‘Things Come Apart’ by Todd McLellan
If you were the kind of kid who liked to tinker with gadgets and take them apart to view their inner workings, you'll love Todd McLellan's book, 'Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual for Modern Living.'
‘The Manual, Everywhere’ on Kickstarter
If you keep up with the web design world at all, you probably already know about The Manual, a design journal started by XOXO Fest cofounder Andy McMillan and with contributions from world-class designers like Frank Chimero and Ethan Marcotte. Each printed edition—of which there are three thus far—contains stories about what it means to design for the web and the people…
Field Notes — ‘Unexposed’ Edition
'Unexposed', the newest edition to the Field Notes COLORS lineup, is...well, a mystery. And that's by design. Every pack contains three randomly-selected-but-unique 5.5" x 3.5" memo books in an opaque black sleeve, each with 48 pages of reticle graph paper. As for the covers? No one knows yet. All we know is there are six of them, meaning there are twenty possible…
Wooden Record Dividers by Kate Koeppel Design
If you're the kind of person who listens to vinyl records and also digs good typography, you'll love using these beautiful, laser-cut wooden dividers to keep your albums organized. They also work nicely for books and other physical media. There are a variety of collections to choose from, ranging from $100 to $410 depending on size, orientation (vertical or horizontal), and typeface…
2015 Hobonichi Planner Book
Heads up, lovers of fine paper products: the 2015 Hobonichi Planner Book is now available for pre-order. For those unfamiliar with it, the Hobonichi is a beautiful planner—known as a techo in Japanese—that goes beyond schedule-planning by also acting as a journal, notebook, sketch(note)book, scribble pad, and generally a place to capture thoughts and moments. Originally made in Japan, the Hobonichi has…
‘Motion Design for iOS’ by Mike Rundle
Motion Design for iOS is a new ebook by Mike Rundle that's all about animation design and development for iOS apps. It covers the history, principles, and physics of great animation and motion, with lots of examples and full-project code walkthroughs that break everything down in an easy-to-grasp way. In other words, this book will teach you how to make immersive, awesome-looking…
‘Raw Materials: Collected Essays’ by Matt Gemmell
Matt Gemmell has long been a favorite writer of mine on the web. He writes about a number of things: software development, productivity, technology, etc—but his deeply personal essays are always the most captivating to me. He has collected a number of these essays into a Kindle ebook called Raw Materials. In it, Mr. Gemmell introspects about various aspects of his life's…
‘It Will Be Exhilarating’ by Dan Provost & Tom Gerhardt
Speaking of Studio Neat, did you know they wrote and published an ebook about indie entrepreneurship a while back? It Will Be Exhilarating is all about the ins and outs of starting and running a small business in a Kickstarter-fueled world. Dan and Tom give details about manufacturing hardware products, launching a Kickstarter project, and they give a few marketing tips along…
‘The Sketchnote Workbook’ is Here
Mike Rohde's new book, The Sketchnote Workbook, has officially launched. This is the follow-up to his popular introductory book, The Sketchnote Handbook. In the original book, Mike taught us how to use sketchnotes to visually capture ideas and remember key bits of information. In The Sketchnote Workbook he expands on those concepts, showing how to adapt your sketchnote skills to all sorts…
Hard Graft Notebook
Hard Graft's new Notebook keeps things simple and beautiful: Cover made from Austrian wool Endleaves made from structured grey paper with logo print 160 plain off-white pages, edged in grey. Grey fabric bookmark Black elastic fabric rubber band Inner pocket in back Dimensions: 5.5” x 8.27” x 0.6" $65 at Hard Graft. Pairs nicely with their leather trip case, which holds necessary…
‘Wool’ by Hugh Howey — Omnibus Edition
Thanks to a recommendation from Sid O'Neill a while back, I found out about a series of sci-fi books by Hugh Howey called Wool. I finally picked up the omnibus edition (which collects books 1-5) over the weekend, and I was hooked from the get-go. Finished it just yesterday, and can't wait to pick up the next entry in the series. Wool…
‘Will It Waffle?’ by Daniel Shumski
If there's one thing I love in the morning (besides my daily regimen of coffee injections), it's a good Belgian waffle. So, you'll understand why I'm more than excited about Daniel Shumski's upcoming cookbook, Will It Waffle? You'll learn how to waffle all sorts of stuff: bacon, eggs, hash browns, muffins, French toast, mac & cheese, sweet potato gnocci, potato and cheese…
‘On Web Typography’ by Jason Santa Maria
This morning the folks at A Book Apart released renowned graphic designer Jason Santa Maria's new book, On Web Typography. The title says it all really, but I'll go ahead and include their own foreword so you know what this is all about. “Typography is your design’s voice and the most powerful tool you have to communicate with your readers. Learn how…
Big Update to Shawn’s eBook, ‘Delight is in the Details’
Our own editor Shawn Blanc has released a huge update to his awesome ebook about creativity, Delight is in the Details. Everything you loved about the original version is still in there, along with a ton of new content and refinements: The ebook has been upped from 75 pages to 88 thanks to the addition of two new chapters Two new audio…
Skottie Young’s ‘Daily Grind’ Sketchbook
You comic book aficionados out there are probably already familiar with Skottie Young's illustration work. If not, a good starting point is the charming Fortunately, the Milk, a book he worked on with Neil Gaiman. This morning, Skottie released his new sketchbook, Daily Grind, which collects about 100 of his black-and-white daily sketches that he hand-picked from his archive. It's a limited-print…
Tar Field Notes
Take three Pitch Black Field Notes notebooks, bind them together with a rubberized, tar-like substance, add a double-wrapped cord closure and a small tarred-cord bookmark, and you've got Tar Field Notes. The stats: 144 pages total 50-lb Finch Opaque Smooth text paper Light-gray dot grid Hand-bound Pick up a set for $28 at Blackbird.
MacSparky’s ‘Presentations’ Field Guide is Now Available
In case you missed the news back when David Sparks' new Field Guide on presentations was available for pre-order, here's a friendly reminder that the book is now live on the iBookstore. You can watch the trailer here. What I wrote about the book last time still applies, so here it is again: With a primary focus on Apple's Keynote software—and filled…
Ugmonk T-Shirt + Offscreen Mag Bundle
I guess it's a t-shirt kind of day. Ugmonk has partnered with Offscreen Mag to create a limited-time bundle featuring their iconic Mountains tee and a single Offscreen issue of your choice (#5, #6, #7, or #8). Two of our favorite things bundled into a single package, and for just $32? Yes please.
Presentations — A MacSparky Field Guide
This morning our friend David Sparks announced the newest book in his excellent Field Guides ebook series. It's called Presentations. In a nutshell, this guide will teach you how to make your presentations not suck. With a primary focus on Apple's Keynote software—and filled with more than 30 screencasts, audio interviews, and other rich media assets—David shows you how to plan an…
DDC Stuff Sheath
Photo credit: Robert Occhialini The DDC Stuff Sheath—designed by the fine folks at Draplin Design Co.—is a simple leather sheath that protects your Field Notes notebook and other bits of paper bouncing around in your pocket. As the embossing on the front cover says, the Stuff Sheath is very durable and very, very orange. Sports a single line of stitching along the…