Field Notes Honors Mid-Century Signage with Bold Graphic Design

by abduzeedo

Field Notes debuts a new notebook inspired by 1950s sign design, featuring bold colors and iconic graphic design details.

Field Notes has long built its brand around craftsmanship and nostalgia. With its latest Quarterly Edition, “The Chicago Look,” the Chicago-based company leans into graphic design history, channeling the energy and optimism of post-WWII signage into a new 6×8” format. For designers and creatives, it’s a tactile tribute to a golden era of visual communication.

A nod to the Beverly Sign Co.

The edition is inspired by the Beverly Sign Co., a now-defunct outfit that made its mark in the 1950s and ’60s. Known for panelized layouts, bold letterforms, and high-contrast palettes, Beverly Sign Co. helped shape what came to be called the “Chicago Look.” It was a style that didn’t just stay local — it influenced commercial sign painters across the U.S.

Field Notes’ team discovered this design legacy through The Golden Era of Sign Design by Kelsey Dalton McClellan and Andrew McClellan. The book archives original sketches, notes, and swatches that guided painters — also known as “wall dogs” — as they hand-lettered storefronts and billboards. These hand-drawn artifacts, rich with penciled-in feedback and vibrant color studies, served as the launchpad for this edition’s visual identity.

Designed to feel like a working document

To capture the spirit of those original proofs, Field Notes brought in the McClellans and fellow sign painter Bob Behounek to design two covers that echo the look and feel of an in-progress sign. The covers are printed on Westrock Tango C1S 16pt stock, featuring diagonal color swatches and textured notes — a direct reference to the original documentation used by sign painters.

Each notebook includes 64 pages of Domtar Lynx Opaque paper, with a light-blue grid printed in soy-based ink. The decision to scale up from the standard size to a larger 6×8” format gives designers more room to sketch, ideate, and build — a functional choice that also elevates the presence of the historic reference.

A graphic design collectible

At $14.95 for a 2-pack, “The Chicago Look” is more than a stationery release — it’s a mini design archive. Subscribers to Field Notes’ Quarterly Edition also receive a 2.25” “Wall Dogs Forever” pin and a postcard of one of the covers as a full-sized, hand-painted sign now installed at Field Notes HQ.

In a time when much of graphic design lives on screens, this collection reconnects creatives with physical process and historical context. It celebrates the analog precision of mid-century sign painters — those who shaped cityscapes with brushes, not pixels.

For designers looking to get inspired by the roots of visual branding, this edition delivers a rare mix of design history, material beauty, and functionality.

Explore the full edition at Field Notes.

Designed by: Kelsey Dalton McClellan and Andrew McClellan of Heart & Bone Signs

Graphic design artifacts

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