Studio Notes #63

Happy Friday, Folks. Here's issue #63 of Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

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This website is marketing-y as heck, but I have to imagine I'd have a lot of fun with an engraving pen. Drawing on glass bottles and guitar picks and...Macbooks? Chopsticks? Car windows? This could get dangerous. Like a mini Dremel tool you can easily draw/write with.

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Let the year-end, wrap-up posts begin! This one is a seemingly endless scroll of awesome book covers released in 2025. Tons of type and illustration inspiration. The art of the book cover is such unique thing to design and I always learn a bunch from studying them. (Hat tip to bon vivant Jason Santa Maria)

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If you're in need of a timeline cleanse today, might I suggest this quick little video for you: Making homemade Lego ravioli from scratch.

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Operation Ivy was one of those legendary bands that put out just one studio album, yet had such a massive impact. I was a big fan. The raw energy, melodies, imperfectness...ska/punk at its best. Fast forward to reading Kottke's excellent 2025 holiday gift guide and seeing perhaps the best t-shirt ever made for a small ice cream shop. I'm also a giant fan of ice cream and need to visit Gracie's, which is nearby in Somerville, MA.

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I was putting the forthcoming Clauthbound typeface through its paces with some more specimen testing and realized one could design an entire deck of simple playing cards using nothing but the glyphs in the font. I'm going to investigate getting some printed of course—however, I hear it can be prohibitively expensive. So, perhaps that's just a dream at this point. But I can see the gold foil debossed tuck box and it gives me life this week.

I hope you have a great week ahead and have a chance to recharge. See you back here next Friday!

Cheers,