Digital Digressions: Who Invented the Paperclip?

The product design industry is full of people who want to be 'designer popstars' - people who dream about having their name instantly recognised, their face peering out of trendy magazines, their products coveted by millions of consumers and ultimately, all of this resulting in having an extra-ordinary amount of personal wealth, the license to wear whatever one likes (after all, I'm a famous designer so I SET TRENDS, not follow them!) and an entourage of admiring girls (yes, most of these people are still men!) following in their wake. As you guessed, the annual prostitution fest is about to begin as the third-year design students are preparing their portfolios, finishing their final major projects and beginning to eye-up IDEO as the desired place to work, en route to starting their own design companies. The competition is extremely tough, every year around 5000 hopefuls graduate here in London at the same time and all start bombarding prospective consultancies with their CVs and portfolios.

Thus there is a complete over-supply of designers in relation to design consultancies (at least here in London) and many of these hopefuls will end up disappointed and the road to designer pop-stardom will have to take the detour of working in a shop somewhere to pay the rent. Those hopefuls from about 20 years ago, who 'made it', are now running their own consultancies and equally, still on a quest to become the pop stars of design in their own right.

Interestingly, all designers are on a quest to invent the holy grail of products, the one thing that the world simply can't live without and of course hoping that their name will become synonymous with the invention (and millions will roll in). Ironically, the famous designer that people may have heard of, Philippe Starck, is actually best known for a product that doesn't even work properly: his lemon squeezer, which looks fantastic, but is a nightmare to use. The product, which is truly all-pervasive in all of our lives (a success-story from a design point-of-view), the paperclip, is the opposite: it is everywhere, but the man who invented it remains virtually unknown and we can only guess whether his fortunes were in any way improved by it. As the story goes when Johann Vaaler patented his paper clip in 1901, there already were similar designs on the books. William Middlebrook of Waterbury, Connecticut patented his design in 1899. Cornelius Brosnan of Springfield, Massachusetts patented his Konaclip in 1900.

Who was first? Well, it is thought to be Johann Vaaler. Drawings of his design date to early 1899, but since Norway had no patent law at the time, he had to seek patent rights in Germany and the US in the following years. Johann Vaaler was born on 15 March 1866 in Aurskog, Norway. Known as an innovator in his youth, he graduated in electronics, science and mathematics (note this is before the time of design being singled out as a profession in its own right). He was employed by the owner of a invention office when he invented the paperclip. Several designs followed the original. Only a few remain, such as the Ideal, Non-Skid, Owl and Gem. The first double-oval clip, the Gem, was launched in early-1900 by Gem Manufacturing Ltd of England.

So there we are, as irony will have it many of the most successful or useful designs in our lives have been invented by people who remain unknown and in many cases, even poor and those who gain success and fame are the people whose designs or inventions are not exclusive or even ground-breaking and in some cases don't even work (sorry Philippe!). Therefore the point surely has to be that our goal as designers should be to make meaning or make a difference in people's lives, rather than make money? More on that later.

Comments

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Posted by: Belstaff Jackets | November 25, 2011 at 03:43