Field Notes - Winter 2019 - Group Eleven - Review
Hey everyone! Welcome to the first post of 2020! I took a short break after the hectic schedule of the Inkmas advent calendar but I’m ready to start this year off!
I figured a great place to start is one of my personal favorites- Field Notes!
The Winter of 2019 edition is the latest quarterly release- the Group Eleven edition.
For some background, this edition is themed around Group Eleven on the periodic table: copper, silver and gold.
The Field Notes - 2019 Winter edition, Group Eleven
Outside
The set of three are standard Field Notes size (3 1/2 by 5 1/2) with all white covers. Depending on the metal they’re representing they have that color foil stamped for the “Field Notes” logo and the info on the back.
The edges of the pages are gilded with their respective metal colors, with the staple colors match.
These metallic colors really stand out on the very clean white covers.
A better look at the gilded edges of the notebooks
A closeup of the staples on the Group Eleven notebooks
Inside
The inside is made up of a dot-grid pattern.
The dot grid is printed on a bright white paper, which certainly matches the outside.
The dot grids themselves are printed in colors to match the foil and page gilding. These colors are pretty flat and, in my opinion, are washed out by the white page and the small dot size- especially the gold.
When I cracked these open, I was pretty shocked to see the inside of the covers were black. I think they likely did this in order to let the metallic inks really come through, but because of this when the top corners get a little crinkled or if there wasn’t a clean cut in the cover stock, it’s very noticeable.
Inside cover of the Group Eleven notebook- the ink and the fun fact sections will match whatever element of the three that notebook is themed to.
Subscriber Exclusive
The subscriber exclusive for this quarter is a fold up desk calendar- it neatly forms a standup triangle for handy date reference.
Each of the three sides is printed in an ink color that corresponds one of the three notebook colors.
Verdict
Field Notes really swings for the fences on some editions (like with the National Parks edition) and to balance those projects they need to come up with some simple, but still story driven, notebooks. The Group Eleven edition is definitely on the simple, story driven side.
I like this notebook. The bright white with the gilded page edges look very professional, and being a big science person I’m always for science themed Field Notes. I’ll probably use this for meeting notes, but I don’t know that I would say this edition ends up in my Top 5.
If you dig this edition, you can snag yourself a set here
Note- this review is of my own opinions, and I purchased these notebooks myself.