Here are some pictures of Field Notes that use French Paper Construction in Grout Gray and some differences among them that are noteworthy. There are three editions so far that I know of:
Design Trilogy
2015 Tournament of Books (Rooster)
Field Notes × Wilco
The Wilco edition was added to the FN online shop earlier this year (July 2019) and the other two are from 2015. Design Trilogy was part of a Kickstarter project by filmmaker Gary Hustwit, and the singles didn’t become publicly available online until, I believe, December 2017.
When I first received the Wilco 6-pack, I didn’t realize this light, warm gray was not new to us until I read the specs on the back cover. I really liked this color in Design Trilogy, so it was a treat to see it again in Wilco with colorful illustrations.
All three editions use the 100 lb. card stock version of Grout Gray but only the Wilco edition features the 60#T French Opaque Smooth paper for the innards. Design Trilogy and 2015 ToB use the 50#T version. Interestingly, these two are both dated January 2015 on the back cover and both have innards printed in Pantone Cool Gray 2. But all have different rulings: Wilco features dot-graph grid, Design Trilogy graph grid, and 2015 ToB ruled lines.
As for the color of the texts inside, Design Trilogy is printed in “Dachshund Nose” black (same as the regular Kraft), 2015 ToB in “Rooster Red”, and Wilco in an unnamed blue. I personally love how this blue looks on the gray (all 6 different covers in Wilco are printed with the same blue inside).
Lastly, only the Design Trilogy includes the standard “Practical Applications”, the same ones in the regular Kraft Field Notes. The 2015 ToB has book titles and authors instead, while Wilco lists the names of Wilco members and artists they collaborated with.
Which “Grout Gray” is your favorite? Would you want to see it again in a future edition?
