This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

Sallyann Corn: While visiting friends in Austin, Texas, we traveled to Lockhart to try a famous barbecue joint.

Joe Kent: After eating, we walked around and found an antique store. Suddenly, Sallyann jetted off to a corner and came back with this. She said, “I don’t know what it is, but I’m buying it.”

SC: It was leaning against a pile of records, and I thought, What the hell is that? It’s about waist high and is made of steel in this brick red color. It almost has the proportions of a pogo stick.

JK: There’s something about looking at an object like this and not being able to tell immediately what it is. It’s purpose-built, but the purpose isn’t apparent unless you’re in the know. It was a moment of discovery when the shopkeeper said, “Oh, it’s a pecan picker-upper.”

SC: I don’t think I’d ever even seen a pecan tree or knew what one looked like. So this made it a totally foreign object to me.

JK: After we bought it, we went next door to City Hall, which was surrounded by pecan trees, and tried it out. You push the handle down and the pecans shoot up through the basket, and suddenly the thing is full of pecans. I was surprised by how well it worked.

SC: A couple days later, I was determined to get it on the plane back to Seattle. It was too big to fit in our suitcases, so I just carried it. As it went through the scanner, the security person looked at the screen, looked at us, looked back at the screen, and asked, “Is that a Slinky on a stick?” And I just said, “Yeah, it is.”

JK: In our studio, we have shelves of objects like this, and we pull them for inspiration.

SC: We love objects that do just one thing and one thing really well. It’s similar to what we produce as industrial designers for our studio, Fruitsuper: simple objects that make a single task a little easier and more fun.

JK: These kinds of objects are usually born of a utilitarian need but are often dismissed or taken for granted.

SC: They’re the unsung heroes.

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Head back to the November/December 2024 issue homepage