999 ideas that changed our lives

It's not something most of us think about, but we all dwell in the world of design.

The toothbrush we use, the car we drive, the phone we answer, the chair we sit in at work — every manufactured object we buy has been pondered, argued over, sketched and prototyped. In short, designed by someone or a team of someones. And quite often, they do a heck of a job, using new technologies to solve old problems and marrying form with function in ways that not only look great but can even change the way we live. These triumphs of the designer's art, from sewing machines to iPods, are the subject of "Phaidon Design Classics," a recently issued three-volume set from London-based Phaidon Press ($175, or $140 at www.phaidon.com).

The gorgeously illustrated books, which weigh in at more than five pounds each, feature 999 mass-produced objects, listed chronologically beginning with the 18th century. The items range from sheep shears (Design Classic 003), whose design hasn't changed since the 1700s, to Fiestaware (245), the brightly colored ceramic tableware introduced in 1936 and still in production today.

Also anointed as design classics: Tupperware, the VW Beetle, Oxo Good Grips kitchen implements and the paper clip.

"What I hope is that this book will show the importance of design in our everyday lives," says Emilia Terragni, Phaidon's editorial director, who labored for three years with a team of 15 editors to select the entries and dig up the photos, drawings, patent applications and period advertisements that reveal the design back story.

"I would like people to understand that design is not only a fashionable thing," says Terragni. "It's not just things for rich people."

Not that your favorite brown velour recliner would make the cut as a Design Classic. To make the Final 999, each item had to meet at least two of four criteria determined by Terragni and her team: show "lasting influence"; exhibit new uses of materials and technology; display "purity of form"; or be such exemplars of design perfection that they've stayed in production unchanged since they were introduced.

In that latter category is the simple round thermostat Honeywell has cranked out since 1941.

As you'd expect, the usual modern-furniture icons turn up in force in these volumes, including Saarinen's Womb Chair, the George Nelson platform bench,and the Eames Lounge Chair. (With 15 creations getting the nod, the American husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames is second only to Italian designer Achille Castiglioni for most appearances.)

But far more interesting than the aesthetics of seating design are the accounts about the ideas behind some wildly successful common objects.

Many revolutionary designs were actually inspired by business decisions. The shopping cart, for example, was invented by an Oklahoma supermarket-chain owner as a way to boost sales. The user-friendly Apple Macintosh (No. 843) was aimed at creating a home market at a time when less than 3 percent of Americans owned personal computers.

But one of our favorite Design Classics stories concerns the humble drinking straw, invented by a cigarette-paper manufacturer named Marvin Stone, who was annoyed by easily broken rye grass straws that left an icky residue in his mint juleps.

Stone used his factory's technology to wind strips of paper around a pencil; in 1888, he patented a paraffin-coated version that could stand up to liquids. Decades later, another inventor improved on Stone's idea with the flexible straw.

Not just a clever invention, the drinking straw is an example of what all design innovation should do, according to the Phaidon editors.

"Good design," they write, "should make life just a little bit better."

Who can argue with that?