What's All This Then?
This site is edited by Coudal Partners, a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago, as an ongoing experiment in web publishing, design and commerce. [Next]
What's All This Then?
Thanks for visiting. If browsing around here while at work has had a negative effect on your productivity we're sorry but imagine what it's done to ours. [Hide]
Tuesday Edition
Leaving well enough alone.
What we talk about when we talk about work.
Coudal Partners
Collections Collected
Lots of new listings and exhibits have been posted for the spring 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.
A One Day Conference In Chicago
Seed Three
The third edition of our one-day conference on design, entrepreneurship and inspiration is set for Friday, June 6th and includes a new venue in Chicago, a modified and more ambitious format and some very smart guest presenters. Details have been posted and registration is open.
Making Book The Final Tally
5076 New Books
For Kids
Every spring when The Morning News announces the novels that will compete in their annual Tournament of Books we handicap the field and post the "Morning Line" odds for the event. This year we stretched the gambling metaphor a bit further and encouraged readers to wager on which book would win "The Rooster." With the help of 37signals, Metafilter, Happy Cog, Iconfactory, Core77, Daring Fireball, Emma, Business Brickyard, eight6 and skinnyCorp we raised enough money to buy over 5000 books for underprivileged kids. The winners have now been posted.
Layer Tennis The Final Fiasco
Forth and Back
It's super Monday here at Layer Tennis HQ, and we're happy to declare winners in a tightly-contested pair of Layer Tennis finals. Shaun Inman's message of change was more popular than Chris Glass' message of change, and Inman won the first match. We're just getting word that the polls are closed and Jason Koxvold narrowly edged out the 17-0 James Hutchinson in the last period of second match.
It was a long, fun 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.
An Infrequent Mailing Contest
The Song Does Not Remain The Same
Selections from the hundreds of entries we received to our Cover Me contest that was part of last month's Infrequent Mailing. Our readers demonstrate their ability to find fab stuff once again. Enjoy.
Making An Endorsement
From The Committee To Reelect Our Greatest President Ever
We don't often jump into the political muck here at the site but Hillary Clinton's latest television spot asks a pretty serious question and we thought it was our patriotic duty to give it an equally serious response.
It Started In the Washroom
Abba Karenina
A while ago we hosted a quick contest called Booking Bands in which we asked people to combine the name of a book with the name of a band. We received thousands of entries, posted a ton of them and then randomly selected three and sent those people the book and a CD from the band that they mashed together. The process of coming up with funny or unexpected associations in this contest became a central part of JC's recent presentation at SXSW, A General Theory of Creative Relativity.
How Do You Spell Courage?
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, Copy Goes Here. In case you missed it, here's what our home page looked like when we debuted the movie.
Field Notes The Shipping News
The Shipping News
Our newest brand was created in combination with the unstoppable Draplin Design Company of Portland Oregon. The first offering from Field Notes Brand is a super durable made-in-the-USA memo book inspired by vintage farmers' planting books and other practical, historic, mostly-midwestern American design. Now shipping in handy 3packs $9.95 each.
72° A Film Project
Plus a Share of
the Glory, If Ever
There Is Any
EMILY: Nothing exciting will happen, I suppose. There aren't any bells or whistles or fireworks. It'll just happen and... there aren't bells and whistles or fireworks, are there? ALAN: No.
The first draft of the script for our film project, 72° has gone out to our Producers. As with Copy Goes Here, we're posting about the film as we go along and also looking for a title sponsor and a roster of Executive Producers. Unlike CGH, this time we really started at the beginning. When we began, all we had was an archival photo for inspiration and a lot of enthusiasm. Check the weblog here and scroll down to see the very first entry for details. We're forever in debt to those who are coming along for the ride, like the most recent additions to our Executive Producer credits, Pierre Mai, Kevin Hamm and Andre Torrez.
scott smith's Ten
Thou Shall
In case you missed it, we're proud to be hosting Scott's stylish short film Ten, in which a man breaks all ten commandments before breakfast.
December Guest Kevin Cornell
Bear With Us
Josh Berta (jbe) is the clever brain behind Pr*tty Sh*tty, a blog dedicated to sticking inspiring design right next to awe-inspiringly bad design to help illustrate the remarkable distance between the two. In his professional life, Josh himself knows only work of the good variety, spending his days as a Senior Designer at Piscatello Design Centre in New York. Before that, he worked for Michael Bierut at Pentagram. He's an active member of AIGA and SEGD, and because he's won a few awards for his work over the years, it seems perfectly fair to refer to him as our Award-Winning Guest Editor for February.
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 
Relinking Richard Howe's The Manhattan Street Corners because even if you saw it you need to see it some more.
We changed shirts over 100 times each, taking individual pictures of each unique shirt. The designs on the shirts are not photoshopped. They are real shirts for each frame of animation. T-SHIRT WAR!
Trendy? Fashionable?
Illustrations by Emma Kelly.
Music vid of the moment: St. Vincent's Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood, which co-stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and is set at Women and Women First, "the most feminist of all feminist bookstores." Given that Armisen's a former Chicagoan, it was probably inspired by this.
"With sushi, you need at least 20 years of experience, but that's not enough. My 45 years, not enough." A clip from Nozawa, a documentary about sushi.
It's cold out there! You may need to pick up one of these.
Black and WTF, proof that the past was just as absurd as the present. Via bblinks.
Relinking From the Pocket, for Chicagoan Jeremy Edwards. seven tips.
Your Flickr Stats Explained.
Photographer and mathematician Nikki Graziano's Found Functions. Via J-Walk.
If you have one of these and one of these, you'll probably want one of these.
Teaser trailer for The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-sec.
Lady Gaga dollas.
"It took two months to store up enough fireplace ash to create this lunar landscape. The darker rocks are made of mixed tile grout, flag crumpled paper & wire. The Earth is a video still projected onto the wall." Matthew Albanese makes detailed miniature models. Fantastic, via Notcot.
On this day in 1926, Ernest Hemingway pulled a fast one on one publisher to sign with another.
Take a look at some Vancouver's Olympic venues.
"My deft touch with magazine collages will no doubt lend immediate impact to your companies presentations." A cover letter from an art major seeking a job that literally requires him to apply the skills he learned in school, by Andrew Miller.
Field Notes in action.
Music vid of the moment, Massive Attack's Splitting the Atom.
How to make an X-wing fighter from a Paris Metro card.
Art history cheat sheet, in poster form.
From photographer Jo Broughton, Empty Porn Sets.
Mike Afsa's Hints For Better Living.
Try not to smile, Stella's Day.
"Today, I was walking with my friend and she asked me why I always look down when I walk. I told her it's so I don't trip. The real reason is so I don't miss any crunchy leaves." My life is average.
Night launch of the space shuttle Endeavor
Trailer for The People vs. George Lucas
"Advertising agency of the future sounds a bit like horse drawn carriage of the future." Amen. A thoughtful piece by Bud Caddell.
A day in the life of a cursor. Via @H&FJ.
"My stomach lurched a little when I realized that it was Salinger, for real, on the other end of the phone, speaking rather too loudly and seeming a bit confused by my voice..." Joanna Smith Rakoff on answering J. D. Salinger's' mail.
Ichiro Iwasaki's playful, sleek mobile phone design for the lotta.
Something Is Happening.
All the Super Bowl logos and way too much about the evolution of the Saints and Colts unis.
Cordarounds rock.
Page Two contains the previous 20 Fresh Signals, a key to the icons, Depth of Field, the categorical archives and more.
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15 minutes
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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 Dampier
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
Christopher Cennon
Josh Williams
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:
"At Jewelboxing HQ, case safety is #1 (employee safety is around #3 or #4, well below cake and beer safety). That's why we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of bubble wrap." Read the entire post.
Another Thing We Made: The Show
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 Tees
New designs for politically and otherwise active kids, coming soon.
We actually do
stuff beside
updating this site.
infrequent mail
For a quick note when these features go live and other sporadic updates, which always include a way to win free stuff, enter your email here. We won't ever abuse the privilege. Period.
