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In 1947, George Nelson's studio was asked to design a collection of clocks. Their conclusion: nobody actually reads the numbers on a clock face — they just judge the angle between the hands. The result was the Ball Clock, twelve painted wood spheres on radiating brass spokes, with no numerals at all. Almost eighty years later, it's still one of the most recognized objects in design.

In 1950, French designer Jacques Adnet wrapped a plain circular mirror frame in stitched leather and brass — borrowing a material language from saddlery and equestrian goods rather than furniture. Seventy-plus years later, the Adnet Circulaire mirror is still made almost exactly the same way. A look at why one small material substitution turned an ordinary mirror into a design icon.

Alvar and Aino Aalto's 1936 vase for Iittala has no straight lines and no obvious front or back — every edge is a free-flowing curve, still mouth-blown by hand nearly ninety years later. A look at why a vase modeled on a lake shoreline became one of the most recognizable pieces of glass in design, and what asymmetry can do for a room that a straight line can't.