Using Paper Clips in a Web Design: Examples for Inspiration
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Stumble it!A designer’s creativity is often showcased in the little details and touches that he or she incorporates in a design. Using common, familiar objects as design elements to accent and ornament a web page is a wonderful way of showcasing one’s attention to detail.
For inspiration, I explore the trend of utilizing paper clips by providing excellent examples to showcase how designers make use of them.
These People Comedy.com
Realistic paper clip used as a design ornament.
Blog.SpoonGraphics

A paper clip is used to hold up a piece of cardboard material, pinning up the RSS feed button.
Home Design Find

Here, multiple paperclips are used as ornaments to the design.
Viget Labs (teamviget.com)
A paper clip is used to hold up a strip of paper, with an important message that summarizes the purpose of the web page.
Point of Entry Consulting, Inc.

A paper clip is incorporated in the logo of the design.
Jeremy Thomas

Another use of a paper clip to hold up the name/logo of the website as well as the polaroid picture of the owner.
Robert Kwiatkowski

Robert Kwiatkowski holds up his logo with a paper clip.
Chemistry Recruitment

Paper clips are used to hold up a piece of paper with a testimonial of the service offered, and well as holding up a message that summarizes the intent of the web page.
Sabalan

A paper clip is used to hold together a stack of paper.
Leeds Web Design

Another example of a paper clip used as a design ornament.
If you’ve gotten inspired to incorporate them into your design, you can simply take a picture of a paper clip lying around the house or office, and then importing the image into your favorite digital image editting application. You can also create it yourself using a vector creation tool such as Adobe Illustrator.
What are your thoughts on using common objects such as office supplies (paper clips, post-it notes, stacks of paper, tape, etc.) as design elements of a web design? What are some cool ways of using them in a web design? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Source: http://sixrevisions.com/

(3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

March 2nd, 2009 at 8:29 am
I think that if the overall design theme of your site is based around real world objects (paper, cardboard, photographs, etc.) then the use of tape or paperclips in the design is a nice detail to tie the entire look and feel together. Where it would not be appropriate is when it clashes with your site\’s theme. Design details should incorporate elements from the overall design theme.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Here we got an small web design compilation with the cup of coffee as fetish; I hope you like the link: http://mercenarydesign.blogspot.com/2008/12/ernesthemingwaycollection.html