County Fair is an edition I took my time warming up to. I didn’t buy it until 2013 or so. Crazy, right? Now I quite like it. I love the sturdy, linen-textured covers. And the colors are fun for sure. It’s always interesting to see which state other Field Notes fans choose for themselves, too. As you can see, I got Illinois and California, states I’ve lived in. Last Christmas, I used one of the Illinois notebooks as a journal when I went to see my family in Chicago, and it worked out really well. It gave me an excuse to have some “me time” whenever I felt too overwhelmed by family stuffs. Maybe I will make it a tradition of taking an Illinois memo book whenever I fly there. :)
Firsts
County Fair is the first COLORS edition to use Neenah Paper for its covers; previous editions were all French Paper. You can tell the paper is different because it’s linen-textured and slightly stiffer. It was also the first time they printed colors on white cover stock to achieve the three different colors: blue, red and yellow.
This release had 50 different versions, representing all 50 states of the good ol’ US of America. The front cover is labeled with the state’s name and logo, and the back cover is full of facts and figures specific to that state. Holy… Can you imagine the amount of research that went into this? Talk about labor of love!
The white belly band is designed differently from the previous COLORS, too. Centered on the band is a handsome “Great Seal of Field Notes Brand.” Such attention to detail. Amaze.
This is also the first COLORS edition to join the “regular” line of products (perhaps this explains the item number FN-01a?). At the time of writing, you can still buy individual states online. The box set of all 50 states are still available online, too. It comes with a blue “First Place” Ribbon. I’m very tempted, folks. I saw the box set at a local store, and I was *this* close to getting it.
I wonder if any of the back covers got updated with new or edited stats in later printings…
Some fun (for me) details
- County Fair was first released in summer 2010 and is the 7th edition in the COLORS series.
- Item number: FN-01 or FN-01a
- Edition size: So complicated. That’s exactly what FN says. First printing in June 2010.
- Cover paper: Neenah Sundance Linen 100#C “Chicken Egg” printed with “Bluejay” blue, “Cardinal” red, and “Yellowhammer” yellow inks.
- Outside and inside cover: text in “Forty-niner Boomtown” gold Toyo ink
- Paper inside: Finch Opaque Smooth 50#T “Whitewash”
- Graph grid inside: “Babe the Blue Ox Underbelly” light blue soy-based ink
- Belly band: white paper with black text and “The Great Seal of Field Notes Brand” in the center
- “Practical Applications” on the back inside cover are the same across all three colors, and in all states.
- Extras for subscribers: First Place Blue Ribbon with the same seal featured on the belly band.
- Extras in the box set: First Place Blue Ribbon, pin, pens
- I have the third printing, printed in February 2012, so the specs you see may be different.
- Staples color: silver
- Film: Field Notes Field Trip to Monona, Iowa
- Film: United Memo Books of America
My favorite Practical Applications
- #02. Corn Dog Batter Recipes (I love corn dogs.)
- #23. Rabbit Cage Diagrams
For the love of god though, please don’t read the small text on the red books too closely. I don’t know about you but that gold text against the orange-red really hurts my eyes!