To my surprise, the Aaron Draplin All Points Ontario Tour landed in Waterloo, Ontario tonight. Luckily for me, I learned about this mid-afternoon today.
It was a thrill to meet Mr. Draplin, a successful (by both conventional and unconventional measures) graphic designer, the creator of Field Notes, and a notable pencil collector. There was a brief chance to chat with him about pencils, and he said some kind things about this blog.
The talk was ostensibly about graphic design, but what came through for me were the themes of pursuing one’s dreams, being true to oneself, and the deep rewards that can come from doing work you believe in for people you like. I was quite surprised to hear prices mentioned. If you’re a rural clover farmer, you can probably afford him, and I bet he’d love to work for you. The talk was erudite, witty, and inspirational.
Some Field Notes news: – if I understood correctly, there is a strong “labour of love” element to many of the special editions, and they don’t break even. And Aaron is fine with this, happy to fund interesting projects via more commercial offerings.
There was what appeared to be a (not advertised online) limited edition numbered Field Notes edition for sale at Aaron’s “merch table”. Some (other) guy bought all of them!
Those of us north of the border have probably looked fondly at the County Fair Field Notes edition, a set of fifty featuring each US state. The Canadian provinces version is coming! I hope that a Canadian printer and/or designer will be involved.
It was a great evening, and I recommend attending the tour if it comes near you.