Coffee Cups

This project examines different coffee cup typologies, user behaviours and coffee drinking culture at large. At its core lies a key observation about the many different ways in which people will hold a cup. Not only is this influenced by the size and shape of the cup itself, but also by which type of coffee is being served, its temperature, the surrounding environment, whether it is consumed in a hurry or enjoyed leisurely, standing up or sitting down, alone or together with others, and a whole host of other factors.

Historically, cups and saucers are part of larger dinner services and their design simply the result of scaling each piece to fit its purpose. Deliberately ignoring this copy-and-paste approach, these coffee cups take into consideration the specific requirements of each individual piece, as well as those of the set as a whole. The result is three distinctly different handles: a small tab for pinching the espresso cup, a traditional index finger loop for the medium sized coffee cup and a generous handle for the large mug. These features are not merely ergonomic considerations, they also intuitively communicate how the cups are used. Formally, it also gives each piece its own unique character, while the set retains a degree of coherency.

Each cup is accompanied by a matching saucer which allows multiple pairs to be stacked on top of each other for storage (also with the cups upside down to avoid dust collection).