Personal Archaeology: The Purity of Line and Color that is the Rolodex Designer

Rolodex DesignerOver the next year our offices will be completely redesigned. The new design will be “open, collaborative and modern.” That translates to, “no more cubes, so clean out your crap.” So we’re digging into the piles and finding all sorts of neat stuff.

Look what turned up: a completely unused Rolodex (click to enbigger)! Bask in what was the absolute pinnacle of personal information management for decades. In a revolutionary first, this model allowed movement in two directions. You could, of course, spin the cards, but you could also rotate the whole unit to face it any direction. I honestly wouldn’t have thought that this was that impressive, but the marketing material included clearly says differently:

Now a revolving rotary file that doesn’t care where you sit, what’s on your desk or who else uses it with you. A touch of the finger and it will always face you. This ROLODEX Swivel File will turn a full circle to find your best viewing position all the time. Holds firmly while at work. Never has purity of line and color been so well combined with perfect function as in the new Decorator line of ROLODEX Swivel Files.

That’s some serious, next-level, Don Draper shit right there. Look at that god-damn purity of line! Look at the purity of color! Here’s the marketing card in all its glory (I also included another insert that told you all about the amazing Transparent Card Protector):

Why in the hell did we ever stop using these things?

 

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