Aaron Draplin is a damn good designer. His company, the Draplin Design Co., has worked with brands like Esquire, Nike, Red Wing, Hughes Entertainment, Wired, Coal Headwear, Patagonia, Burton Snowboards, and Ford Motors. When the Obama administration needed help on a logo for the DOT Tiger Program & Recovery.gov, they called Draplin.

On top of all the killer design work he has done, he then went and created Field Notes, a notebook for anyone with a back pocket and an idea. Through Draplin’s blood and sweat, he took the mundane concept of a notebook and made it into a necessary tool.

Behind the lumberjack myth, he is a simple man. He loves working, he loves junkin’ and he loves music. All in all, he is super nice and down-to-earth, a guy you’d want to grab a beer with, and simultaneously complain about and celebrate the world. Sidenote: I just ordered myself one of those badass Draplin Design Co hats.

Jon Contino is New York. We caught him on daddy day while his daughter was playing with Play-Doh in the background. The phone interview couldn’t have been more perfect. His voice has that New York snare to it, complete with the cadence of traffic trailing off over a bridge into another borough. As you may know, he specializes in old school lettering with new school flare; that may be putting it too simply. Hard work and history permeate every fiber of his aesthetics. The dude revels in the imperfections of old ink and paper. He has done work for giants like Nike, 20th Century Fox, Miller High Life, even the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. He loves hard music, the Yankees, his wife and his daughter. Other than that, he is just a super nice dude, and we are thankful for letting us get to know him with our dumb questions.