Filofax
Established 1921Founded in 1921 as Norman & Hill but renamed in the 1980s after their most successful product, Filofax is a company based in the UK that produces a range of personal organizer wallets. The organizers are traditionally leather bound and have a six-ring loose-leaf binder system. The name originates from an abbreviation of the phrase ‘file of facts’.
The concept of the personal organizer originated from Canadian engineer, J C Parker, who invented a loose-leaf system to hold engineering data in a small portable binder, replacing over-sized technical handbooks that had become too big to carry. Following the First World War, Filofax organizer usage started to grow amongst military officers. The popularity of the Filofax personal organizer grew enormously due to its association with Yuppie Culture, where it was regarded as a symbol of the materialistic, work obsessed 80s. Along with the early mobile phones and fast sports cars, owning a Filofax organizer was a badge of success. The 1990 comedy film Taking Care of Business was released in the UK under the title Filofax.
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