Vince Ferraro

The iconic design of the BIC Cristal has remained virtually unchanged since its introduction in 1950. BIC began with Marcel Bich and Édouard Buffard, who purchased a factory near Paris in 1945 and initially manufactured parts for mechanical pencils and fountain pens. After recognizing the potential of the relatively new ballpoint pen, Bich set out to create a version that could be produced cheaply, reliably, and on a massive scale. In 1950, they introduced the BIC Cristal in France. Its transparent hexagonal barrel allowed users to see the remaining ink, while its simple construction kept production costs low. The basic design has remained remarkably similar ever since. BIC eventually applied the same philosophy—simple, inexpensive, disposable, mass-produced products—to other categories, launching the BIC lighter in 1973 and its first one-piece razor in 1975. Today, the Cristal remains one of the world’s most recognizable examples of industrial design, with its basic form largely unchanged since 1950.