TRU RED | 2020

Designers: Staples Design, Staples, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA
Manufacturer: Staples, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA

TRU RED is a new office products brand designed to compete head-to-head with category leaders across retail and online channels. Created for the modern worker, TRU RED products embrace enhanced performance and aesthetics as their competitive advantage. The design of a TRU RED stapler collection—provided a pure opportunity to bring the brand’s design principles to life for an archetypal product in a foundational product segment.

Design Strategy
All TRU RED projects begin with teams putting a product category under the microscope to see where and how the offer can be improved. Here we obsessed about how people use staplers. Where do they show up amid the working day? Are they personal or shared tools? Do they travel? If so, when and why? Do people own more than one?

We also sought to understand user preferences. Why do individuals add staplers and removers to their personal kits? Could functional details engage high-productivity users or styling details engage individuals where “even their stapler says something about them”?

This exploration helped establish our “Staplers for Any Purpose” project charter and a line logic that includes three stapler pricing tiers (based on product capacity and performance) and three staple remover solutions (one integrated, and two standalone styles).

Design Development
The TRU RED visual brand language is anchored by a toolkit of six signature design elements. Staplers in this collection are a pure embodiment of all six:

- the squircle™ form: where radiused sides fill ergonomic functions and unify silhouettes
- red color accents: where the namesake color calls out affordances and adds style
- matte/gloss breaks: where finishes invite touch, resist wear, and celebrate materials
- linear patterns: where surface geometries integrate functional and aesthetic detail
- modern graphics: communicates without words while embodying the brand’s clean aesthetic
- quiet identity: where the brand mark (built of staples) offers a confident assurance

Product Experience
Archetypes become that way for a reason. Their form and their function become so refined that the products seemingly “are” what they do. This often means products in the category have regressed to the mean. Once celebrated for their performance, they become commoditized.

TRU RED staplers reject the commoditization of this category by reimagining this timeless classic for a new era of users. They invite consumers to reconsider the utilitarian elegance of this office staple by reimagining how its role could be revealed in fresh ways.