for having me on this thing and sitting here waiting, chatting back and forth, and man, I'm ready to go.
Brad Dowdy: Well, we're ready for you. And I want all the listeners, if you're just jumping on, just downloaded the podcast and you're saying, who is this Scott Fuller guy? By the end of this episode, you're going to know. You're going to know exactly. You're going to say, oh, I've seen his work. Scott's a designer. And we're going to talk about all that. And I promise you, if you listen to this podcast, you've come across Scott's work. And you're going to go, oh, it's that guy. And it's all going to add up perfectly. Right, Scott?
Scott Fuller: That's right.
Brad Dowdy: Yes, go. Scott's into everything that we're into. So I'm excited to have you on today. Okay. So let's get into a few follow-up items. We'll get your feedback on a couple of these, Scott. And then we'll get talking to you. How's that sound?
Scott Fuller: Sounds good, man. I'm here. I'm ready to go. So if I run out of something to say, then I'll make something up.
Brad Dowdy: That's all right. We rarely run out. Myke and I usually have to cut each other off at some point. Yeah. So that's never a problem for us. The first thing I wanted to mention was a new Kickstarter project called the Twist Bullet Pencil. It's from a gentleman named Huckleberry Woodchuck. And he's got a partner in it.
Myke Hurley: No way is that his name.
Scott Fuller: Please tell me that's his actual name.
Brad Dowdy: That's his actual name on his birth certificate.
Scott Fuller: I would buy this simply because of that guy's name.
Myke Hurley: I'm actually going to do that. I wasn't interested in this. We'll talk about that. But I'm buying this now because of his name.
Brad Dowdy: No, no, no. I don't think that's his real name. But it could be. It could be his real name. Anyway, he's a he's a first place I saw him was on Field Nuts and then an erasable group all on Facebook. And he's been talking. This has been going on for months and months and months. Kind of some back and forth design about a bullet pencil. He's a big fan of bullet pencils. Sells like repurposed bullet pencils on his Etsy shop. So now he has his name.
Myke Hurley: Oh, his name's Jay Smith.
Brad Dowdy: Well, you got what if you have a generic name like Jay Smith. You really got to step it up and go go Huckleberry. You'll always be Huckleberry.
Scott Fuller: You'll always be Huckleberry in our books. Yes.
Myke Hurley: You'll always be Huckleberry to me. I'm still I still tell me about it. I need to. So this is something I kind of ignored because I'm not really, you know, I'm not really a pencil guy.
Pencil Appreciation
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. This doesn't this doesn't sound like you. But I was all over this one just because number one, I like the it's kind of that old school aesthetic back with like the old Field Notes stuff was based on like the farm notebooks. And those farm notebooks kind of had this partner with them. And it was these bullet pencils that had, you know, different, you know, seed manufacturers brandings or whatever. They just became just like a giveaway item. And then they I don't know if they were like hugely collectible, but there's there's so many of them and it's just kind of a neat old design. It's kind of a repurposed design. And so what they did with this Kickstarter project is kind of repurpose that design and modernize it. You know, it's similar to something called the Midori brass bullet, which is a which is also a pencil pencil holder, if you will, a bullet pencil type holder. So I just wanted to point this out because I thought it was pretty cool. It actually appealed to me a lot just in the design of it. I thought was really nice. And it's going to be it's something that I wanted to try out. So, Scott, we're going to talk about your junking expeditions when we get talking to you. But do you ever run across any old bullet pencils? Do you have any fascination with that at all?
Scott Fuller: I started to get into I don't know, like I started looking at him after after our little excursion out there. The last time I went up there, I just saw a whole box just, you know, a foot and a half deep just filled to the brim with these things. So I started, you know, you start poking through him a little bit. I'm not probably as into him as you guys, but I have to say I have to say they've kind of they've piqued my interest. They've kind of seen him in the corner of my eye. I don't know what I'm gonna do with him yet. But the colors, the design, the, you know, the craftsmanship on those things are still absolutely beautiful. And I love the twist thing that this guy's going with. I think that's a that's really, really cool, you know, concept of this.
Brad Dowdy: So, yeah, I think that's I think it's pretty cool. And I'm kind of like you. I'm not like fully into it, but I kind of appreciate it for what it is. And, you know, I can definitely see it like being a problem in the future.
Brad Dowdy: Yes. So but no, it's cool. I wanted to mention that I backed it and it looks pretty cool. So I wanted to to throw that out there real quick. If anyone hasn't seen it, if anyone's into the pencil stuff, this doesn't have a clip
Myke Hurley: on it, right?
Brad Dowdy: I don't think it's like the image. Yeah, I think one of the old designs.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, because I think a clip is what I would want on something like this. Maybe. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. I'm not a pencil guy. I mean, even even if his name was Huckleberry Woodchuck, I don't think I'd use it. I never use wood pencils.
Myke Hurley: Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. I'm starting to a little bit. I'm starting to a little bit. So the I don't know if it's the the diametric opposite of a wood pencil, but fountain pens, Myke, would you say that's about as far from a wood pencil as you can get?
Myke Hurley: Just because I did just see the Kickstarter amount just click up a bit. Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
Brad Dowdy: But they just they just hit the goal about a couple hours ago. I got the email in my inbox.
Myke Hurley: In the in the chat room, fuzzy man just got the last one at twenty eight dollars.
Myke Hurley: You guys are worse than us. You are worse than us.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. We are in your Kickstarters.
Myke Hurley: Yeah. What were you going to say to me?
Fountain Pens
Brad Dowdy: I was going to say the farthest thing we can get from a pencil in these writing tools that we all use is a fountain pen, I think. And our friend Paul joins on Twitter reminded me this week how anti fountain pen I used to be. And he sent out a link. To an old episode of the podcast. This 20.
Brad Dowdy: It's 28. No, gosh, this is episode two. So he actually has it. The link is like is time stamped to where I start talking about how I don't understand fountain pens and how I'll never use fountain pens. You know, if y'all. Yeah. If y'all want to. If y'all want to.
Myke Hurley: Do you really say I will never use fountain pens?
Brad Dowdy: No, because I talk about I have one. I don't. I didn't understand the love or the fascination with fountain pens. I was pretty adamant. So, you know, we'll have that link in the show notes. I appreciate him doing that to where he he marked it right at the spot where I started talking about it. I listened to it last night and it's pretty funny. So everyone should check that out. We'll have that in the show notes. Where can they get the show notes?
Myke Hurley: Relay.fm. Slash pen addict slash one, two, three.
Myke Hurley: I think every episode should be episode number one, two, three.
Brad Dowdy: Maybe we can get feist to sing our intro.
Brad Dowdy: Sorry, I'm terrible. But I would be okay with that if she did. Just saying.
Myke Hurley: I mean, that's the sort of stuff that I work on. Right. So I'll just get on that. I mean.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Get on that, please. All right. Um, I've had a bunch of people tweet me and email me wanting to mention an October project called Inktober. And this is something that an artist named Jake Parker kind of came up with. It's, um, a lot like the, the NaNoWriMo stuff or the, the letter writing stuff, um, you know, back in February where you take, you take a month and every day that month you do this one thing every day of the month. And so Inktober started October 1st, runs through the 31st and, um, Jake marks it, it listed as 31 days, 31 drawings. And it could be like this total simple ink drawing could be something elaborate. Um, but we'll have the link in the show notes for anyone that wants to participate. Cause I know we have a bunch of listeners and followers participating because they wanted me to speak about it. And, um, you just hashtag your work with Inktober and post it and just kind of check out all the other cool, cool stuff that anyone's doing. Yeah.
Scott Fuller: I better fill that thing up. I've seen y'all on the, on the field nuts page. You guys could have some absolutely incredible skills out there with, uh, with some ink pens. So, uh, man, don't be afraid. Throw it up there, man. Uh, I kind of, uh, you know, I kind of want to see it too.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I know a bunch of people have been doing it. A bunch of people that I follow have been doing it and I've been catching some, uh, Inktober hashtags, especially on Instagram, obviously, um, for the visual aspect of it. So I've been following that tag in, uh, in there and seeing a bunch of names I know. So it's really cool. And, uh, Jake, when he, uh, he did this year's Inktober post, he did a, um, he did a feature on the pens that he uses for his Inktober drawings. And it's all a bunch of pens we've talked about. Um, so, you know, the Pigma Micron, UniPin, um, a bunch of, a bunch of brush pens like the Kuretaki that I like and, and things like that. So go check out this post, um, when you catch the show notes and join in Inktober. Um, I'm not sure if I'm brave enough, but it, maybe I should be because it's not about being brave. It's just about putting it out there. Yeah. Just do it. Just get out there and do it. Scott's a big proponent of just putting it out there.
Scott Fuller: Great.
Brad Dowdy: All right. And finally, one update, one blog update, um, at the pen addict, I launched a new feature this Saturday called three questions with, and it's where it's kind of my Inklings replacement where I wanted, still wanted to feature someone, you know, in the community, um, you know, cause I felt, um, that that's, that's real important to me to, you know, continue to grow this community and, you know, and, and send traffic other people's way and just get their names out there and get people reading their stuff. And, um, I wanted to thank Tessa from all things stationary for going first. Um, she took the mantle, ran with it, did awesome. And what I plan on doing with this feature is I'm not just going to have, you know, pen and stationary bloggers. I'm going to have other people on there, you know, like podcasters, like Myke Hurley or designers like Scott Fuller, but, you know, I'm going to get some, um, those guys and I'm gonna get some, you know, some of my other friends online and some other people who I've never talked to in my life, some artists that I really respect and see if I can get them to answer. And, you know, some of the three questions will be similar for a lot of people, like a lot of the bloggers might be similar, but then I'm going to try to branch it out for, you know, if I can get ahold of some of these artists and musicians, I made like a two page list of people that I wanted to try to get involved and we'll see how far I can get with this. Um, so I've gotten good feedback on this so far and if anyone has any suggestions for who I should try to get three questions with, um, definitely get in touch. Let me know. Y'all know how to get, uh, y'all know how to get ahold of me.
Brad Dowdy: So what'd you think about that, Myke? I got, I gotta, um, I need some feedback.
Myke Hurley: I like it. I like the idea. I was interested to see what you were going to do with this. Um, and I think what, I think what you have done is very, very interesting. Uh, I think that I am most excited, I think for the idea that you'll be going outside of the pen blogger community. Yes. Um, I think that's really interesting. I think it'd be cool to see what sort of answers to people have for you that are not like pen bloggers.
Brad Dowdy: Right. Uh, right. So, uh, this weekend's will be a non-pen blogger, but, um, it's someone we both know and love so dearly. Um, it won't be you though.
Scott Fuller: Apparently it's not me because I didn't, I didn't get asked. Yeah. And it's not Scott.
Brad Dowdy: Y'all haven't had, y'all haven't gotten your email yet. I've got a list I'm like pouring through. So, but, uh, I'm real happy with how it turned out and I think it's going to get better and more pertinent as I go, as I kind of fine tune it, you know, I got, I have to, um, kind of see how things go and fine tune it. So yeah, whoever, uh, if you guys want to see someone, let me know and I will do my best to get them, get them on three questions. So it's, it's been fun so far and had a good response.
Myke Hurley: So, um, here's a question for you about three questions. Uh, do you plan to like bring them out in the navigation anyway? You're going to tag them like truly cool if they were, if they were easily accessible on the site?
Brad Dowdy: Yes. That's a good idea. I will do that. Um, cause that would be important to me. Yeah. Perfect.
Myke Hurley: Did you do it? I think links.
Brad Dowdy: I just had, it just had a standard links tag and it was the only thing on the links tag. So you could hit links and it pulled up every week's post for all the time. So yeah, I will do something. I'd kind of like to do a separate page maybe. So we'll see. I'll think about how I want to implement that.
Scott Fuller: Cool.
Brad Dowdy: So, well, good. I think, uh, that's kind of all the followup I had and I want to get to talking to Scott. So, uh, let's, let's handle some business.
Lynda.com
Myke Hurley: Sounds like a great idea to me. Let's talk about lynda.com. This is where you're going to find an easy and affordable way to help you or your organization, basically anyone learn awesome stuff. And this is because lynda will help you with thousands of courses that you can instantly stream on all sorts of topics like software, web development, graphic design, which sure will be very interesting to people listening to the show and so much more. Lynda enables you to work in and learn, sorry, in a way that makes sense to you. So videos are really cool as a way to learn, I think, because they enable you to watch along with somebody and you can watch people as they're doing things. They get to explain it to you. And Lynda break all of their courses down into these really easy to digest chunks. They're just small chunks. You can learn this part today. You want to structure it out. Maybe learn this course over the next three weeks. Right, OK, I'll spend this much on it a day. If when you're trying out something, you've learned it like six months later and you're putting those skills to the test and you're like, oh, what did that guy say about this thing? You can go back in and use some of their fantastic tools like searchable transcripts. So you can search through the transcripts of the things that you're looking for and then it will take you straight back to that point in the video so you can watch along again. I'm talking about when you're trying to plan out how you want to do things. You could give yourself like a little syllabus that you create. You create yourself some playlists. So I want to learn how to start my own blog. So I want to learn some web design stuff. I want to learn some content stuff and some marketing stuff. You can create yourself some playlists there so you can do all of that. All of these courses, all these videos over at Lynda are produced at the highest quality. They're not homemade videos, you know, made in somebody's shed somewhere. These are just fantastic stuff. Professional equipment with professionals in their fields. You can learn on the go as well with their apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. Whether you're a beginner or advanced, Lynda.com has courses for all experience levels over topics such as, as I mentioned before, like graphic design or just regular design. Maybe you want to learn some stuff. Maybe you want to learn Photoshop. Maybe you want to learn some photography skills or what if you're interested in animation? You know, these are all things that creative people do. Lynda.com can help you get started on it. You know, if you think to yourself, oh, I'd love to be able to start taking, um, I have like a digital SLR. I'm not sure how to use it properly. Well, Lynda.com can help you learn how to do that. This is just, you know, just, I'm basically just scratching the surface of some of the incredible stuff that they do. And you can get access to all of these over 100,000 video tutorials for just one low monthly price of $25. But if you're interested, what you want to go and do is get a taster. And we've worked out a great deal of Lynda.com to provide you with a special offer to access all of their courses for free for seven days. Go to Lynda.com slash penaddict right now to sign up. That's L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash penaddict. You'll get access for free for seven days. Thanks so much to Lynda for their support of this show and RelayFM.
Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Thank you, Lynda. Now, I've got a pen blog of the week, Myke, but I'm going to have to admit something up front. I totally cheated on this.
Myke Hurley: Oh, interesting.
Brad Dowdy: So last week we mentioned one of my favorite bloggers, Jenny from The Finer Point. And I said, I think she's been a pen blog of the week before. And the official tracker of the pen blogs of the week, Kanuni Rineshin, said, nope, I checked the list. She has not been a pen blog of the week.
Myke Hurley: So we have to give her things to make lists about.
Writing Supplies
Brad Dowdy: Well, we need stuff to write, right?
Brad Dowdy: We need stuff to write in our stuff so we can use our pens and our paper. But anyway, I wanted to give Jenny a proper pen blog of the week this week. And check out the latest post that she did. It's just a real short post and a really great picture. It's called My Used Pocket Notebooks. So I want to talk to both you guys. And Scott, I'm going to ping you first because I know you're like a memo book user, field notes user, things like that. When you're done with a book, where does it live?
Scott Fuller: I have a little file. I have these old metal drawers right here by my desk and they're filed. I just, as soon as I fill one up, sometimes I take some pictures of some of the things that inside, you know, so I can pull it right off my phone. But generally, I archive them, stick them right in the metal box. If I need them again, pull it back out. You know, remember what I wrote down. If there was a sketch for a client in there and, you know, I just kind of want to revisit it or something like that, I can pull it right back out. But these never get thrown away.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, definitely, definitely. And I'm going to admit, and I've said this way, way long time ago in the podcast, I used to throw away my used books in the beginning. And now I realize that that was just a really bad, really bad idea. What about you, Myke? Do you use the archival box?
Myke Hurley: So, yes and no. So, I have all of my, I have two archival boxes and they're basically full up and they're full up of new and used.
Myke Hurley: But I now, they're like spilling over and sitting on the top of the boxes. I have used field notes all over the place because I don't put the used field notes box in the archival box until I've scanned anything interesting. But I'm way behind on the scanning. I'm like five books behind on the scanning.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that'll get you. I know that dance too. And I mean, for me, I just keep mine. I have like a large like plastic bin that I keep all my new books in. And then that's got like a little section for all my used books in there too. But I like Jenny's repurposing of the field notes band of rubber to stack all these up. And it's just a really cool looking picture. So, everyone be sure to check that out and tell Jenny we said hi.
Myke Hurley: Like I had an idea about scanning them in better. So, the idea would be to, because I have a Doxy Flip, which is excellent. But Doxy also do these other ones where like feed scanners, you know.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's like the bar. It's like a single bar looking thing.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, so my thought was to just like pop the staples out, the field notes. And then put them in a scanner and just scan them all through and then staple them back together. However, the reason I won't do this is because in so many instances, the staples are part of it. And I'll lose the staple. Yeah. So, then also like because of that, I'm not going to buy the scanner. Because for one reason or another, I won't do it. Whether I'm just going to be lazy.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I was going to say that sounds like lazy mode.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's either I'm going to be lazy or I'm going to be upset that the staples have been ruined.
Brad Dowdy: Yep. So, no redeeming values there by doing that. So, you just got to find the time to scan. And I'm the same way. I'm way behind on my scanning, but I love my Flip. And it's really perfect for that. But yeah, you just got to set aside a good chunk of time to do it.
Myke Hurley: Yeah, it kind of gets to the point where there's so many and then I'll just set like half an hour and I'll just do a bunch.
Brad Dowdy: I'm getting way ahead of myself, Scott. So, it sounds like you don't do any digital scanning. If you have an old notebook, you'll just reach back in the drawer, see if you need to find an old note or an old sketch. You'll just pull it back out. There's no digital integration, right?
Scott Fuller: Not for right now. If I need something, if I need to scan it out of there for a project that I'm working on, then I will. But at this point, it's what's the best use of my time. Like you said, it takes forever to do page after page after page. So, I pull out what I need and I know it's always there if I need to go back and get it. But generally, it's take it out, pull it, put it in the computer, get right back to work.
Myke Hurley: I will say this. I mean, these guys are a sponsor, but I'm going to mention it anyway. Like with the scanning thing. So, there's a great app by Smile Software called PDF Pen Scan Plus. And they do some really interesting stuff with just the phone cameras. And really, I mean, for a lot of people, that's enough. If you're just taking the odd picture of the odd thing, like it will scan it. It will recognize the edges and like stretch the page out and fix the, like, you know, if you sometimes take a photo and the page is kind of tilted away from you because of the angle of the phone. It like tries to correct that and bring it straight and line it all up. And it will then do OCR on any text. Like, it's a pretty sweet app, actually. And I think that for people that don't necessarily feel like you need to scan, but every now and then want to take a picture of something, this is a great app for that.
Brad Dowdy: Oh, very cool. I'll have to check that out. I've been wanting to look at something like that. So, cool. All right, Mr. Scott Fuller. We've beat around the bush enough. So, you are the solo founder, president. You run the show of the Studio Temporary. So, why don't you tell everyone kind of what the Studio Temporary does, what you're all about, and then we'll kind of dig into some specific stuff.
Scott Fuller: Okay. Well, like you said, I'm Scott Fuller. I'm from Noonan, Georgia. I, you know, born and raised. The Studio Temporary is a little design studio. It has no office, no space, no physical location, and thus our tagline, good design, wherever we happen to be. So, wherever I can carry my backpack, wherever I can set up, and, you know, heck, most of the time I don't even need a Wi-Fi connection. You know, that's where we are. So, started off as a little joke. The name did, anyway. And now it's turned into whatever this is. But I guess started in the back of an old sign shop, you know, working, you know, working a full-time job. And then I'd get there about 10, 11 o'clock, work till about 3 or 4 in the morning. And I was doing that, you know, 4 or 5 nights a week. And we do, you know, logo design, illustration, you know, brand strategy, posters, t-shirts. We do, you know, all kinds of stuff. Now we're broaching into, now with the Furrow books, you know, I got to design some notebooks and, you know, work on that with Aaron Zeller, which I know we'll talk about here in a little bit.
Studio Temporary Products
Scott Fuller: But, man, you know, doing what I can with that. And, you know, now I'm finally starting a little line of studio temporary products. I've had stickers and everything for a while. But now getting into posters, I've got a few that I've got a brand new one that's landing next week, I believe, right before I got on. My buddy, my screen printing buddy sent me a proof of it. And you guys are going to love this thing. So, you know, I can't tell you what, I can't tell you anything just yet, but you're going to love it. So just trust me. Just trust me on that.
Myke Hurley: Where can people find these sorts of things that you do? Or are they in specific places? Is that the thing?
Scott Fuller: If you want to check out my work, it's thestudiotemporary.com.
Scott Fuller: Studio Temporary is my handle on Twitter, at Studio Temporary. My Instagram is studiotemporary. And I have a big cartel shop where you can pick up a couple of posters and some stickers and buttons and other little, you know, knickknacks and whatever. And that's thestudiotemporary.bigcartel.com. You got the branding thing down. I think that just about covers, I think that covers just about everything, everywhere most of my stuff is. So, you know, so there it is.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So, you spoke at a conference called Creative South back in the spring, which, you know, Jeff and I are talking about attending this year. Okay. Well, next year in 2015.
Scott Fuller: I'm going to stop you. I'm going to stop you right here. If you are listening, whoever, the thousands of people out there listening, if you are in the Columbus, Georgia area around April of next year, all right, go to this conference. Whether you're a designer or a developer or, you know, just looking to have a good time. Go out there. These guys put on an incredible, incredible show. Myke Jones, the guy who founded it, is such a good friend of mine. Absolutely steps it up every single year. And so that was my little free pitch for them.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah. So we're looking forward to it. And actually what happened last year, and I hope it doesn't happen again in 2015, it was the same weekend as the Atlanta Pen Show, which is just like a brutal, brutal, unfortunate coincidence. So we'll see what the schedule looks like this year. But I've already got it on my calendar. But you spoke there last year, and the one takeaway I had, and you kind of alluded to the fact of the naming of the studio temporary, your point was, it's wherever my brain is, that's going to be where my studio is. Wherever I'm at today, and I have my brain with me, that's going to be the studio temporary for today. And I thought that was just such a good thing is, you know, this design can happen anywhere, and our work can happen anywhere. And, you know, you just need to embrace that.
Scott Fuller: Yeah. Yeah. And that makes sense. The guy who said it, his name was Alan Fletcher. He's one of the founding partners of the original founding partners of a design studio called Pentagram. And, you know, to allude to what he said, he said the most important tool in the studio is my head. So, you know, wherever that is, that's where we are. And, you know, working hard where we happen to be.
Brad Dowdy: I think, let's talk about it. Let's talk about a couple of some of the design work that you did and where people might actually recognize your work from. I think one of the things that, I don't know, I think maybe where we first started talking, I can't remember the exact spot, but I'm pretty sure it was in the Field Nuts group on Facebook. And the logo that the Field Nuts have on that Facebook page is a studio temporary design done by you. So tell me how about how that came about, because that's a pretty interesting story.
Scott Fuller: Well, I've enjoyed Field Nuts for a long, long time, and I didn't realize the collecting aspect and how many different, you know, notebooks and everything were out there. I didn't realize that, really, until I just picked up whatever I could find and used them. And I loved them. Carry them around with you all the time. But I found this group called Field Nuts online. And actually, I found it in Twitter. Somebody could all mentioned it. And I think that's when they really, really started gaining some popularity. But I reached out to the founder, Todd Lamondi and Adam Wickert. And we started talking. We talked about, man, we could do our own books and do, you know, our own little line of merchandise or products or whatever. But the biggest thing was they did not really have a logo at all. They used the future, which is, you know, really, really close. So what I did is I called, I think I've had him on the show before, but Brian Bedell. Sure. I called him up, but just to Field Nuts headquarters. And said, hey, you know, Mr. Bedell, you know, love your product, obviously. But this is who I am. Of course, you know, nobody has any clue who I am. So I told him who I was, told him what I wanted to do. And I said, look, I'd like to design this. You know, we'd like to produce some products. Because I'd gotten pretty heavily involved at that point. And the actual answer was no. Because for this only reason was we were just too close. The design was too close. Yeah, the design that they put up there was just too close. And you can understand that. But I feel like I earned a little bit of respect just because, you know, you call up and ask. You know, instead of just, you know, ripping them off like that. You know, and you don't want to do that. You know, I respect that brand way, way, way too much. So then about 15 minutes later, we got an email. And yeah, hey, would you like to design a logo for Field Nuts? Yes, absolutely. So I went in the exact opposite direction. I pulled out my own stash of the vintage Farmer's Notebooks and started, you know, running through them, you know, sketches upon sketches. And I decided that I wanted this to be, since it's kind of a grassroots, you know, startup, I wanted this to be something that was hand-drawn. So I hadn't done lettering in, you know, almost four years. And I sat down and just, you know, went to town on it. And I passed it off. I showed it to Kudal. I showed it to the big man himself, Mr. Draplin. And everybody approved it kind of all around. And next thing you know, up it goes. There it is. And, man, it's still there. I can't believe it's been over a year now. They just celebrated their one-year anniversary. And that logo is still up there. There's a few things coming down the pipeline that I'm really excited about for those guys. And, man, I'm just happy that I can, you know, go to Facebook, you know, go to the Field Nuts page and still see it there. And, you know, just be proud to work with those guys.
Brad Dowdy: Yeah, it's a logo I see every day. And I like it so much. And it really fits the group well. I mean, I'm in there. You know, I don't comment or post as much as most everyone else in there. But I at least read it at least once a day, if not two or three times. So it's cool seeing that pop up on my screen every time. I think you did a really good job there. So the next one I want to talk about I'm really interested in. And I love this. I don't know. You've got a lot of designs that are my favorite. It's hard to pick just one. And you've been, like, awesome hooking up the Knock Shop with some artwork. And we'll talk about that, too. But I love the simplicity and cleanliness of the Fountain Pen Day logo. So tell me about how that came up.
Scott Fuller: That actually came through Field Nuts, actually. I started talking to Aaron Zeller of the Zeller Writing Company, the guy who founded the Furrow Books. And he got me hooked up with a guy named Kerry Yeager out of New York. And he and Kerry and Aaron kind of run this whole Fountain Pen Day. I had never heard of it before. You know, just like I hadn't heard. You know, there's a lot of stuff I hadn't heard about before. But, you know, this guy was so far off my radar. I don't. Okay. It is confession time. I am, while I am not a Fountain Pen user, which I feel really weird coming on a podcast, you know, pen addict. And, you know, I'm not even an addict. I'm not even a user. You know, I mean, what is this? I need to find a dealer or something. I know. But, you know, but he came to me and he said, look, this is what it's going to be.
Scott Fuller: And when people come to me and ask me to do this type of design work, you know, realizing what context it's going to be used, you know, this is not going to be huge on people's websites. This is going to be down at the bottom. It'll be, you know, stamped on an envelope. It'll be, you know, stuck on the back or down the side of a bookmark, you know. So knowing this, knowing that it has to work, you know, the size of a penny or, you know, the size of a, you know, on the side of a van or whatever. And it has to be able to work both ways. So he came to me and said, you know, this is what we want to do. I knew it would be a simple solution. But the biggest thing for me is I looked at all of the, I looked at all the logos. There's a lot of, you know, there's not a lot of variation between a lot of the logos that I found just in the community, just in the research that I did. And one of the things that I found is all the nibs in most of the logos and stores point up. And I think that, you know, I said, all right. So there's the, there was one of the biggest differences. You know, I wanted that nib to be pointing down, you know. I mean, we use these things. And yeah, we collect them and everything like that. But there, it's not about just we have this beautiful pen. It's we get to use this beautiful pen. You know, we were, what was it? I was out at the, at Knox warehouse a couple of weeks ago. Brad pulled out this whole case of pens. And all of a sudden, here comes four or five more guys. Oh, you got to try this pen. Oh, you got to try this one and do that. And it wasn't about, you know, behind a glass case or, you know, pull out this velvet box or whatever. These things were all well used, you know. So I wanted that in there. But, you know, something simple, something that would, that would work, you know, at a good size. You know, when I passed it off to, to Kerry, man, he just went nuts with it. And now we've got, there's notebooks, there's buttons and bookmarks and all kind of stuff. He sends me all this stuff and I keep getting mail from him all the time. But I've got a drawer just, just full of these things. But to be able to be a part of something like this was really cool. And then to, you know, to realize that it reached such a big community and has such a cool community that has an incredible following. You know, I didn't know what I was getting into. But, you know, I'm just, I'm just thrilled that I got a chance to work on it.
Brad Dowdy: I really love this logo. It's like one of my favorite things. It just, it, yeah, it's really pretty much perfect. And Kerry's been, you know, a real good supporter. And I've talked to him for a while. I guess probably since about last Fountain Pen Day. And he's just a really good guy. And he's sent a bunch of stuff to us at NOC just to like, he's like, hey, you know, we want you to, you know, if you're interested in helping support Fountain Pen Day, let me send you all this stuff. And you can just have it and, you know, send it out to your customers as you're packing orders. Just throw some Fountain Pen Day stuff in there. And we're like, absolutely. So we've got bookmarks and stickers and buttons and all that stuff heading out this month to help support Kerry and Fountain Pen Day. And it's just, it's cool seeing that logo and knowing the man behind the nib there who came up with it. So that's pretty sweet.
Scott Fuller: So November 7th. November 7th. That is the date. That is Fountain Pen Day. I know this. It's been hammered into my head. You know, I keep seeing that. I see the number seven all the time. And I'm like, it's coming up soon. It's coming up soon. So be on the lookout. You know, show your support.
Brad Dowdy: And hit up FountainPenDay.org for the details.
Scott Fuller: They just redesigned their website, too. They finally got the logo put up on their website. So congrats to them. And it looks great. It really, really looks good. Just kind of living up there.
Brad Dowdy: So go check them out. Awesome. So I've got a couple more things I want to touch base with you on. But I think let's talk about this next sponsor, Myke, because I've got a pretty good story here.
Myke Hurley: Oh, well, then I'll try not to say too much. Because stories are always good. I do. And it just happened this morning.
Scott Fuller: Myke, I didn't know you were still on, man. Hey, buddy. Welcome back.
Myke Hurley: I've just been sitting back here listening. I love the guest episodes of this show because I actually just get to enjoy the show. I kind of just let Brad take it. I enjoy it a lot. I see why people like this show, you know.
Scott Fuller: It's not too bad. You know, you'll sit back. Let me talk. No interruptions. It's kind of nice. So, you know, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, man. This is great.
Hover Sponsor
Myke Hurley: So I want to take a quick moment to thank our second sponsor for this week's episode. And that is our friends over at hover.com. Quite simply, Hover is the best way to buy and manage domains. It's been my place of choice for years. Obviously, it seems like it's been Brad's choice too. Super easy to search for domains. They have all of the top-level domains that you're going to look for. If you want to start a project and you want just things to get out of the way, this is what Hover gives you. They've got a really simple interface, hassle-free. It allows you to go in, select what you want. Maybe you've thrown in a couple of keywords. Maybe you're looking for a specific domain. Type it in. They'll search through all of the top-level domains that they have, like .com, .co, .me. Also, the crazy new ones like .plumbing, .coffee, .sexy. They'll check for all of those too. Yes, they do actually have .sexy domains. You can buy them. I own Myke.sexy. Everybody should own their own name, .sexy. You're kind of missing out otherwise. They don't, like, shove thousands of screens in your face trying to get you to buy loads of add-ons. They just give you all the suggestions. You pick which ones you want. They add whoisprivacy on top for free. Absolutely free. And they just give you a real simple way to buy and then manage your domains afterwards. They've just lowered all their prices. For example, .com domains now start at $12.99, including that whoisprivacy. They have a no-hold, no-wait, no-transfer telephone support policy and so much more amazing stuff that I'm dying to tell you about, but I really want to hear Brad's story.
Brad Dowdy: So a funny thing happened on the Twitters this morning. I'm sitting there. I'm about to leave work, and I'm trying to wrap up a few things at work, and then my Twitter feed starts going off. And I look over there, and it's a guy named Grum, at Grum, G-R-U-M. And I think he's been a follower for a little bit, and I remember talking to him in the past, but he's not someone I talk to frequently. And he said, hey, did you guys at Noc know that Noc.co is available for purchase now? And I was like, oh, I did not know that. And because I remember back when I was buying domain names, it was not available. And I said, no. I said, really? Let me go look at that, and sure enough, it's available. And what he did, he said, I tried using that URL a while ago and realized the renewal date was due to expire soon, so I calendared it just in case you didn't.
Myke Hurley: What a great guy.
Brad Dowdy: How amazing is that? That is awesome. So I flew into Hover as fast as I could, and I'll be danged if it wasn't there. Noc.co. And not only that, for some reason, their CO, or at least this CO, was half off, so it was only $12.99. They're normally like $26, $28 for the CO addresses. So we are now the happy owners of Noc.co, and Hover made that possible because all I had to do is say, buy this, click, and it was mine. You know, it didn't take me five minutes to get through all the pages that you sometimes have to with these registrars to actually make a purchase. And so I thought that was pretty awesome that that just happened this morning. And so, yeah, now I need to figure out what to do with it.
Myke Hurley: Well, you just direct it.
Brad Dowdy: I know. Yeah, I know. I'm going to redirect it, but it would be kind of neat if we used it from the beginning. It was kind of cool. But no, we won't play around that much. But yeah, we'll just redirect it. So now we're the happy owners of Noc.co. I'm excited about that.
Myke Hurley: This is the great thing about Hover. They get out of your way, let you buy the domains that you need, and set them up for your fantastic projects. So you should be like Brad. Go right now to Hover.com and try them out. And you want to use the code HELLOSAYLOR, all one word, at checkout.
Myke Hurley: And you'll get 10% off your first purchase at Hover.com. So this is for new customers. Show your support for Real AFM. Use the code HELLOSAYLOR. It's going to get you 10% off. Thank you so much to Hover for sponsoring this episode.
Brad Dowdy: HELLOSAYLOR. Oh my gosh. Okay, so I was in such a hurry this morning. The first thing that popped into my head was, I need to text Myke to see if we have a promo code. And I was like, forget it. I'm just going to go buy it. I'll worry about it later. I didn't want it to go away.
Myke Hurley: Story's better than the sale.
Brad Dowdy: Story's better than the 10%, than the $1.29 I would have saved. But still, I've got some other things. I've always got things in the work. Domain names are a problem. So yeah, hello, Sailor. I'm all over that. These codes for you, buddy. Oh, that is lovely. Just for that, I'm going to go buy some more domains tonight, just so I can type in Hello, Sailor. That's amazing. All right, Scott. So this is an interesting one, I think. And you've alluded to it a couple times. And it's the Furrow Books Kickstarter project done by Aaron Zeller.
Kickstarter Project
Brad Dowdy: What's the name of his company? Zeller? Zeller Writing Company. Zeller Writing Co. That's right. So Aaron came up with this project he wanted to do on Kickstarter. And he launched it. And it obviously went really well. He's part of the Field Nuts group. And he's just an all-around good guy. And then all of a sudden, this logo pops up. I think it was after the Kickstarter, right? Or at least after the prototypes. It wasn't on the first.
Scott Fuller: It was during. No, no, no. It was during the Kickstarter.
Brad Dowdy: So yeah. So tell us how that happened. Because that was a real kind of interesting, dynamic change in the Kickstarter. And it only totally enhanced the project as a whole, I think. So tell me about that.
Scott Fuller: Well, I can't say enough about Aaron. Just as a whole. Great, great guy. Recently married, too. So congratulations to him. Nice. But one of the things that has been kind of a hallmark of the way I work is I refuse to be a wallflower. Sometimes people get referrals. Sometimes I get that. And I get that from time to time. But most of the work that I do, I'd say well over 70% of the work that I get is me going out and emailing folks out of the blue, cold calling them, walking up to them, handing them a card saying, all right, let's do this. Well, I was on the, I mean, you saw what it did for me, you know, for Field Nuts. And that was really, really interesting. So I decided just to do it again. It's not a, you know, should I do this? Is he going to say yes? Is he going to say no? That doesn't enter my mind. I just, I see something that I want to work on and I just go for it. So I called him up and I said, hey man, you know, I'm looking to, you know, I see what you're wanting to do and you've been a big help on the group. I'd love to help you out. Is there a way that we can work together? And we went back and forth for probably a good 30 minutes. He, he helped me out a little bit. He gave me a little bit of funds to kind of get everything going. And I think I, it was about, had about two weeks to really get everything done. And originally I was just going to do the logo and then it turned into the belly band design as well. So he, you know, he told me what he was looking for. He told me about the books and then he just, he just let me go. And once again, back to the, the idea of, all right, where is this going to be used? You know, it's, it's going to be little. It's going to be little on these books. It's going to be, you know, little on the bands. So the idea of furrow books just, it just lent itself perfectly. Sometimes a name will lend itself absolutely beautifully with, with the design that comes out. So the idea of the furrows in a planted field, you know, out in the Midwest, great. And then the fact that they look like books opening, you know, each one of the, if you've seen the logo, take a look. If you haven't seen it, go to my website, thestudiotemporary.com, take a look at it. And it just lends itself perfectly to that. I handed it off to him. He was thrilled beyond measure with that. And I was, it was really, really neat. I just got mine last week. All the books, the three packs and the big books, the Kickstarter books, and all the special edition stuff. I just got all that stuff in last week. And to hold that in my hand, I almost started crying. It was amazing, you know, working on stuff like this. And then you see it come out in print. And you get to hold it. And it's the beginning of my career. So I haven't had a chance to do that a whole lot. And now, man, you know, got it sitting right here on my desk, you know. I don't know if I'm ever, I know that I'm, I use the books. I use every single one of my field notes, man. The special editions, the rare editions, you can't find them anymore editions. I use them all, you know, so I can relate to you on that one, Brad. But I don't know if I'm ever going to use these things, man. I mean, it's just so, so cool. But, man, and the coolest part about that, about that project, and I'll kind of throw in my own little bit on this one, you know, it's like a Bill Cosby, you know. So I told you that story to tell you this one. If you look on the back of the furrow books, one of the things that Aaron was very, very concerned about was he wanted to make sure that he knew that every single part of this thing was made in the USA. It was bound to USA. I mean, just the whole bit. Well, on the backside, on the left, in the left corner is a little USA logo. That is not a stock logo. That is not, you know, something I pulled off the internet. I was working on that logo just for a, just for fun, for a little project. And without asking permission, I put it on that belly band, man. I said, man, this is, this is kind of cool. This could work. Like, we'll see what he says. Didn't ask his permission. Didn't say, hey, you know, there's this other logo design I want to throw on there. You know what I mean? How do you, how do you approach that? Right? So I put it on there, you know. I mean, these things aren't out yet, aren't printed. So, you know, I could take a, I can take a chance. Well, I sent it off to him and I got an email back about 15, 20 minutes later. Three quarters of the email was about how much he loved that little USA logo on the back of that book. And now that's become, it's become a little mark. I've, you know, I sold t-shirts with it now. I've got some other stuff coming out with it. I've got it copyrighted now. And, you know, for those of you who are out there listening that are thinking about, you know, whether it's hiring me to do some work for you guys, man, you do a product. If I make a product for you that is made here in the USA, you may very well see me sneaking in that little USA logo on there, you know. And it's, it's kind of, it's kind of my way to get back and, you know, just be proud of things that are made in the USA. And, you know, to get to do that, you know, with, you know, with furrow books and then to kind of, you know, yeah, he kick-started his, his furrow books, you know, with that project. But man, he kick-started that little USA logo for me too. Thanks, Zell. I appreciate that for you. I appreciate that, buddy.
Brad Dowdy: So, so here's the thing with designers that fascinate me. I don't know how this stuff comes out of your brain and it's so right. Like, like I look at like some of your work and other people's work and, you know, people who, you know, I follow online and you're like, that's exactly right. That's perfect. There's nothing, there's not another design that would work better. There's not, you know, any tweaks that need to be done. It's like, that's it. It's like, what's the, and I'm going to get you out of here on this and because I know it's not a short answer either. How does this inspiration happen? And like, I know you can't like, it's not a black and white thing, but like, how does it come out of your brain onto the paper? And you're like, that's it.
Scott Fuller: Actually, a pen is amazing for getting ideas out of your brain onto, I'm just kidding. But, um, um, I think it's, for me, this, you know, everybody has a different story and all the stories are fantastic, I think. Um, but for me, it goes back probably a good 20 years to, uh, uh, my dad. My dad is a, uh, still is a machinist, you know, CNC, you know, all those things. He, he's incredible. He's an incredible craftsman. And people would come to him and say, you know, I need you to do this part for me. And it had a specific purpose. It had a specific reason for being built that way. And with these parts, dad couldn't take any, you know, artistic license on these things. You know, you know what, I'm going to put, I'm going to drill a hole here because it looks better. A little screw up the whole part, you know? So it's this idea of giving people, you know, not necessarily what they want, but you give them what they need. And, and, you know, when it comes time, they realize, you know what, that's what we were looking for in the beginning. I've been this way through my entire career, my short little career, where I believe the simplest solutions are the best. Um, I heard a quote, uh, a couple of weeks ago and it's been really, really well, you know, people call it minimalism or utilitarianism or whatever you want to call it. But he said that, you know, minimalism is not the least amount of, uh, of, of content. It's just the right amount. And, you know, I like with the fountain pen day logo, I could have done swooshes and I could have gotten in there and done all kinds of beautiful, intricate designs that I have no clue how to do, you know, on these little, on these, uh, like on the nib and everything. But at that point it becomes a piece of art. Um, I am not an artist. Uh, I'm a designer. I make work for people. I make work that gets the job done. And that's where the simplicity comes from for me. Uh, just figuring out what is the best way to set this apart. And most of the time, I'd say just about all the time, it's not about how much you can fit on that page or how much you can put into that logo. But the meaning and the, the simplicity and the shapes that people instantly recognize, that's what makes it, you know, you know, uh, what is it? You pair that with an incredible product and, you know, man, you've got this recipe for, uh, you know, uh, to make something good. But for me, it's always been about finding the simplest solution, uh, the best solution, solution, the, the way to say exactly what needs to be said, exactly the way it needs to be said. I hope that answers your question.
Brad Dowdy: That answers it. That answers it perfectly, actually. Um, yeah, I, I am, I am a believer in, in that philosophy for sure. And, um, you know, using it, making it the right amount, you know, it doesn't have to be less, it doesn't have to be more, just make it right. And, um, that's what, that's what we go with. So shoot, man, this has been awesome. And, um, I really appreciate you coming on and talking design with us and, uh, we'll have to get you, uh, get you on again sometime for sure. But, um, is there anything, anything else? I want to give you a chance to, uh, to pimp anything you need to before we, uh, we call it an episode. I know you got, you have the USA shirts coming back on, uh, coming back available soon. Cause I missed out the first run and I want to get in on the second run. So that's coming soon.
Scott Fuller: Yes. I taught, I actually talked to, uh, the folks at Cotton Bureau today and, uh, we pushed it, we pushed it back up a limit. You know, whoever requested those shirts to be brought back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, but they're back in the queue. Uh, I don't know, maybe by the end of this month, they'll be back up there. I'm not sure. Um, but it's going to be really, really soon, but, uh, man, it's going to be fantastic. But, uh, as far as that goes, if you want to check out any of the work that I've done, uh, go to the studio temporary.com. Um, if you want to follow me on Twitter, on Instagram, it is at studio temporary. Um, I actually already picked up a couple of followers while we've been talking, which is kind of cool.
Brad Dowdy: Your, your Instagram feed is sick. Plus I make, I have at least two appearances in there. I'm pretty sure.
Scott Fuller: I think so. Yeah.
Brad Dowdy: You might lose some followers for that.
Scott Fuller: I mean, you know, it's, they say three strikes. So you've probably been in, you've been in there twice. Uh, I'm going to play it safe on that one and, uh, you know, we'll go from there. But, um, um, let's see, but yeah, check that out. Um, if you want to go buy some cool stuff, uh, from my shop, it's, uh, the studio temporary dot big cartel.com. Please feel free to check that out. We'll be adding some new stuff here in the next couple of weeks. So please stay tuned for that. And, um, and man, it's, uh, I'm just happy to, to be here. I'm happy to, uh, you know, to be on the show and that, uh, you know, that people, you know, still want to, you know, still talk, you know, and still talk about. You know, you know, you know what I work on. I'm, I'm blessed to be able to do this. I have a wonderful family who supports me. Uh, my wife, Julie, I would not be able to do this without her. She is, she means more to me than any of this. And, uh, my little boy, Sean just turned three, uh, little, little spark plug, you know, running around here. He'll, I gotta be careful about leaving my, my notebooks out because he will color all over these beautiful sketches that I've done. But, um, but you can't get too mad really, you know, cause if he's liking to, you know, he's liking to get out and draw and everything, I'm not going to say anything about that. That's right. But, uh, incredible family. Um, and man, I'm just, I'm blessed to be able to work in this industry to, to get to talk to people like you guys, to, to produce work, uh, for people like you guys that, that appreciate it, that, um, understand it and that support it. You know, you can get all the, all those in one, in one place, man. It is still just, just incredible to me.
Brad Dowdy: Awesome. Well, we certainly appreciate it. And we'll have all those links in the show notes for the episode. Myke, you want to tell them where to get it and sign us off?
Myke Hurley: You can go get our show notes for this week's episode at relay.fm slash penaddict slash one, two, three. If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, I am iMike, I-M-Y-K-E. And Brad is at dowdyism, D-O-W-D-Y-I-S-M.
Myke Hurley: Brad also writes over at penaddict.com. And don't forget all of his fantastic stuff over at knock.co maybe soon. Redirect. Yeah, probably. Thanks again. It'll redirect tonight. Good. Thanks again to our sponsors, lynda.com and hover. Go check them out. Help support the show. Thank you again to Scott for joining us this week. And thank you all for listening. Until next time, say goodbye, Brad.
Brad Dowdy: Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad. Goodbye.