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The original 1991 mock-up for recipes

Since announcing the TABi concept, we’ve received several suggestions for customised versions. For example, someone suggested a version for recipes where sections could be dedicated to courses or food types perhaps. Back in 1991, as the picture shows, we had the same idea. Someone else thought it might be useful to have a travel version for keeping a diary. Shopping lists, To Do lists, and notebooks for lectures or collectors have also been suggested. A couple of corporations contacted us to request customisations to reflect their location and product structures.

All of which has set us thinking. Is there an opportunity to provide customised TABis? Do let us know what you think.

The original 1991 TABi prototype

The founder of TABi, Jerry Horwood, a digital entrepreneur with several successes under his belt, first dreamed up the idea for TABi in 1991. He made a prototype, experimented with it, and then assumed the world would go fully digital, making paper notebooks redundant. Turned out he was wrong, at least for the time being. Many people still use paper notebooks today despite the proliferation of laptops and tablets. In January 2017 his invention will finally be unveiled to the world’s stationery and publishing industry in Frankfurt at Paperworld 2017 to find out what the industry thinks of it.

One day the world will look back in amazement at how for thousands of years we used bits of trees to help us remember things. But until then, despite the attractions of digital storage and information retrieval technologies, we seem determined to persist in writing and losing handwritten notes.

So if you’re in the office supplies or stationery business and you happen to be at Paperworld 2017 in Frankfurt between 28^th and 31^st of January 2017, do visit our tiny stand B22 in Hall 3.0. We’d be thrilled to meet you and to give you a sample TABi to try. We’re excited to find out if it was worth waiting 25 years.