Time and Wear in Product Design / A Love Letter to Field Notes

I am a huge fan of a brand called Field Notes. If you haven’t heard of them, they make one thing: 3.5” x 5.5” paper pocket notebooks. Now, there are dozens of reasons to like this brand and their products, but today I want to focus on one in particular, which provides a valuable insight about how we approach design.

When a fresh pack of Field Notes arrives, each book is bright and crisp, perfectly folded, trimmed, and corner-rounded. It is the pristine final product of a meticulous design process. But I’ve realized that one of the reasons why I like Field Notes so much is how they transform as I use them. Any given book gets squashed in back pockets, opened and closed until it nearly falls apart, and filled with layers of ink, graphite, whiteout, sharpie, and any other medium you can think of. Its one purpose is to be there for you when you have that thought, or idea, or you need to work through a logo design, and it goes through the wringer until you’ve filled the 48 pages and are ready to archive it and crack open the next one. The more I use one, the more it conforms and moulds itself to the way I use it. It’s like breaking in leather, and I love it.

The cover in particular lends itself to this satisfying transformation, as it protects the inner pages and informs the book’s overall shape. Each one is unique, depending on the paper the cover was made with.

Falling apart

The 80# Mohawk Vellum covers of my light blue Wednesday editions have become soft and fuzzy through their use, and one split at the spine, separating entirely from the book. But it still felt right, even with the electrical tape that now holds it on.

Earning character

The linen covers of my “County Fair” editions have worn beautifully, holding up better than the Wednesdays at the spine, but earning a great criss-cross wear pattern as the ink rubbed and cracked off of the linen texture of the white paper underneath.

Adding sensation

With the Original Craft books, you can hear and feel the crinkle of the French Dur-O-Tone cover. It gained that worn, fuzzy edge like the Wednesdays, which allows it to flop open with ease, not to mention the wonderful way that “Dachshund Nose” ink on the cover wears and cracks.

You might be thinking, “Okay, I appreciate your love for Field Notes, but what’s it really got to do with design? That’s the whole purpose of this blog, right?”. Yes, I can get carried away talking about Field Notes all day, but my message here is that design can be more than just what it starts out as. That crisp, clean “final product” isn’t final. It is subject to time and use just like everything else, and that changes it. So, as designers, why not be like Field Notes and embrace wear and tear? Let the user rough it up a little bit. That’s what makes it theirs, after all.