Monthly Archives: April 2023
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Posted: April 18, 2023
Litmus Test #5 - Did we exhaust ourselves in pursuing excellence?
When designing products, you can travel a few paths as a brand. The first is making a product predominately practical. There are many examples of this, from laptop stands to iPhone cases. We know that in both of these examples, there are very practical, useful designs that are...well...not attractive. There is a place for these designs, but not a road we choose here at Pad & Quill.
Another path is designing a product to be predominantly beautiful and stylish. You can create and manufacture a beautiful accessory. Still, if it’s not that practical or, even worse, not at all that durable, then you’ve made something lovely to look at…but not very good at being useful in a practical sense.
The path we pursue here at Pad & Quill is to merge practical beauty with stylish and beautiful historic design. We like to call this 'Good Art.'
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Posted: April 11, 2023
Litmus Test #4: Have we maintained our dedication to preserving what is valuable from the past while merging with the remarkable technology of the present?
There is something romantic about taking classic designs of the past and merging them with the daily needs of today. When we started Pad & Quill, our first product was designed to look like a handsome moleskin-style journal that hid and protected a brand-new first-generation iPad.
The key for us has always been how do you preserve the beautiful designs of the past while creating something new for today's technology and, equally important, something that will endure for years due to proper technique and materials.
A few examples of our preservation of the past and merging that with today's technology include:
-The Bomber Strap for Apple Watch Ultra
We designed a leather watch band that took its design cue from
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Posted: April 03, 2023
Litmus Test #3: Is our product organic and in keeping with good stewardship of our environment?
We strive to make the majority of our product materials from organic matter. This includes leathers, hardwoods, recyclable shipping, and simplified packaging material.
Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. We believe that being inhabitants of planet earth means taking care of this amazing planet we’ve been given. This includes utilizing materials not designed to wear out but endure for decades. The fewer landfills filled with cheap technology accessories, the better. We work with an award-winning tannery in Leon, Mexico. LeFarc has won numerous awards for its environmental stewardship in producing durable, high-quality leather.
Here is a review o