When I first set out to design a hook, I intended to solve a few problems that seemed universally frustrating. Most coat hooks leave dimples in clothing from prongs and sharp edges. The ones that don’t are sometimes so soft that unstructured clothing simply slides off. This design needed to be the right balance of both solutions. The second challenge was a place for storing small, EDC (everyday carry) type items without them cluttering up another surface.

Integration of a face into the design of this hook did not come early. Several iterations of sculptural form language preceded this solution. Each of the previous iterations remained overly difficult and subject to further simplification. Exceptional design for industrial production must be made exclusively of defensible decisions. While the first sketch does solve the brief, it does so poorly with only a small alcove and a boringly neutral straight line on the backplate. In a few instances of good design, more is more, and so the final shape of The Happiest Hook comes alive by adding a curve and a bias to create the countenance of the hook and the useful storage.

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