Tie Clasp c. 1937

Isidore Steinberg made this drawing of a Tie Clasp, and it's a bit like peering over his shoulder as he worked. You can see the finished item, but also his workings-out: like he's taken the thing apart to see how it's made, and how it all goes together. The drawing has that old-fashioned feel, but there's also something very modern about it – the different views all on one page. It reminds me of those exploded diagrams you get with flat-pack furniture, all the bits laid out so you can see how to assemble it. I can imagine him really studying the object, turning it over in his hands, figuring out how the clasp works. Maybe he was thinking about mass production, how to make these things efficiently. Or maybe he was just fascinated by the design itself, the way form follows function. It's like he’s saying: Look how amazing this simple thing is!