Interview about Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine, winner of the A' Home Appliances Design Award 2020
A small, friendly espresso machine bringing authentic Italian coffee experience to your home. The design is joyfully Mediterranean – composed of basic formal building blocks – celebrating colours and applying Lavazza’s design language in surfacing and detailing. The main shell is made from one piece and has soft but precisely controlled surfaces. The central crest adds visual structure and the frontal pattern repeats the horizontal theme often present on Lavazza products.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsWe're always trying to optimize our appliances and make them as compact as possible. It's a direct result of our direct collaboration with our colleagues from the technical development. We're glad to have their full support in bringing our vision to life and the products with their distinctive character to the market.
The central crest of the main body is helping us to visually structure the volume and also reduce the perceived width of the product. Whereas the horizontal pattern on the front of the machine is actually something that we've been integrating in ou designs for a long time and it's not unique to Tiny. By now it has really become one of our signature elements.
The stretch from a great espresso to a quick café racer isn't all that long. At least in the world of ideas and inspirations. So this connection really came quite naturally. And that helmet theme also has some clear advantages. It lead to a design with an external shell made from one single piece. This is great for assembly and also the perceived quality of the product.
There were several different challenges to create that main shell. First of all the piece is comparatively big and of course we had to make sure we had the right draft angle. The three dimensional Lavazza logos on the sides were a problem here. So we made sure we had two well defined areas on the sides that would be liberated by a separate movement of the mold.
It is very important for us, that our products are user friendly and intuitive to use. As you said, it's our philosophy. The stop-and-go button of Tiny couldn't be any simpler or intuitive. It is placed prominently on top of the machine and communicates the status of the appliance through a backlit ring. The additional external ring emphasises the button even further and allows the product to visually align with other products in our range.
Well, we had a rather good idea what we wanted to achieve. We had a solid technical package and also knew what we were doing and how to get there. Obviously that helps to keep the development time to a minimum.
Just like other products in the A MODO MIO family, Tiny has a single, well controlled main shell that remotely recalls dynamic volumes and exquisite surfacing commonly found in automotive design and especially also on the Fiat 500. The glossy shell with it's central crest has precisely controlled highlights that help to visually structure the volume.
Well, these two concepts aren't really two things that need to be balanced. Don't you think? A great product that delivers an authentic Italian coffee experience can and should always meet the needs of modern consumers as well.
We are always aiming to reduce the environmental impact of all our products. In this case we made sure that the product was easy to assemble and the right materials were used for each component. The energy consumption was another important aspect during the product devolpment.
With Tiny we generally consolidated our form language and made sure we had a series of products that follow the same design approach. During the next phase we'll use these design elements as a solid starting point to build on and evolve. So Tiny will definitely influence all our future products. All this while making sure each product is relevant and has it's very own identity.
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