denysfisher.com

In early March 1965, a precision engineer turned up unannounced at Leeds’ premier department store – Schofields – and made his way up to the toy department on the second floor. He was carrying with him a briefcase that contained his invention of a new concept in geometrical pattern drawing – Spirograph!

Through sheer force of personality, Denys Fisher was able to overcome the resistance of Schofields’ manager who rather resented having a new product put in front of him by a chap who had the temerity to turn up without an appointment.

But the manager relented and let Denys demonstrate his geometrical kit. While he was doing so, a crowd of shoppers gathered round to marvel at the beautiful patterns being created with this device, and by the time Denys left the store he had sold the marketing sets he had brought with him and had secured a follow up order with Schofields.

So that was how the very first sets of Spirograph were sold. Just four years later it had sold over 20,000,000 units and was a worldwide craze.

This year we are celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Spirograph and have several projects in the pipeline to commemorate this milestone, which I hope to be able to reveal more about in the near future – so watch this space!

When did you get your first Spirograph set? Please comment below.