Kitchen Design Icons

September 05, 2022

We've rounded up a collection of some of the best-designed small kitchen and home appliances in the world. Extraordinary designs from decades past and present.

Smeg, 1948 -

Smeg, founded in 1948 by Vittorio Bertazzoni in Guastalla, a town near Reggio Emilia, is the Italian company that has been able to evolve simple household appliances into authoritative interpreters of "Made in Italy". The business is still run by the Bertazzoni family; continuously winning design awards for their distinctive curvaceous design combined with superb performance. Smeg design is iconic in its own right but then there's the collaborations they do, with the likes of fashion icons, Dolce and Gabbana, which take kitchen appliances to a whole new level of beautiful.

Champion Cold Press Juicer, 1954 -

The Champion commercial-grade cold press juicer was invented in 1954, and still to this day, is considered to be the best design of built-to-last, quality juicing for commercial kitchens and households alike. You can still buy replacement parts for every Champion model ever produced. Regular juicers destroy much of the nutritional value of the fruit or vegetables, and the resulting juice has an acidic effect on the body as opposed to the desired alkaline effect you get from freshly made, cold pressed juice.

Alessi Juicy Salif, Philippe Starck, 1990 -

The Juicy Salif is iconic in its own rights, due to the history of its design, and the much-debated usability and worth. It is a successful product, only by its market performance. The juicer and its usability as an kitchen utensil are quite controversial. However, Starck himself says “It’s not meant to squeeze lemons, it is meant to start conversations”. It comes with an instruction manual, as both ends of the juicer can be used to get the most out of the fruit.

Bialetti Moka Espresso Maker, 1933 -

The Bialetti Moka takes its name from a Middle Eastern city, in Yemen to be exact, which is said to have been one of the earliest and most renowned trading areas for coffee, especially its particularly prized Arabica quality.

Although there is evidence of its existence in the works of the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire during the 18th century, it would take another two centuries and the idea of an Italian entrepreneur to see the birth of the first real Moka espresso maker in 1933. It is said that Alfonso Bialetti was inspired by one of the simplest daily gestures he could see in his own home: doing the laundry.

Black & Decker Dustbuster, 1980 -

Before NASA could send Neil Armstrong and Apollo to the moon—there was a pressing need for power tools that could be safely operated in space. NASA’s scientists and engineers were particularly concerned about cords, which could easily entangle astronauts in the weightlessness of zero gravity. To solve that problem, NASA awarded Black & Decker the contract to develop a cordless, rechargeable drill for extracting core samples from the moon. This resulted in B&D leading the cordless market many years in advance of its competitors. The most notable of these innovations being the Dustbuster launch in 1980; selling more than one million units in the first year.