This object is cheap to produce, easy to use, durable and incredibly reliable. As an example of design, it’s about as successful as it’s possible to be. And given there are countless thousands of them still in use, 70 years after it was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, it’s also a design that’s stood the test of time. You’ll also find it on the flags and coats of arms of a few countries, too.

But are these criteria the only ones we use for determining whether something is a ‘good’ design. While the AK47 is one of the worlds most prevalent rifles, sometimes imitated and sometimes replicated faithfully, over the decades it has responsible for similarly countless hundreds of thousands deaths.

Efficient and useful do not always translate to good.

Image: Design Museum