Platinum Home Appliances Design · 2020
Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine
- A' Design Award 2020 Platinum Winner in Home Appliances Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Lavazza
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 604,465
- Verification code 368A738B73 · Verify this award
About Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine
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.
Within the evolving landscape of domestic appliance design, Florian Seidl's espresso machine emerges as a refined meditation on the intersection of ritual, form, and everyday functionality, representing a thoughtful contribution to the tradition of objects that elevate quotidian acts into moments of considered experience. The design participates in a lineage extending from the sculptural kitchen objects of post-war modernism through contemporary interpretations of accessible technology, where the machine becomes both tool and aesthetic presence within the domestic environment. Technical accomplishment manifests in the seamless integration of compound curves across the upper body, where white polymer surfaces achieve an almost ceramic quality suggesting handcrafted refinement despite industrial production methods, while the decisive horizontal division creates visual architecture that organizes the object into distinct functional zones comprehensible at a glance. The chromatic choice of achromatic opposition carries significant weight within product design discourse, suggesting universality, timelessness, and adaptability to diverse interior contexts while avoiding the transient nature of trend-driven color selections. The transparent reservoir positioned at the crown serves both practical and symbolic purposes, making visible the essential element of water while introducing lightness and transparency as material values counterbalancing the solidity below. Textural variation across the ribbed dispensing area demonstrates attention to haptic experience beyond purely visual considerations, anticipating the user's physical interaction with the object. The overall silhouette achieves a quality of approachable monumentality, substantial enough to suggest capable performance yet sufficiently restrained to integrate gracefully into domestic spaces of varied character. This design invites contemplation of how objects designed for repeated daily use might honor both functional requirements and the human desire for beauty in ordinary moments, how might such considered forms shape our experience of domestic ritual?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- A small, friendly espresso machine bringing authentic Italian coffee experience to your home. The design is essential and joyfully Mediterranean – composed of simple formal building blocks – celebrating colours and applying Lavazza’s design language with high quality 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.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 120 mm / 290mm / 246
2,7 kg - Tags
- Lavazza, Coffee, Espresso
- Production Technology
- injection molding (ABS/SAN)
- Design Challenge
- Creating a small/entry level appliance that has a lot of personality with short development time.
- Project Duration
- Turin, Italy
- Operation Flow
- It is easy to use - the stop&go button, emphasized visually by a coloured ring, lets you choose how much coffee you want. Only a few seconds and just one touch. Enjoy!
- Research
- Research - conceptual and formal research, 3D modeling, mock-ups, prototyping
- Inspiration
- The product was designed to be a natural extension of the Lavazza A MODO MIO product line. The central crest gives visual structure to the main shell and the overall design was inspired by a series of different products - examples include a motorbikes and helmets.
Colors of Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine
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Product Design and Innovation Services
We bring award-winning expertise in product design, from consumer electronics to home appliances. With experience at leading brands like Lavazza and Fiat, we transform concepts into iconic products that balance aesthetics, functionality, and brand identity.
G0E3 ShopDesign Interview about Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine
We wanted to design a small and friendly espresso machine. We describe he design as essential and joyfully Mediterranean.
We set out to create a compact new product that would implement the new design direction we had developed for Lavazza A Modo Mio.
The product had a very successful production run.
Complete product development - from the very first initial concept to launching the product - took just about two years.
Lavazza needed a new entry level product to complete the product range.
The appliance has been developed by Lavazza in Turin, Italy.
As mentioned before,we needed a new entry level product and also wanted to consolidate the general design direction - a natural extension of the Lavazza A MODO MIO product line.
We initially developed several design proposals and then selected one to develop further and bring into production.
It is an entry level product for us. This means it is accessible to everybody, but it is definitely not cheap. So the target group is really quite universal - everyone looking for a compact and well designed espresso machine.
The product was designed to be part of the Lavazza A Modo Mio product range. It extends this range and uses the sophisticated form language specific to the Italian brand.
The name was developed by colleagues from the marketing department.
The design process involved everything from analog and digital sketching to 3D modeling, a series of physical mock-ups and prototypes.
Maybe the main outer housing is a unique aspect. We managed to create it in one single shell that assembles almost like a helmet on top of the appliance and gives it a visually well structured, yet sensual appearance.
The design was developed by our small in-house team in collaboration with colleagues from the technical department.
The product itself is actually quite simple, as it is an entry level product.
The design was developed based on market analysis, the target group and relevant trends.
There were some minor issues related to the translation from the software package we use in design to the one used in our technical department.
Design competitions play an important part in communication. They help in product and brand positioning. This is why we submit our products to these competitions.
Every new product you design is an opportunity to learn. I think this particular project allowed us to grow as a team and better understand the specific requirements and needs that design and engineering have when developing a new product.
That's all.
Grand Interview about Lavazza Tiny Espresso Machine
We'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.