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Outstanding design and its makers: The Fully Automatic Coffee Maker “Promesso”

Once a year, the jury of the Red Dot Award: Product Design awards objects with high quality design. In 2016, only 1.5 percent of around 5,200 entries received the highest distinction “Red Dot: Best of the Best”. It goes to the best products of a category like the Fully Automatic Coffee Maker “Promesso”.

Coffee plays an important role in modern business environments. It provides enjoyment and is also a facilitator of communication during breaks or meetings. The Promesso fully automatic coffee maker is tailored to use in office environments, where it harmoniously blends in with its distinctively asymmetric, modern design language. It is designed for permanent use and impresses with highly developed functionality: it is easy to handle and easy to maintain. The fully automatic coffee maker unites the enjoyment of high-quality coffee with a unique experience of coffee preparation. With a gentle touch on the touchscreen, it allows users to intuitively select their preferred coffee strength and milk volume.

The preparation is quiet and, if required, the machine serves up to 130 fine-tuned, quality cups of coffee per hour. As the coffee market is mostly driven by “premiumisation”, consumers today demand better quality coffee tailored to their personal preferences. A feature that highly enriches daily office routines is the option to set up one’s personal profile, allowing to save up to three different drinks, which are easily accessible via the touchscreen at any time. In this way, every user always gets his favourite cup of coffee. Thus, this device combines the experience of good design with individual coffee enjoyment at the highest level.

“Promesso embodies an entirely new generation of fully automatic coffee makers. Via a clearly designed touchscreen it is easy and elegant to handle in office environments. It fascinates with the possibility of setting up personal, directly accessible user profiles. This fully automatic coffee maker impresses with a stylistic idiom that skilfully borrows elements from the era of Art Deco, blending them with modern details”, says the Red Dot jury.

The outstanding design achievement is made by design agency VanBerlo, together with the in-house designers from Jacobs Douwe Egberts. Red Dot talked to the award-winning makers from the Netherlands.

Red Dot: What was your goal when you designed your award-winning product?
Sjoerd Hoyinck, VanBerlo: As the coffee market is mostly driven by “premiumisation”, together with Jacobs Douwe Egberts we have aimed at delivering on maximising, personalisation, unparalleled ease of use and great design.

What inspires you?
The shared human notion to value quality.

Is there a designer that you particularly admire?
Yves Béhar for great storytelling, Marc Newson for doing as he pleases and Naoto Fukasawa for impeccable detailing.

How do you define design quality?
Design quality is all about purpose and adding value in the widest possible sense. 

The Red Dot Award: Product Design is in full swing. Until 20 January, participants can still profit from the conditions of the “Regular” registration.