At a glance, the Field Notes’ “Autumn Trilogy” edition seems perfectly simple, but the subtly debossed leaves and embossed logo are the result of a very complicated process. First, FN selected three beautiful cover papers from Mohawk’s Via line: “Warm Red,” “Safety Yellow,” and “Scarlet,” all with a vellum finish. These roughly approximate the Fall leaf colors of the North American Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum), the American Elm (Ulmus americana), and the Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea).

Using photographs for reference, they carefully traced the shape, contours and vein patterns of each leaf into a scaleable vector file, then created  a “lock-up” of each cover layout with the FN logo and cover text. A sculptor and diemaker converted the flat vector files into a three-dimensional computer model to evaluate the tolerances for embossing and debossing, and to simulate how the covers would look under various lighting conditions before the expensive and time-consuming process of physical diemaking began.

After reworking the files a bit, a master die was carved in precise detail into a brass plate on a CNC-machine, a ten-hour process for each design. Each master die was then painstakingly polished and inspected, and imperfections were cleaned up by hand.

When the masters were finished, “counters” were made by pressing the master into hot resin. The counter and master were then used to make the duplicates that were necessary to stamp the artwork on multiple locations on the press sheet.

Meanwhile, ruled body pages were printed on Finch Fine 70#T “Soft White” in gray with double top rule matched to the cover colors. Finally the books were bound with gold staples.

The final result is wonderfully subtle at first glance, but a close look reveals a deeper complexity. That sounds like a pretty over-the-top way to describe pocket memo books, but we bet you’ll agree when they’re in your hands

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