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.
I've been happy with every OXO product I've owned. As I mentioned, their primary focus is on usability, ergonomics. To an extent, this has meant that other areas (such as aesthetics) have suffered. But recently, it seems as though they've been making their products look cleaner, with more industrial design tricks thrown in, all while sticking to their usability principals. I was recently shopping for a new watering can, one with a rose, for the plants I recently sprouted in my Jiffy tray. I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across the Pour & Store, a brilliant, collapsible watering can made by OXO.
A watering can makes a good candidate for collapsibility. In order to get a good pour, the spout needs to be fairly long. This makes your typical watering can frustratingly large, seemingly larger than necessary. The Pour & Store solves this with a rotatable spout - for storage, simply fold the spout in and reduce the overall length by about half.
It's a very simple collapse, but a very effective one. The Pour & Store has a few extra tricks up its sleeve - notably, the rose detaches and clips onto the body of the can to prevent loss, and the water level is visible in the transparent spout, lining up with measures imprinted on the side of the can's body.
OXO's Pour & Store is available in three sizes: the 1L Mini ($10), the 3L Indoor ($15) and the Outdoor ($25); and four colors: Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue. As you can see above, I have a Yellow Mini, and I think it's just a treat to use, with a simple yet clever collapsibility mechanism.