A decade after its founding by design heroes Aaron Draplin and Jim Coudal, Field Notes has earned a dedicated following—and a reputation for beautiful, simple design and honest quality.

A decade after its founding by design heroes Aaron Draplin and Jim Coudal, Field Notes has earned a dedicated following—and a reputation for beautiful, simple design and honest quality.

Time for an Upgrade

Great Client, Great Product, New and Improved Website

As Field Notes grew, the original site served its purpose for customers, but behind the scenes, the site was neither beautiful or simple.

Technology

When it came to processing orders and sharing new releases, the old site worked...ish. Under the hood, it was three systems held together with duct tape and a lot of manual labor. We spent some quality time with the Field Notes crew to understand every step of their process, then built a streamlined system that works in real life.

Web Design

We put the site’s design on a rocket into the modern era—refreshing the look and feel as well as making the site fully responsive across mobile and desktop devices. Gorgeous, all-new photography and meticulous attention to detail brought the site up to the Field Notes standard.

Pilot, Test, Repeat

The Right Solution through Iteration

We’re big on finding—and validating—the right solution. When it came to e-commerce, we piloted the most likely candidate, tested it thoroughly, and realized that it didn’t make the cut. By building time for experimentation into our process, we were able to land on a system that fits the Field Notes process from start to finish.

  “As detail-obsessed designers and fierce protectors of the Field Notes brand, voice and identity, we figured we would be a royal pain for the One Design crew. Turns out they totally got the whole Field Notes thing right away. I’m happy to say that we were only a regular-sized pain for them."

Jim Coudal Co-founder, Field Notes

Integration

Peanut butter and jelly. An original graph paper Field Notes and a freshly sharpened No. 2 woodgrain pencil. Some things just work right together. We integrated Craft Commerce (for content management and e-commerce) and ShipStation (for shipping and order fulfillment). Happiness ensued.

“When we launched this, you instantly made our lives twenty percent better.”

Jim Coudal Co-founder, Field Notes

Prototyping

Prototyping with the stars

We love it when we can jump from sketching to prototyping early on. Our partners at Field Notes HQ were more than game, right down to handing us code to share a working idea. By rapidly working out kinks right in the browser, we uncovered issues quickly and were able to focus on getting the design details as tight as the binding by a Heidelberg Stitchmaster ST 270 5-pocket saddle stitcher.

Recognition

Famous by association

Field Notes fans are devoted and discerning. So we were more than thrilled with the community’s reception of the freshly launched site.

What’s next?

Next up we’re planning to design reporting tools for Craft Commerce that focus on what business owners really need to know. But first we might sit back for just a moment with a glass of something delicious—and locally crafted with love—to celebrate in the Field Notes way.