Creating

The Quarto®

The idea of a notepad isn’t new, purpose-built writing surfaces have been around for about 5000 years, so why is The Quarto® different?

The initial intent behind creating the Quarto® was to save people in the trade’s time. Anyone in the trades knows that writing down measurements and important notes and drawing quick plans for themselves or others to follow is a near-daily occurrence. Normally you can find things lying about such as offcuts of timber, pieces of cardboard or even a flat tool surface in your toolbelt. They either go missing, get cleaned up by an eager apprentice or there isn’t enough space for what you need.

It was one of these very examples that spawned the idea of The Quarto® in my mind. A purpose-built writing surface that will fit on my tool belt and be infinitely usable without wasting any time searching for something new or something lost. When I was fresh in the trades I was watching a workmate of mine writing some measurements down on the side of his tape measure. This made me ask “Why don’t we have something to write on on our toolbelts?” His response “Why don’t you make something.”

After 3 years of thinking big and having to reel my wild ideas back in, I have something that covers this missing piece of the Tradies arsenal. The Quarto® is a simply designed, lightweight, reusable and timesaving device. Cut costs on lost time going on treasure hunts for scrap and use The Quarto® to decrease wasted material and repeated instructions.

Now that The Quarto® is here and available for purchase, I recognise The Quarto’s full potential. Beyond the trades, The Quarto® can provide use across the board from nurses to soldiers. The Quarto® has a place in everyone’s hands.

I hope you enjoy using my product to bring out the creativity in all of us, for work and fun.

Jack Robson
Director/Creator

The Quarto® Team

The Quarto® is a small family-run business, based in the Waikato of Aotearoa/New Zealand. My partner (Meredith) and I run the business together. I assemble the Quarto® products by hand in my garage and together we package them and juggle the administration responsibilities and social media.

During the past 5 years, while I have been building, I would often find myself thinking about improving ‘life on the tools’ and coming up with ideas that can make the industry better. Anyone who owns a business knows how much effort and time it can take to start a business and get it off the ground. So, we are so excited to finally be able to share this with you. We aim to bring some great things into the world - this is just the beginning.

FAQs

  • The Quarto is pronounced "core ·toe"

  • For daily use, simply rub off what you’ve written using your thumb or wipe off with some cloth, like a rag or clothing. Although, an occasional deep clean using a wet rag or wipe is recommended for the Quartos longevity.

  • The Quarto itself is the writing surface. The entire Quarto.

    I recommend short-term measurements or drawings be done on the front page. Open the Quarto and write down anything more long-term such as delivery times or contact details where they can be safely stored for a longer period.

  • This notepad was designed for pencil only: Graphite or common Carpenters pencil, B, 4B, 5B, 6B, HB, & Pica.

  • Absolutely!

    The Quarto can be written on in rain, sunshine and even completely submerged underwater!

    Anything written on the Quarto will remain on it until you rub it off to remove it. No more soggy paper notepads.

  • A rough calculation for time and money saved is

    : Time saved est, 10 mins per day

    10 mins x number of staff = minutes saved per day (MSPD)

    MSPD x 5 days a week= minutes saved per week (MSPW)