Wednesday, May 20, 2015

From the Desk of Shelly

From Post-it notes to stethoscopes, wheel weights to Scotch tape, chances are you’ve probably used a 3M product today without even knowing it. 3M’s slogan, “Science Applied to Life,” captures perfectly the essence of their company— providing useful and well-thought products with an emphasis on practicality. Their website reads, “Science… is just science. Until you make it improve the world.” 
Literally millions of people use these products in their day to day lives.
In this article, I’ll be looking specifically at 3M’s office products—their history, application, and some creative ways they’re being used today. It’s worth noting that 3M prides themselves on using minimal resources and, “enabling more to help the world thrive. “
3M was founded by five businessmen in 1902. Initially a mining venture, the company had new ownership as early as 1905 when they started manufacturing sandpaper. The following twenty-five years saw many innovations and new products, including scotch and masking tape, which are still available today. By 1950, they were named, “one of the five best-managed companies in the United States.” The 70s saw a technological advance in a wide variety of fields and the post-it note was introduced in 1980. Today they boast over $30 billion in sales and employ over 88,000 people world-wide.

3M has come a long way in just over one-hundred years, today it doesn’t take a very thorough search to find examples of their office products used in large-format installation art or even used as clothing. What began as a meager operation is now one of the most recognized brands in the modern world. Check out the 3M products in our catalogue and see what they can do for you!

An example of post-it art at the offices of Quicken Loans.

Duct Tape art by Max Zorn.

A statue constructed entirely from scotch tape by Mark Jenkins of Savannah, Ga.

Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino wearing post-it note dresses to the cast reunion of Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion

No comments:

Post a Comment