ALERT Staples: Every Office Needs These

Alert Staples

Everything’s all good until you run out of staples. What’s worse is when your office is truly out of staples because the guy in charge of supplies screwed things up. This happened last week at our office, and let me just say that the hour it took to buy staples was as tense as things can get in an otherwise boring office.

I’m sure it’s happened to you before: you’re stapling forms and documents, working up a good rhythm, until you hear that empty click that means your stapler is out of staples. Working to make sure that this doesn’t happen without your awareness is ALERT Staples. It’s a concept by Wei-Ling Hsu, Yu-Ren Lai, and Cyuan-Yi You, where your typical staple wires are inked with a red band at the edge.

Alert Staples1

That way, you’ll know when you’re running low on staples once the red ones show up on your documents. You can also use it as a gauge to check how many staples are left inside the stapler by checking the side and seeing how far the red band is from the tip.

ALERT Staples are just a design but they’re easy to dupe. Just take a red pen and draw red bands on your existing staple wires, and you’re good to go.

VIA [ Yanko Design ]

Staple City

staple city dock Staple City
Your stapler is one of the most important tools in your office space (get it, Office Space Staple City? whatever). But it doesn’t have to just sit there looking all boring and non-architectural. Get a tiny cityscape for your desk with Staple City. It’s a little bio-dome of staple buildings and a slot to hold the mini-stapler (all included). Staple high rise skyscrapers FTW. Keeps your stapler and staples handy, yet looking cool.

Staple City

Pac-Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes

pac man office supplies Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes
Packing up your office is a bad thing (usually) but Pac-man’ing up your office is definitely a good thing. A very good thing. Retro-geekify your workspace with a Pac-Man Stapler Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes, Pac-Man Paper Clips Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes and Pac-Man Sticky Notes Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes. Yeah that just might be the coolest stapler ever, no biggie. Set yourself up and you’ll definitely have the coolest cubicle in all of outside sales and most of marketing. Because all work and no play is boring (but you still have to get your work done).

buy now Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes (stapler)
buy now Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes (paper clips)
buy now Pac Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes (sticky notes)

Pac-Man Stapler, Paperclips and Sticky Notes


The T-EM50 is the World’s Smartest Tape Dispenser

T-EM50 Tape

Tape dispensers. Can’t live with them (especially during those times where they just keep getting stuck), can’t live without them (because, really, what other choice do you have?) The design of these office staples hasn’t changed much over the years. Frankly, it would be pretty hard to come up with a modern version of the tape dispenser because what can you really do to improve or add to its features, when all it’s meant to do is dispense tape?

That’s a question the folks over at Kokuyo S&T in Japan have pondered on a lot, because they’ve come up with the T-EM50, which is the world’s smartest tape dispenser. Why? Because it’s an automatic dispenser that spits out tape of the exact length that you specified on its LED display.

Given all that it can do, the T-EM50 is pretty pricey at 15,750 yen (~$200). But if you’re OCD about your tape, then this might be a worthwhile investment. The dispenser runs on four AA batteries and will go on sale sometime this September.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ New Launches ]


Accordion File Takes Itself a Bit Too Literally

Thanks to modern technology, I’m hopeful that many of you guys don’t have to deal with organizing file folders and paper. But that said, it seems that there’s still plenty of paper to go around workplaces these days. One organizational device commonly found in offices is something called an “accordion file,” which is called that because its an expandable file for papers, not because it’s a musical instrument. Or is it?

accordion file

The guys over at GamoGo are being both too literal and too clever for their own good with this amusing accordion file that actually looks like an accordion. While it doesn’t actually play music when you squeeze it, I think it would be a great addition to your office if you happen to work in the music industry – especially if you’re an agent for a polka band. Or if you’re Weird Al Yankovic.

So squeeze on over to GamaGo, where you can grab the Accordion File for $10 (USD). Accordion lessons not included.