Why was canary yellow the original color?
Art – …the distributors and dealers said, “We don’t believe that stuff is going to sell. We’re not going to give you all that shelf space. We’re going to give you just enough shelf space for one color and two sizes.” So what size? We didn’t want it to be pink or blue and step on anybody’s toes as far as male and female preferences. Yellow seemed to be a very natural one because it was cheerful and the eye can see black on yellow with very low distortion. Q – When they were introduced in 1980, Post-it® notes came in two sizes – three inches by five inches and one-and-a-half inch by two inches. What was the thinking behind these sizes? Art – We wanted a small note that didn’t take a lot of space for people that just wanted them for a bookmark or a flag to get people’s attention. And, then, for those who wanted to write a little bit more, something bigger – a 3×5. Now there was a lot of pressure in the beginning to make them in 4×6. That was the size of scratch paper folders that were on
