The Alessi Juicy Salif, designed by Philippe Starck. Inspiring to me as a cautionary tale: beautiful, and yet useless The only time I ever used one it broke. (I also broke the only Starck chair I ever sat in. Starck and I don’t get along.) Comes complete with an origin myth: per the Alessi site, “was sketched in its essentials by Starck during a holiday by the sea in Italy, on a pizzeria napkin.” Argh.
Image courtesy Stardust Modern, which further elaborates on the myth.
(Side Note #1: to be clear, while I find this object seductive, I also think that it is, by propagating Starck’s cult of genius, representative of one of the worst tendencies of design. Be skeptical of genius.)
(Side Note #2: this is perhaps a bit of a bad example of something inspiring. Don’t necessarily follow my lead here, or ever. But to elaborate: I find this design to be a source of inspiration because it reminds me to always strive to be a better designer. Beauty is important—as important as function, even—but designers should strive for more.)
It’s interesting that the video shows how to use, but they don’t actually demonstrate it. https://www.alessi.com/us_en/citrus-squeezer-juicy-salif-pc-psjs.html