If you do wonder what paper clips looked like in eras long gone by, Clip Art (clever wordplay alert?) is a wonderful history lesson in paper clip design. The series features ten different paper clips from 1860 to 1934, recreated from ancient patent records. While we’re pretty happy now in 2018 with the stapler, or the default paper clip (Clippy from Microsoft Office, if one remembers it), the Clip Art is a series worth collecting and admiring, especially for the way it captures how subtly different paper clips looked during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods (and possibly even how visual styles could be partially dictated by industrial production techniques). The Clip Art also comes with a Clip Chart, a paperback book that ‘charts’ the journey and the evolution of the humble paper clip that could easily be one of the most significantly important inventions in the age of the office.
Designer: Present & Correct
