There are some things in life you simply can’t have enough of: friends, lip glosses and Post-It Notes. I recently discovered that Post-Its were an invention born by accident. A man called Spencer Silver was trying to create a super-strong adhesive for use in the aerospace industry but ended up creating an incredibly weak one instead. After many years of not knowing what to do with it, manufacturer 3M finally came up with the ‘Press ‘N Peel’ – later named Post-It Notes – and it’s been one of the top 5 selling office products ever since. As for the colour, according to 3M, the yellow was chosen because it has a ‘good emotional connection with users’ but another story says it’s because the lab next door to where they were working on the sticky notes had gave them some yellow scrap paper to work on…the rest, as they say, is history.
Martha, The Colour File x
Colour Experts
14 December 17: Post-It Note yellow
