Review: Poppin Sticky Memo Ball

If a messy desk is a sign of genius, I might be one of the smartest people out there.

Everywhere I’ve worked, whether in an office or my own house, I’ve begun with the purest of intentions to keep my desk clean and clutter-free, only to weigh the time and energy cost of constantly putting things away just to pull them out again the next day. Spoiler alert: Most of the time, it isn’t worth it. One of the biggest, ahem, sticking points in my decluttering process is the sheer number of sticky notes I use. Classic Post-It brand notes, sticky notes shaped like flowers, novelty pads, tape flags—all have a place in my office supply arsenal.

I write everything by hand, with a pen. And I mean everything. Not only in my paper planner but also on the sticky notes I have in nearly every room of my house. I have them in the kitchen, in my nightstand, in the car. And I always will, as it’s been scientifically proven that writing things down boosts learning and memory, since writing by hand activates more wide-ranging connections in the brain.

I love my Notes app as much as anyone else, but if I type something into it that I need to do in the future, I not only have to remember that I did so but also hope I titled it with something searchable. If I write it down on a sticky note, I will not only remember, but I can stick it exactly where I know I’ll see it. Doctor’s office unexpectedly calling while I'm in another room? Sticky note. Reminder for my husband who’s still asleep and doesn’t have his phone set to silent, so I can’t text him? Sticky note. Sticky notes for my kid. Sticky notes for my friends. Sticky notes in my car, in my garage … It's an infallible system.

However, the worst offender of sticky note detritus is by far my workstation. If I receive any kind of actionable instruction, whether it’s in a meeting, an email, a Slack message, or via a phone call, it’s immediately written down on a sticky note and slapped on my planner or, if longer-range, pinned to the wall above my desk, which is lined with felt bulletin board wall tiles from Amazon and currently looks like the pelt of a disappointing piñata.

However, I hadn’t really thought much about what those notepads were doing for my space visually until I saw the Poppin’ Sticky Memo Ball, the 4.5-inch dodecahedron that looks something like a girly soccer ball but is actually a desk ornament you can put to use. This is the sticky note stack made into decor.

Back to School

Photograph: Kat Merck

The Sticky Memo Ball originated not in a boardroom at 3M, nor in the brains of Romy and Michelle, but at Rochester Institute of Technology. Each year, the STEM-focused school holds a design initiative called Metaproject, pairing companies with RIT students to create products focusing on the theme “Design Is One,” the official philosophy of the school’s Vignelli Center for Design Studies. (Named in honor of Italian designers Lella and Massimo Vignelli, the latter of whom is known for his modernist designs incorporating geometric shapes.)

In 2016, Metaproject was sponsored by Poppin, the New York–based office supply company, and students were tasked with coming up with products to fit the company’s focus on the intersection of practicality and high design. Multiple creations came to fruition, but only one eventually made it to market: student Afifi Ishak’s Sticky Memo Ball.

“This design enriches the user’s mood and interaction when it comes to things on the desktop,” RIT’s website description reads. It is “rich in sculptural geometry and experience design, which gives a powerful visual message as you peel away layers and is supported by the plastic core.”

The Works

Photograph: Kat Merck

The Sticky Memo Ball comes in a transparent plastic box suitable for gifting, with a couple of sentences on the back describing the RIT origin story. I admit I was expecting all 12 sides to have different-colored notes, but there are two each of six colors: purple, lavender, peach, hot pink, ocean blue, and baby blue. Still, I appreciate having six 2.5-inch color-codable sticky notes in one place, especially if that place doubles as desk decor. Although I have noticed that the other members of my household initially mistook the Memo Ball for a soccer ball, which it does resemble, especially from afar. (“Did they make that for the World Cup?” my husband asked the first time he saw it. Note to Poppin: Make it in different colors!)

In terms of adhesive strength, I’d say the five-sided notes—of which there are 25 per pad, for a total of 300 per ball—sit somewhere between Post-It brand notes, which could stick to a wall for a few days, and a novelty pad from somewhere like Rifle Paper, whose notes are stylish but have a tendency to come unstuck from even horizontal surfaces. The Sticky Memo Ball notes have a 1.5-inch-wide, lightly sticky strip running from the top of the pentagram to the bottom, and while it will definitely stick well to a horizontal paper planner so long as you press down well, due to the sides lacking adhesive the notes will curl after a few hours if stuck to a vertical surface.

A bonus feature advertised on the Sticky Memo Ball box is the presence of inspirational “surprise sayings" under each pad, to be revealed once the pad has been used up. At that point the finished ball could act as a 12-sided die “for advice and predictions,” the promotional copy says. I would like to have been able to provide a few examples of these fortunes, but the glue that adheres the pad to the plastic core is so strong that the base paper tears off in shreds, if at all, obscuring the words. I tried four different sides and was not able to scrape the glue and paper off to see more than a couple of words. So don’t count on that part. But the ball is kind of fun to spin and flip around while you’re on a call or in a meeting, and it would make a great gift for coworkers (you can buy the balls in a bulk box of six), moms, or anyone who’s looking to level up their desk decor.