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Unbelievable. This whole project has been such a blast that I thought I would share the history of how we came to make the world’s smallest bookbindery case for the iPod Nano.

 

Will B., our operations manager, brought the idea up to me as a joke about six months ago. We make the Little Black Book for the iPhone 4/4S, how about one for the smallest Apple touch device, the iPod Nano? We thought about it, laughed and then put the idea aside as the very busy holiday season of 2011 was upon PQ. In early January the idea came back and we decided, what the heck – let’s buy a Nano and see if Eric, our CNC wood cutting technician, could make a teeny tiny frame for this idea. He did, and within about 3 hours of design, the moment I held it I knew we had to do it.

 

I contacted our master bookbinder who made the very first PQ case, The Case, Vol.1 back in 2010. I asked Duncan if this was a project even worth considering and he showed me a book he’d made that was half the size of the Nano case! Two weeks later we had five prototypes. We put the wood in and could not stop laughing. Words like ridiculous, hilarious and completely awesome were abounding out of everyone’s mouths. Mrs. PQ and the little Quills could not stop looking at them. The kids kept telling their friends at school about what Dad had come up with.

 

Then it hit us, we love the iCade. The iCade was an April 1st joke that ThinkGeek.com put out when the first iPad was released back in 2010. The iCade looked like a miniature version of the old arcade console including slots for putting in quarters. You just placed your iPad inside and boom! You had an old school arcade game. Well that became reality as thousands begged for the product to be made and you can now get one at your local Best Buy.

 

Our aspirations were far smaller, but we thought April 1st of 2012 would be the perfect day to launch our Kickstarter campaign for this teeny tiny case. We made a video, had photography done and launched the product at 12:01 on April 1st, 2012. Media contacts could not tell if we were seriously releasing a product or if this was just a joke. That had to be the best part of the day, when we explained that if the backers showed up these were going into production.

 

30 days later the Kickstarter campaign was completed and we raised 160% of our funding. Perfect. As of this week, Pad and Quill just got the first run of book covers into our warehouse and are installing the tiny wood frames and the micro book plates. The laughing and high fives are still occurring even as we get ready to ship these wonderful little cases. What about the Nano I bought for this project, is it in one of these? Yep, every day I carry my Nano to the gym and around on walks in the Littlest Black Book.  Does not matter how small the device is, you have to maintain style.

 

Look for the Littlest Black Book to soon be available on our main site!

- Mr. PQ

 

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