The 1954 Ericsson Cobra Phone

The Ericsson telephone that rewrote what a phone could look like. The Ericofon puts the whole thing into one sculptural piece, with the dial tucked into the base and the earpiece rising in a single curve, like a cobra about to strike. To hang up, you just set it down: the red button in the centre of the dial is the hook switch.

Designed in Sweden by Ralph Lysell and Hugo Blomberg for L.M. Ericsson, the Ericofon went into production in 1956 and became a Scandinavian design icon, now held in museum collections including MoMA. In red, it’s at its most striking: a desk or bedside piece that still turns heads 70 years on.