Before plastics, wall hooks were made of wood or metal. Their forms were dictated by the materials’ properties.
When plastic wall hooks came out, their forms often just emulated those of their wood or metal forebears.
In contrast this Ernö hook, by veteran British industrial designer Michael Marriott, speaks of a proper design exploration of material properties.
Plastic can take shapes that wood or metal cannot (at least without high cost). Thus Marriott has started from scratch with the design, and arrived at the form by asking himself what shape the object should be in order to confer maximum utility.
The object is not pretending to be metal or wood. It is an “honest” product design.
These are sold through Marriott’s Wood Metal Plastic product brand. While the list price is £12.50 (USD $17), at press time having them shipped to the ‘States bumps the price up to around $64. (Tariffs and fuel costs, I imagine.)