Yeah, the yellow hat does tend to clash with green body paint that’s on skin that’s turned blue from the -25F weather, doesn’t it? 
Allow me to re-start this: The “seven classic” product designs, so called because nobody has (yet) improved on them for functionality and looks - said a design judging team some years ago and it’s this full information I’m trying to find out - includes the Coca-Cola bottle, the Zippo lighter and Levi Jeans.
I think Philip Starck’s lemon squeezer is in the list; I think a chair is in the list; I think a car is in the list. But I could be wrong. I can’t remember the seventh.
The ‘classic’ list includes only 20th century work, and though Levi’s have been around longer these jeans became an icon only in the last forty years.
When I trace the answer I’ll post it all up.
BTW someone on these pages kindly nominated the paper clip, but there are at least thirty different paper clip designs … a paradigm of perfection, the paper clip; just like the button!
compliments from MA
Elizabeth Hurley.
Four people now have said the Swiss Army Knife.
Hmm. Shortlistable.
While I can quite imagine such a list circulating around ad agencies, none of us seems to have come up with the magic combination of “Starck+Zippo+Levi” on Google that throws it up. Unless you can be more specific, then we’re all probably on a hiding to nothing.
And I’d guess that chair might be one of the Barcelona variety … Or perhaps not.
Yes, yes: the angle-poise lamp. Yeehaa, almost there.
If a chair is indeed on your list, then it is most likely the Wassily Chair by Marcel Breuer, seen here.
Thanks for the Wassily Chair
The four-tined fork.
The Can Opener, both the punch type and the one that clamps the lid with the rotating wheel and cutter.
The claw hammer.
Screwdriver. Just read:
One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw – by Witold Rybczynski
Posited as the “tool of the millenium” by the author.
Quite fascinating, actually… and if there is a more classic, timeless design than the flathead screwdriver, I can’t guess what it is.
me again,
I’m not exactly sure if i’m looking at your question quite right, but consider this list:
Coke Bottle
Sears Coldspot Refrigerator
Lucky Strikes pack
Pennsylvania Railroad S-1 Locomotive
Streamlined Pencil Sharpener
Greyhound Bus
1961 Studebaker Avanti
And does the acronym MAYA ring a bell?
MAYA: Isn’t this something like “most advanced yet acceptable”? There was a specialist designer some years ago who’s in the text books, but I can’t remember his name. Probably American; most of the brains and most of the budgets are in the US.
(I’m in Europe where there are plenty of brains, too, but fewer that catch consumer imagination)
According to this Saturday’s Guardian magazine:
Maybe this is the list you are thinking of?
There is, however, another list chosen by the Audi Design Foundation but this had ten designs in total. This poll was carried out by Mori and was based on a phone survey of the British public.
The Audi poll decided that the London Underground map also qualified as a ‘classic’, as did Concorde, cat’s eyes, lego and the mobile phone.
However, it’s confusing as there are load of different surveys commisioned, so it’s going to be hard to pin down any “definitive” list. The Design Museum is likely to have different criteria to the general public (I can’t imagine a mobile phone would rate too highly amongst arty types!), but they are perhaps two avenues to explore.
My hunch is that it’s the Design Museum that me again will be most interested in.
me again, MAYA was Raymond Loewy’s idea.
I sort of remember this. In the version I recall, the chair was that molded-plastic type with metal legs that feels equally uncomfortable for all body types.
Chava
I’m an industrial designer, there is another school of thought that goes against MAYA - it’s the school of KISS.