Ugh, so much work to do.
Right, let’s get this letter started.
Hm hm hmm hm hmm,
What is this?
What is this thing?
What… Why is it doing this?
I just want to write my letter.
What are these options?
Oh dang it.
How do I get rid of …? What? Ugh.
Who invented this stupid paper clip!?
That'd be me.
My name is Kevan Atteberry and I write and illustrate books for children.
Back in the 90s, I had a graphic design company.
Got to do a little bit of work for Microsoft
and I was asked to design some characters for a project called Microsoft Bob.
which be one of their biggest failures.
It was software for people having their first computer experience.
They like the idea of these characters that could tell
what you were trying to do and offer their assistance.
After the failure of Microsoft Bob,
they ported the character technology over to Microsoft Office,
We went through 260 character designs
to get down to the 10 that shipped with the product.
Coming up with Clippy was not as big of a stretch as you might think.
Well, it's obviously an office thing.
I loved the simplicity of a paperclip as a character.
I loved the flexibility, all the things I could do.
I love the fact that I was just using the eyes because eyes can be so expressive,
and, you know, it simplifies my work too, right?
I think I designed about 20 or 22 characters.
I had a stapler; I had a stubby little pencil; I had a coffee mug.
I do a lot of sketches, just hundreds of sketches.
Once I got to where I liked it, I would, scan it in
then start working on it digitally on my Macintosh.
Once we had all the character designs,
they were handed over to social psychologists at Stanford University in California
to help us start winnowing out some of the characters.
The professors who bring general public in,
they'd ask things like is this character trustworthy?
Is the character likable? Does he have a sense of humor?
Through that process, they were able to eliminate characters
until they got down to the final ten characters.
Obviously they needed a default one.
And obviously the most trustworthy, endearing, engaging, likable character
happened to be Clippy
There were people there that were not happy
that Clippy kept making it through every level.
On this team, my character had risen to the top.
Oh, thanks.
Two and a half, three years that I did for Microsoft
was a really great time in my life.
And it just seemed like maybe it was a good time to leave.
And then I didn't think much about it until I kept hearing that,
Oh yeah, Windows has shipped with this, this character, this paperclip.
the disdain for him was just incredible everywhere you turn.
People just hated that paperclip They wanted to turn him off.
There's no way to turn him off.
And his functionality was too basic and annoying for most people.
I would never, never include Clippy in my portfolio
because I was so embarrassed of him.
One time, I was at a client's office.
She was pulling something up on her computer to show me
what she was looking for and up popped Clippy.
And I looked at her and I go, I created that.
She looked at me. She goes, ‘You did?’, and she was so excited.
Honestly, Clippy has opened so many doors for me over the years.
People that are very receptive to it,
and now, you know, nobody hates Clippy now.
He's on Simpsons and Family Guy and he shows up everywhere.
I had no idea, you know, obviously how big he is going to be.
I mean, holy cow.
if I could have seen into the future and realized,
I would have probably tried to get my contract written differently.
He's a character that everybody understands his motive.
He's a guy that just, that wants to help.
And he's a little bit too helpful sometimes,
and there's something fun and vulnerable about that.
It doesn't matter if you like him or hate him.
As long as you know who he is, I have cachet.