Things We Love
Our little sappy, stupid somewhat definitive list.
- Mom.
- Dad.
- Girlfriend Leigh.
- Little Sister Sarah.
- Little Sister Leah.
- Nephew Oliver James.
- Almost-Brother-in-Law Jacob.
- Ewan "Ewok" Martin.
- little Gary.
- Field Notes brand memo books.
- The gang at Coudal Partners.
- “Al” the Dodge panel van.
- “Red” the minivan.
- “Big S” the Passat wagon.
- Our 2014 Ford Econoline van.
- The DDC Factory Floor.
- A small Craftsman on NE 67th Avenue.
- Our backyard shop.
- The Open Road.
- Fall foliage.
- The month of Octobrrr.
- Cool summer nights.
- That flat Midwest.
- The wet Northwest.
- The arid Southwest.
- Making an honest living with design.
- Staying outta the red.
- Acoustic guitars.
- Electric guitars.
- Bass guitars.
- Walls of sound.
- Helvetica.
- Futura Bold.
- Trade Gothic.
- Lubalin Graph.
- Lego.
- Our "Extra Wide" Aeron chair.
- Bad wildlife art.
- Thick paper with a good tooth to it.
- My beat-up Carhartt jacket.
- Levi’s 501s.
- Saucony Jazz & Shadow 5000 kicks.
- Adventure People.
- A new pair of socks.
- Adobe Illustrator.
- Adobe Photoshop.
- Adobe InDesign.
- Adobe Bridge.
- Being straight with Uncle Sam.
- Being a good citizen/being a bad citizen.
- Standing up to shit that “isn’t right.”
- The stars in the summer night sky.
- A cold can of Coke.
- Vignelli oversize calendars.
- Compact discs.
- iTunes.
- iPhones, iPads & iPods.
- Apple products—essential and brilliant.
- My big wall of books.
- Corner rounders.
- Flat files.
- A disc on the player.
- A stack of records from the record store.
- Checks showing up in the mail.
- Midwestern accents.
- Girl hands.
- Hitting that “34” on the roulette wheel!
- Clean sheets.
- Down comforters.
- Cold water.
- Hot water.
- A hot shave.
- A tall glass of ice-cold water.
- Mom’s spaghetti.
- Dad’s “Killer pizza.”
- Club sandwiches.
- The Ideal Diner in Minneapolis.
- A hard day’s work.
- Untucked shirts.
- Autobiographical tattoos.
- Impko stickers.
- Cards of business.
- Spot UVs.
- Ikea’s accessibile design.
- Old postcards with “scalloped edges.”
- Just about everything Minneapolis.
- Route 66.
- Leaving Southern California.
- Schaedler rulers.
- Aluminum items.
- A vanilla milkshake.
- The goddamn Flaming Lips.
- Making lists.
- And checking everything off.
- Feeling “complete” after paying bills.
- Jackalopes.
- Bigfoot.
- Nessie.
- Skunk apes.
- Flying home to see Mom and Dad.
- Old Penguin psychology book covers.
- A Gary “twofer”: Pissin’ and shittin’.
- Ham radio cards.
- Bose speakers.
- Bose noise-canceling headphones.
- Rain squalls.
- Fall breezes.
- Spring rain showers in Portland.
- Mowing the grass.
- The color orange.
- Pantone Orange 021.
- Pantone books.
- One-inch rocker buttons.
- Those bridges of Madison County.
- Kentucky’s rolling hills.
- Appalachia.
- Universal icons.
- A western straightaway.
- Business loops off the highway.
- Neon “OFFICE” signs.
- Going home.
- Mom’s French toast.
- Dad’s vegetable beef soup.
- The hills of eastern Oregon.
- A full tank of gas.
- Flat-screen TVs.
- Dual monitors.
- Old dime stores filled with dead stock.
- Considered hierarchy in typography.
- Brick buildings.
- Shotgun houses in Louisville.
- A nice piece of Alaskan halibut.
- Uncle Ben’s wild rice.
- Chicken fried rice.
- Pad Kee Mao from Cha’ba Thai.
- Beans and rice, Dominican-style, off the J.
- Punjabi, late-night, on Houston in NYC.
- Water chestnuts.
- Baby corn.
- Green beans.
- Asparagus.
- Utah’s license plates.
- Moab.
- Those badlands of South Dakota.
- Gary gallops, hops and endos.
- Getting home after a long road trip.
- Writing things down.
- Practicing our penmanship.
- Harmonicas.
- That Dm7 chord.
- Pilot Butte.
- Old Santa Cruz skateboard stickers.
- Good grammar and punctuation.
- Apsco pencil sharpeners.
- Boxer shorts.
- Pesto.
- Old warehouse buildings.
- Dogs who lay on their sides.
- Bullet pencils.
- Old maps.
- Thunderbolt data copying speed.
- Dogs jumping from bed to bed in a hotel.
- Ford Econoline vans.
- Scandinavian flatware.
- ’70s textile wall art by Verner Panton.
- Logo books by Yasaburo Kuwayama.
- ’60s and ’70s political campaign buttons.
- Union pinbacks.
- Golden books.
- Golden guides.
- Having Marc Maron in the shop.
- Spaghetti Westerns.
- Volvo station wagon typography.
- Orange iPhone protective cases.
- Strawberries.
- Bananas.
- Oranges.
- Carl Sagan.
- Neil Degrasse-Tyson.
- Vinyl records.
- Stoughton record sleeves.
- Shrink-wrap stickers on a record.
- Etchings on a record.
- Record cover spines.
- 180-gram slabs of vinyl.
- American-made hammers.
- Anvils.
- Beating Nakamoto at dice.
- Gramma Josie’s big pancakes.
- Cholula hot sauce.
- Sriracha hot sauce.
- Going backstage at a show.
- A nicely detailed car cockpit.
- Chip clips.
- Chips.
- Pretzels.
- Peanuts.
- Thick lines.
- How big the universe is. In every direction.
- Our staggering insignificance in the universe.