Let’s pause for a moment for something we rarely think about, the BARCODE. Yes, the barcode turns 35 today, and it’s actually a pretty important invention.

A design that is pretty straightforward… 59 black and white bars— changed the speed of check-out forever. The first barcode was on a pack of Juicy Fruit gum and scanned in an Ohio grocery store. Now, we see barcodes on everything… your airline ticket, inventory lists, or even digital postage.

George Laurer, an engineer from IBM invented the barcode. Designs such as circles were also considered before the “Universal Product Code (UPC)” was accepted as standard— 30 black and 29 white lines to convey 95 bits of data in binary code.

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from the barcode— simple and utilitarian designs can change the world.