Custom Paper Clips?

Staples, the office supply store, is a great company and convenient resource, but not a place you would expect to climb Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. During a recent visit I noticed they have branched out from pure commodity offerings (reams of paper) to products that offer customers an opportunity to express themselves (in as much as one can be expressive with push pins).

Custom Paper Clips

Staples still sells the classic clip, but now has a wide variety of aesthetically enhanced options that can be mixed and matched by the customer in plastic bins. You can choose from an assortment of day glo, mod, funky, and classic designs varying the ratios to your preference.

Mix and Match Stationery

Staples is also expanding paper choices beyond the standard plain white and staid eggshell options. Shoppers can now choose all manner of paper colors (even deep browns and blacks) and match them with complimentary or extravagant envelopes, accessories, and other materials to reflect the authors design sensibility. This is old hat to pro designers, but a major shift in the suburbs.

These aren’t the most compelling offerings, but it is a development worth noting. Tools like PowerPoint that provide built in styles enable people without a lot of design training to make a document that would have required a professional designer 10 years ago. Products like these extend PowerPoint-esqe design templates into the material world making it much easier for anyone to be a designer.

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Tagged as: Abraham Maslow, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Microsoft PowerPoint, Office supplies, Paper clip