Studio Notes #73

Hello, amigos. Here's issue #73 of Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

🧱

French street artist, le cyclop, paints bollards to make them look like LEGO heads. I love that they use one-eyed stickers to keep the faces on brand. And the stencil to make it look like the yellow paint is artistically dripping. Well done.

📏

I haven't backed this one (yet) and probably don't have much use for it—but damn. This 3-in-1 titanium calculating ring ruler is a thing of analog beauty. The way its magnets “tell” you how far it's rolled is ingenious. I would be measuring all the things.

🎧

WalkmanLand is a website that catalogs all the portable cassette players from the 80s and 90s into an open database and info archive. It's probably unsurprising that I love that it exists. What is surprising is the amount of detail on the various models—and it's fun to look up the ones I remember. Like this one that my brother, Matt, bought in the early 80s. I distinctly remember the orange “hot line” button that lowered the music volume and turned up an external microphone so people could talk to you while you were listening. (via kottke.org)

🎤

It's one of my favorite songs, but when you isolate the lead and harmony vocals on We've Only Just Begun...holy wow that is something cosmic and moving. No pitch correction back then. Karen Carpenter was a one-in-a-million talent.

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Latest Goods in the Shop

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What are you working on?

One thing's for certain, I've always been proud to be a lifelong New Englander. Questionable weather aside, this region of the country has always been home—yet it's continued to surprise and inspire me. The birthplace of rebelling against tyranny here in the U.S. seems a good thing to celebrate—especially today.

I made a simplified version of the flag that represents New England going back to the 17th century. I think it deserves more visibility! You can now find this high-quality decal in the shop with the pine tree icon from our Clauthbound typeface.

Thanks for continuing to encourage my behavior ;-) And see you back here next week!

Cheers,