The Collapsible and The Modular
For twenty years, OXO has been at the forefront of great, functional industrial design. Their products are not always the most aesthetically pleasing, but they find problems and create products that solve them. They adhere strongly to the concept of 'universal design,' making their products usable, comfortable, pleasant for as many people as they can. They look at how people use products, and what problems arise that users might not even know about. OXO's president, Alex Lee, gave a riveting speech at Gel 2008, which does a good job of explaining what makes OXO great. To me, it's not just having good, smart design (technically, the majority of OXO's design work is done by firm Smart Design, an apt name…) but rather getting said designs in the hands of the masses, rather than making absurdly-priced one-offs or even the somewhat-more-accessible products sold by Alessi.