Background Layer #6
Background Layer #6: Ben takes up the reins to recommend places for holiday gifts, show two new books that showed up, and ask questions about Notion.
This is Background Layer Issue #6, where we are coming to accept “What is time?” and not making any promises about frequency.
As always, if you have feedback, please just hit reply.
Ben wrote this issue.
That time of year…
Yes, everyone has now gotten about 2 billion Black Friday/Cyber Monday/etc. emails, and no, this isn’t a quick note to tell you to buy our fonts. Here is a discount: We rarely have discounts, and the time we did a “Blow your budget” end-of-year discount for folks to spend down the remaining year’s budget, we had very few takers.
However, it is gift-giving season, and we realize that not everyone wants to give an XXL XYZ Shirt and matching Poster (okay, there was one upsell). So, I put together a list of folks we think are worth giving your money to if you need gifts.
But before, consider supporting the things in your community that make living where you do fantastic. Give friends gift cards to coffee shops/restaurants, support your local weird whatever. Goodness knows that small businesses need it more than whoever I will be forced to buy a Talyor Swift cardigan (and Crocs?!) for my Swifty 9-year-old (yes, that was a plea for help).
If you have nothing around you building community, we suggest:
Sump Coffee: We planned XYZ at this coffee shop, and they have always been supporters of us (if you were at Chicago Brand New and drank coffee we served you, it was from here
St. Louis Art Supply: All you have is a Dick Blick in town? Send your money to this crew. They have all the fantastic things you could ever want (This pen, come on!). New stuff always cycling through, a good instagram follow so that you know what’s coming in.
CW&T: Taylor and Che-Wei run this National Design-awarded shop of incredibly well-made objects. They think a lot about time, have a great set of principles, and make this fantastic pen and knife (amongst other things)
Typotheque sketchbook: So good. Designed by Atelier Carvalho Bernau. Buy in multiples to get a good price on the books and on shipping. Give to friends and keep some for yourself.
South City Stitchworks: Ok, this may be solely for Doug Wilson, but Zach here in Saint Louis makes a fine bag for bikes of all kinds. Check out the catalog, or get a ride wallet (good for all your cables in your bag, not just your spare tube and CO2 on a ride)
Books. Just buy books:
If you haven’t paid an actual or virtual visit to Katherine Small Gallery, this is your source for design books. GO!
If you want a gift for next year, you can still get in on Kelli Anderson’s Alphabet in Motion book, which is coming out next fall. This will be amazing (I helped with a technical edit: for the super type nerds, you won’t find new info, just delight; for the non-nerds, you will learn a ton and be delighted).
I’m looking forward to getting the new Commercial Type specimen; it is such a fun concept.
I read the fine art version of Craig Mod’s Things Become Other Things, and am looking forward to the trade edition (yes, all designers love Craig).
Take a look at the books our friends Polymode have designed and buy them!
Or, look at the books that our friends at Work/Play have made and buy directly from them.
Books
Speaking of books, in the last couple of weeks, Disorder by Chris Ashworth and Wipeout: Futurism showed up. My 90’s heart is still leaping with joy. Unclear how to get these now that they are funded, but I think you may still be able to snag Disorder. So good and worth it if you loved Raygun.
Process
We have joined Notion Nation in the hopes of reducing the number of things we were using to track our various things (Toggle Plan, ToDoist, Google Docs). Does anyone have pointers for the best way to go about things? Cool tips/tricks? We are still setting things up and would love to know how to make things better (our pro tip: turn off the AI bit by asking directly in the help form, it’s not a manual process, but quick!)
Let us know what you’d like to hear about in the next edition and if you have any questions we can answer here. As always, thanks for reading. And Doug, you are welcome for all the shopping advice. Get that shed.