Wes Anderson collaborator turns 5 coffee machines into stunning city scenes
When coffee machines aren't dull
Wish kitchen gadgets didn’t look so boring? De’Longhi wants a word.
It has created a quintet of coffee machines that are actual works of art, made in collaboration with a man responsible for the look of Wes Anderson movies — among others.
Simon Weisse has worked with Wes Anderson on models for films like Grand Budapest Hotel, The Phoenician Scheme and Asteroid City, and he and his team are behind these radically customised coffee machines.
Five models — the De'Longhi Rivelia, Magnifica Evo Next, Eletta Ultra, Eletta Explore, and Primadonna Aromatic — just like those you might buy yourself, were each transformed into a coffee shop scene inspired by the coffee culture a great city.
The designs are based on Milan, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin and Copenhagen.
Yes, London has been brutally snubbed, perhaps because Simon and his team didn’t fancy recreating a slightly tired-looking Pret a Manger to properly depict the average Londoner’s coffee experience.
The results are gorgeous, with the fine detail of the Tokyo and Paris scenes standing out as real highlights, from a distance. But if you want to see these creations in person, you’ll have to head over to Milan Design Week where they will be shown as part of a The World’s Smallest Coffee Shop display.
The bad news: we don’t think you’ll be able to buy your own version of these any time soon.
Weisse and team spent a collective 1500 hours making the fronts for the machines, including hand-making accessories like chairs and micro coffee machines, and hand painting the building texture. Other parts were 3D-printed.
“When De’Longhi approached the studio, the opportunity to apply the same cinematic ‘forced perspective’ used in film to a real-world ritual was immediate,” says Weisse.
“In my work for the screen, miniatures are used to create a sense of wonder and precision that feels more ‘real’ than a computer-generated image.”
Some of Weisse’s movie work you may well be able to recall without trying includes the miniature of The Grand Budapest Hotel itself, the world of The City of Lost Children and the sets for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. He even worked on The Neverending Story sequels back in the 1990s.
The obvious question: why do this at all? This creative little De’Longhi campaign is intended to highlight that you can create a coffee shop-grade cup of coffee at home. All of the models used are bean-to-cup machines, starting at — based on today’s Amazon pricing — around £450.
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