Monthly Archives: December 2011

That Bejeweled Pink iPad case not quite the gift you were looking for?  Taking time to listen is a great gift we can give to one another, and our wonderful employees are here all week to soothe your post holiday giftee angst.  Feel free to spend that money grandma gave you on a Little Black Book for your iPhone 4 or an artisan quality Kindle Keeper to make those winter reads complete.

I spent the bulk of the day yesterday closing out the Pad and Quill books.  Don’t worry, we aren’t closing down shop for the week, you can still buy that gorgeous book bindery case you want for your iPad

We are not above succumbing to crazy viral ideas.  Heck, that’s kind of our thing here at Pad and Quill.  That is why our recent purchase of the iCADE was a business “research” decision.  Yeah, that’s what it was.

On April 1st of 2010, ThinkGeek.com came out with a video about the main reason you should buy an iPad...so you could put it into an iCADE cabinet.  This iPad cabinet is designed to look like an 80’s style retro arcade console and fits quite nicely on the corner of your desk.  The whole production video was shot and uploaded to YouTube as practical joke.  The $500-$900 iPad surely had better uses than sitting in this silly cabinet.

Enter great idea (stumbled upon) and viral marketing and before ThinkGeek knew what had happened they were getting thousands of requests to make the iCADE reality.  One year

I swept the PQ household floor this morning and scooped up a piece from a toy from Christmas past.  A small remnant from the days when the Quills were small and the toys were real, interactive and imaginative.  A missing piece was easily replaced by imagination.  Fast forward to Christmas present when “Mom, have you seen the iPad?” is answered in solace of my mind with “yes, it’s where I hid it last” and out loud with “where have you looked? Can’t find it, too bad, go outside and play in the snow.”  That’s the beauty of stories and memories.  Pieces are lost, details fade, but imagination can fill in the details.  Stories have permanence and a fluidity; they anchor us to our past while setting us free to explore our future.

The littlest Quill just finished the wonderful story Number the Stars recounting a Dutch family’s part in resisting Nazi occupation and saving their

Well it does.  I mean, every time this technique is employed I generally feel fine.  That is not exactly how Mrs. PQ sees this.  As I mentioned in a post earlier, she is not one to mess around with the Holidays.  All gifts are ordered weeks ahead of time and even the fake names that are given to our children's presents, keeping them guessing as to which present is theirs, are executed far in advance.  Yet, that sinking feeling that there is only X amount of hours left in holiday shopping usually hits me around the 22nd of December.  That “feeling fine” attitude suddenly changes into slight, but controlled panic.

Mapping out the Target and mall parking strategies are engaged, overnight shipping options are considered and present acquisition is completed.  I've never failed to come up with something, although you might want to ask the little

When Mrs. PQ and I began Pad and Quill, we set out to create beautiful iPad and iPhone cases that were hand made, locally bound works of art.  What we did not understand was the state of modern day bookbinding.  We knew that the digital age was eroding the  bookbinding and presentation markets, just not the scope.

From books for schools to presentation materials, the binding tradition has suffered from the unique and powerful tools that make digital presentations.  A few months back we met with a Marketing firm that confirmed that clients from all different industries had not only moved long ago to laptop presentations but were now looking for every way to utilize iPad’s in there marketing efforts.

The team at PQ is excited that

The idea for an iPad and iPhone App occurred to me back in early 2010 when we first began the Pad and Quill case company.  The fact that your iPad was surrounded by a gorgeous hand made case, like the Octavo or Contega, seemed to beg for a note taking App of equal beauty.  Time flew by, as making cases and building our little company out of the basement then replaced said App dreams.  Until about 5 months ago, when we were introduced to Fabulously Retro and Daniel the lead App developer.  Daniel and I both shared a passion for moleskine notebooks, iPads and awesome leather cases.  A business marriage made in heaven.

We are excited to provide you a sneak preview of the forthcoming Pad