Post-it design for parents and children to use at home

Post-it design for parents and children to use at home

Post-it Notes are small pieces of paper designed for temporarily attaching notes to and to other surfaces. I created a design for Post-it Notes based on its unique way of communicating and sharing ideas. I created this idea for the 3M Post-it Design Award in Japan. My design was selected and I received an award for it. This design has been commercialized and is currently selling in Japan.

April 2006

Illustrator CS2
Photoshop CS2

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Post-it Notes are generally used in business situations. There are cute Post-it designs but they are usually just different shapes, likely hearts or stars. They don't suggest a way to use them or an experience. I wanted to enhance and encourage the use of Post-it Notes for communication and make an innovative and whimsical design.
I decided to create a design that could show the evolution and growth of a conversation and the many directions communication can take. I especially focused on family users.
I wanted parents and children to be able to use them to make communication fun.

Why is this design using a railroad track and train?

I wanted to create a puzzle-type of Post-it Note at first. I made points that could connect on each side of the note. Then the users could connect notes and expand them as far as they wanted.

Communication needs to show context and allow for divergence. The puzzle idea could expand in any direction, which made it harder to understand the context easily.
I wanted the growth to clearly show direction. I used a flower metaphor at first, but flowers only grow up and there was also a limit to the amount of divergence with this idea. Flowers are also the end of the growth which signaled an end or close to communication.

There isn't a manual for Post-it Notes. When users pick them up they have to easily recognize how to use them. That’s why I decided to use a track and train as a motif, which solved this issue. "The design inspires and encourages users to connect their ideas." For me, this is the most important theme for this design. The track can extend to any distance and there is no limit to divergence. The train shows in which direction the communication is going.