At first, the Post-It Note was a solution without a problem.

Dr. Spencer Silver was a chemist for 3M in 1968 when he was trying to create a strong adhesive for the aerospace industry. Instead, he created a low-tack adhesive that could be applied and removed without leaving residue.

There's an intersection between what someone is good at, what they love and what the world needs.

At some point, a tool becomes an extension of the person. My drawing professor called this being free. Where you're focus is on the idea, not how to draw it. You throw lines just like you've done hundreds of thousands of times before.

Start small, start now is always better than start big, start later.

Maybe you already started. You've done a project. You've taken a class. Then the hard part is going slow and steady. Steady is the most challenging of the two. Taking baby steps every day is a special undertaking.

The most difficult part of moving steadily is confronting how easy it is to stop after a setback. The best way to move forward is to start again.

No one ever asked Van Gogh to paint a Starry Night again.

Joni Mitchell's been asked to sing Case of You thousands of times.

Songs are more dynamic than paint. Evolution is more accepted in some craft. It's a great time to be a Taylor Swift fan, there are so many versions of her songs.

It's hard to imagine a coach without a whistle.

Metal can produce a whistling noise because of air pressure.

Whistles are commonly made from brass or nickel-plated brass because they are rust resistant to saliva. Compare this to horned instruments made of brass. It also sounds better than other materials.

I always find my own words to write these blogs, but sometimes I come across the words of someone who says what I want to say much better than I could.

I'm a big Wilco and Jeff Tweedy fan. If you aren't familiar with his Alt-Rock/Americana music, here's a good introduction, California Stars. Recently I watched interviews of him talking about his songwriting process. I was shocked at how relatable it is to design. And with how well he phrased it. Here are three separate quotes I feel any designer would find insightful about brainstorming, "stealing" and failing.

There's a plethora of negative feedback surrounding the Humane AI Pin announced yesterday, but it's worth noting the direction that AI devices like this are heading towards.

Companies are putting effort into finding a non-smartphone device for AI assisted interactions that people find convenient and less distracting than smartphones. Extended Reality (XR) devices, smartwatches and now a pin snapped to your shirt suggest that wearables will play a major role in the next generation of staying connected.

The design of car cupholders went through dramatic changes throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

In the early dark days of automobiles, built-in cupholders were either non-existent or unusable. Many people purchased an accessory cupholder which hung from a window or dashboard.

There was a higher demand for cupholders due to more people commuting to work and the insurgence of drive-thrus.

Today it seems simple, but engineers and designers investigated the very best shape and mechanisms to hold a variety of cups securely in place.

Creativity happens when something needs to be changed.

Problems aren't the hinderance of progress, complacency is.

Thoughtful creations around us serve as a reminder that we are not passive recipients of the world, we are active participants.

Founder and President of the Mars Society, Robert Zubrin, put it best, "If you have it in your power to do something great and important and wonderful then you should."

Have you ever tried to cancel a gym membership? Some want you to cancel in person, sometimes online, rarely over the phone. They'll certainly try to sell you a discounted plan. And you can expect to pay a hefty cancellation fee.

Chargers for electric razors or electric flossers rely on specially designed proprietary connections to ensure the optimal flow of voltage to their batteries.

The many folds in a chef's hat symbolize the 100 ways a chef can prepare an egg.

To learn to prepare an egg properly you'll have to cook a lot of bad eggs. I ruined many eggs to make consistently good ones.

Designing for sustainability is more than choosing sustainable materials.

Raw chuck roast lasts 26 days longer in plastic film vacuum packaging than butcher paper.

1/3 of food is thrown to landfills globally. Plastic does help put a dent in that.

Plastic film is lighter weight than paper so it reduces the amount of fuel used in transporting goods. It's also so thin, it allows for more product to be packed and shipped at a time.

I think the reason why people get upset over a product that doesn't work how they want it to is because it's a violation of trust.

The website says this coffee maker is easy to use, but I need the instruction manual to figure out the delayed brew feature.

Software companies can get away with launching products that still need polishing. As seen in the video game industry and artificial intelligence apps.

But you can't do this with a tangible product. Once it's shipped, it's out of your control.

A stop sign is filled with negative space but not a centimeter is wasted. The red Diamond Grade Reflective Sheeting (DG3) is a design element.

Empty space is vacancy. Where nothing of value is added because there is an absence of something useful.

The "Einstein tile" is the first single tile shape that can be placed an infinite amount of times over without creating a repeatable pattern.

This produces interesting results for design.

Unique patterns attract the eye. When the eye catches something that it can't immediately figure it out, we give it a closer look.

The Einstein Tile could lead to the development of new materials which are formed by a strong, complex structure. The Riedel-Kruse lab used bacteria to model this idea.

A bat understands exactly where a tasty moth is through echolocation.

People don't come equipped with this natural ability. We had to develop an artificial echolocation method (sonar) where the science is similar to, and inspired by, bats.

We've developed other senses including night vision, electroreception, ultraviolet vision, infrared vision, polarization vision and more.

Some artificial sense humans developed are not naturally occurring. Nearly all animals have the sense of touch, but no animal utilizes it in the same way as humans can with David Eagleman's haptic wearable, VEST.

"You won't always have a calculator on you."

You were probably told this in middle school math class. But in today's world, where smartphones are ubiquitous, it's a phrase as outdated as pagers.

Smart wearables have slowly gained attention and interest. XR may profoundly change our behavior as technology shrinks and products become more context-aware.

Telling a designer, "I'll know it when I see it," is like asking a chef to cook a perfect steak without telling them how done they want it.

With enough patience and money, sure, you both could figure it out.

But designers can only perform guess work without some frame of reference. They need clear direction to do their best work.

As a client, you may rarely know exactly what you want, but if you can figure out what it should rhyme with, you can offer good direction.