Studio Notes #44

Happy Friday, Amigos. Here's issue #44 of Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

👻

Comedian and SNL alum, Fred Armisen is releasing a record of 100 sound effects (there are actually 101). It comes out (on vinyl even) on September 26, but you can preview the first 7 sounds on his Bandcamp. Some of the effects are practical, like "Needle Drop", but some get weird and hilarious, like "Romanian Crowd at Rock Club Shouting for an Encore" or "Sparsely Attended Show Encore with Someone Shouting 'Where's Jim?'". I loved those old haunted house sound effects records from way back when, and it sounds like Fred was inspired by those, turning an old idea into a comedic art project. I can't wait to hear, "Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs but the Door is Locked".

🎞️

One sure-fire way to get me to watch yet another super hero movie is to set it in the mid-twentieth century and really lean into that vibe with the art direction. The Fantastic Four: First Steps was the latest example, having seen it in IMAX this week. It's a good movie, plenty of entertainment, decent story, good acting. I just especially loved its aesthetic a la The Incredibles. There's more from the film's designers in the New York Times. ★★★½

🔴

I recently bought a Leica Q3, primarily to take type walk photos for an upcoming project, where the 60mp cropping comes in very handy when taking awkwardly-distanced shots of lettering on a building. I wear it around my neck at the ready, but don't like the famous red dot calling attention to the camera, and/or targeting it for theft. So, after some research, I ordered a dot replacement from Analagous and I can report that their instructions for non-destructive removal of the Leica dot were perfect. The replacement is a powder-coated brass dot that looks like a screw head—which makes it easier to remove it later and restore the red dot if you change your mind or sell the camera. I love finding little cottage businesses that solve tiny problems like this so well with a massive amount of attention to detail.

🐂

After an epic run of 2-3 years, I just replaced my Bullstrap Minimalist iPhone Case. These leather cases are fantastic, as they patina over time. Instead of looking dirty, they look like a well-worn baseball glove (They still might technically be dirty). Especially if you go with the Sienna color. I dig the Minimalist, as it has an open bottom, which means the edge of the case doesn't get in the way when you're swiping up from the bottom to get back to the home screen. By the way, I avoided using the word "colorway" above. Because I can't stand that word.

• • •

What are you working on?

Still waist-high into kerning and buttoning up a pre-release of Turbeau. I was sidetracked with experimenting with Claude for creating a Ghost-powered version of our Secret Type Club (currently using Slack). It was surprisingly easy to generate code—but unsurprisingly difficult to connect all the pieces so it'd actually work in production. I know enough to get dangerous, but not enough to debug everything. So, a fun experiment, but I need to go back to the drawing board and perhaps call in some professionals.

PS: I enabled comments on Notebook posts as another experiment. You just need to be a signed-in free (or Gold!) member.

Cheers!