Studio Notes #33
Hello, Pals. Here's Issue #33 of Studio Notes—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.
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This week's documentary find was, Mr. Polaroid on PBS. The history of the famed camera company and its pioneering founder, Edwin Land. I knew Polaroid was a local company (Cambridge, MA) but I didn't realize just how revolutionary Land was for the photography world and how Polaroid was like the Apple of the 1960s. His vision for an instant darkroom in your hand started back in the 1940s. He built a progressive work culture, but faltered with an apartheid-era South African partnership. The rise and fall of Polaroid is pretty fascinating. And it runs quick at just under an hour.
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I've been a fan of Matt Stevens' design work since the early Dribbble days, and remember him posting these perfectly-crafted book covers of movies he dug. It's amazing to see many years later he's just launched 200 of them as a book and postcard series: Good Movies as Old Books. Such a great idea and so well executed!
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I don't know a lot about the band, The Beths, but I do know their new single, “Metal” has been on repeat over here. Indie pop that harkens back to the mid-late 1990s—which is often a surefire way to my heart. Plus, they're from New Zealand. And I love New Zealand.
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Hats off (pun intended) to the Red Sox design team on their new, alternate "City Connect" uniforms. The Fenway Greens pay homage to the Green Monster wall with a lot of neat little details like notched numbers, quirky hand-painted lettering a la the vintage scoreboard, etc. So much better than the marathon-themed designs that have been worn for a while now. Great to see a big brand embrace imperfect type.
What are you working on?
I'm likely a little too excited about our decals lately. What is the absolute opposite of current world event insanity? Perhaps, high-quality, silkscreened decals. I call 'em decals because they're better than stickers. Stickers feel like paper. You can feel the ink on these decals. Sturdy. Made in USA. Split backing for an easy peel. I've updated our Decal + Mystery Pack with the latest and they're shipping now. Eight decals plus some extra goodies thrown in. Decals.
In addition to decals, we're extremely close to launching something called SimpleBits® Gold. A new way forward for memberships and publishing around here. More on this hopefully next week!
Have a fantastic weekend, and see you here next Friday.