Check Out Bryan Bedell’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Bedell.

Hi Bryan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Field Notes has been designing and manufacturing notebooks in Chicago, IL, and Portland, OR for 15 years. I’m a designer in the Chicago office (I’ve been here since the start) and I’ve become more and more interested in letterpress printing in the last several years, after doing an edition with Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Wisconsin, to the degree that I’m now doing some letterpress printing myself.

I’ve been a huge fan of Nashville’s Hatch Show Print since I visited their old shop on Broadway in the ’90s, and have always wanted to do a project with them, so we finally asked, and were thrilled that they said “yes.”

We worked with director Celene Aubry and designer/printers Cory Wasnewski and Nick Larson, and we hit it off immediately, We asked them to design three posters that could be cut up into memo book covers. Aside from providing the specifications and the text, we left it in their experienced hands and were rewarded with everything we’d hoped for, and more. They were as excited about the project as I was, and a joy to work with.

I was lucky enough to come down twice over the summer to film them working (the film is on our site) and shoot photos. The shop (now at the Hall of Fame) is packed to the gills with the history of music, design, and printing. For someone like me, it’s like visiting a church where everything in sight sacred artifact, but it’s still being used every day, passed down through generations of amazing designers and printers. Any piece of the type you pick up might have been used on posters or handbills for pretty much any musician or cultural icon you could name from the last century and a half.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Field Notes have become pretty popular around the world, we’ve been lucky to have customers who love the product and tell their friends, and it’s been steady growth since day one. It’s a joy to work on a product that so many people get excited about, and it’s great to be able to explore new papers and printing processes and American history and natural science and share our findings in the books.

Our biggest obstacle lately has obviously been the pandemic, aside from the obvious inconveniences and loss of brick-and-mortar retail sales (at our in-house shop and at our many retailers), the paper supply really dried up and printing became a bit unpredictable. But thankfully, our paper suppliers worked with us and online sales stayed strong, so we got through it OK.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
There are a lot of Memo Books out there, but I suppose ours have remained popular because of our quality and attention to detail. We’re real fans of paper and printing and we dig in, to find interesting ways to keep our products fresh, both in content and design. We manufacture all our paper products in the U.S.A. with domestic materials, and we’re very small (only 9 of us) so we’re able to build genuine personal relationships with our suppliers AND our customers.

The original design of Field Notes (by founder Aaron Draplin) has become iconic, and as a designer, it’s a real joy to work with it as a template, most of the basic elements (size, format, text, type) are locked-down, which gives me the freedom to investigate less-obvious ways (inks, papers, processes, stories) to change the design each quarter.

What’s next?
Good question, ha, we’re still having fun doing what we’re doing, and people seem to appreciate it, so we don’t worry about the future too much. We’ve been careful to take it easy and not push growth for the sake of growth, so the company is very sustainable (in a business sense), it’s nice to not have financial obligations driving our decisions.

Pricing:

• $14.95 (Hatch Show Print 3-Pack and most other limited editions)
• $12,95 (Original Kraft 3-Pack Memo Books)
• (many other options)

Contact Info:

• Website: fieldnotesbrand.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fieldnotesbrand/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fieldnotes/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/fieldnotesbrand
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaMvBnfp-3Uia5OYd3JYK3A 

Image Credits
Field Notes