Konstantin Grcic's Miura barstools.
The German designer may have trained in the traditional craft of cabinetmaking, but his trademark is geometric forms, like his multi-faceted One chair for Magis and his angular Miura bar stool, above. After working with designer Jasper Morrison for a year, Grcic set up his own firm in Munich in 1991. Seven years later, he had his first big hit: the Mayday lamp, a conical light with a hook. Since then, Grcic, 42, has branched out and designed kitchen electronics for Krups, streamlined dinnerware for Rosenthal, stackable drinking glasses for Iittala and, most recently, a hole-punched vase for Nymphenburg porcelain.