This minimal electric kettle’s design has been inspired from iconic Roman architecture!

Posted on 11/10/2021 by Chi Thukral

People travel across the world to see Roman architecture, especially the linear columns that are so iconic! Drawing inspiration from the popular historic style, SeungHyun Lee designed HYGGE – a modern, minimal, and sleek hybrid kitchen appliance. HYGGE is an electric kettle but also functions as a jar to store your drink. Although it is inspired by Roman architecture, its name comes from the Danish word ‘hygge’ which is a cultural attitude that implies well-being, coziness, and contentment.

HYGGE’s design embodies all the emotions behind the Danish lifestyle practice which is all about making choices that lead to satisfaction and happiness by finding the magic in small, everyday things. Pronounced “hoo-gah”, the defining cultural practice celebrates mindfulness and joy in tiny things like drinking a cup of hot chocolate in winter.

hygge1

“The curve comes from nature, and the straight line comes from humans. The man-made Roman column, while blending with the natural sunlight, is balanced between man-made and natural, and finally becomes a work of art between sky and ground. I hope that users who use the health kettle can find their own balance in work and life, and become themselves,” explains Lee.

hygge2

The kettle’s top is designed to create an interactive experience with the product, a kind of communication between designers and users across time and space. The best part is that this method avoids the situation where your hands are scalded by steam! The sleek aesthetics help it perfectly stay on your counter or table, unlike the outdated plastic ones that we all hide too often in your cabinets. HYGGE lets you enjoy the simple practice of boiling water in an electric kettle and adds elegance to the otherwise mundane task – it elevates the experience of brewing and drinking tea into a cozier, beautiful moment!

Designer: SeungHyun Lee

Award-winning ‘Inclusive Kettle’ allows the disabled and impaired to easily brew tea

Posted on 13/07/2021 by Sarang Sheth

It’s difficult to shake the fact that products that have existed for centuries can sometimes be prime examples of non-inclusive design. Stairs are a notorious example – they’ve existed for centuries, but are an accessibility nightmare for people in wheelchairs. The humble kettle is yet another specimen… It’s been around for practically 5000 years, and is a visual icon with its short stout body, handle on one end, and spout on the other. However, ask any disabled or visually impaired person, or someone with reduced strength or dexterity and they’ll tell you how cumbersome the product’s design can be. The handle on one end means you need a fair amount of wrist strength to hold a kettle upright without it tipping over, and pouring the hot liquid into a small cup can be very challenging for people with physical or visual impairments. Nick Fitzpatrick’s ‘Inclusivitea’ hopes to change that.

A winner of the Lakeland Design Award, the Inclusivitea reimagines the quintessential kettle shape, allowing it to be easily carried and used with little effort. Styled almost like a pour-over coffee maker with handles on either side, the kettle comes with its own stand that lets you brew and then directly dispense tea into your container.

The Inclusivitea kettle highlights the two biggest problem areas when it comes to using a kettle – the filling and the pouring. The redesigned kettle comes with two handlebar-shaped arms that let you easily carry it to fill it up with water. Dock it in the stand and plug the kettle into a power outlet and it begins brewing your tea. Once your tea’s ready, simply put the cup in its dedicated zone right under the kettle and press the main button that both filters the tea and dispenses it right into the cup. The dispensing stops once you release the button, completely eliminating any chances of over-filling your cup and/or spilling tea all over the place.

Each Inclusivitea tea-set comes with the kettle and stand, but also with an assortment of containers housing everything from sugar cubes to tea bags, spices, and even a small dairy creamer jug. The easy-to-hold kettle is also accompanied by a tiny cup with an extended rim instead of a handle. Made so you can grip it by its rim comfortably (rather than with your finger through a small handle), the cup even has a small cutout in the extended rim from which to sip through.

Designer: Nick Fitzpatrick

This smart kettle is an upgrade your kitchen REALLY needs!

Posted on 28/06/2021 by Ruchi Thukral

That plastic kettle sitting on our kitchen counter probably looks like something from a time capsule compared to all the other appliances that have gotten design makeovers. Finally, it is the kettle’s turn and the B POINT shows it all off. It features a touch interface that instantly gets the appliance up to speed with others and lets the user form a more organic connection with it. The circular display has two rings – the outer ring shows the temperature and the inner ring shows the water level inside. Countdown starts after setting the water temperature and will beep once its ready!

The choice of CMF really elevates the simple appliance into an aesthetic product that you can display proudly on your kitchen counter. The minimal form has metal and wooden details that are evergreen as well as work with all interior settings. The body has a linear shape that is well complemented with the oblong ring that connects the handle which looks like it is almost floating. B POINT is possibly one of the most beautiful kettle designs we’ve seen.

Designer: Andrew Chang

From blending to steaming, this Dieter Rams-inspired modular kitchen appliance does 6 unique functions!

Posted on 09/12/2020 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Kitchen appliances can quickly turn into collections of bulky hardware and tangles of wire if we’re not careful. Blenders, toasters, kettles, and steamers – the wish list is endless and there’s always a new kitchen tool that could be added to our carts, and then when it comes time to organize, forget about it. Modular kitchenware designs come in handy when we feel that we’ve reached our limits…or storage capacities. Finding inspiration in the design language of Dieter Rams’ Braun collection, ChenKai Zhang created renderings for a modular kitchenware concept that’s as familiar and practical as the iconic Braun appliance.

Zhang recognized several strong points in Braun’s design language, including its timelessness, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and approachability. Zhang hoped to achieve a similar timeless feel for his modular kitchenware concept by attributing like-minded color schemes and construction materials to his product design. The clean coupling of stainless steel accents with a colorful coating of ABS plastic is reminiscent of Braun products and carries with it a sense of familiarity. With this combination of fresh, sleek display and a trusted construction process, Zhang developed his own interpretation of Braun’s approachable and timeless appeal. Zhang essentially universalized Rams’ mechanical design language to offset and charge one base component so that it can then provide power for other attachable kitchen appliances such as juicers, electric kettles, and blenders. Inside the base component, gear buckles, motors, and conductors all work together to either provide heating or power for the two mixing blades to run. The base component consists of a high-speed motor and a heating component to which users can attach and utilize most kitchen appliances. In order to take up less space in the kitchen, Zhang ensured that all of the kitchen modules were the right size to stack onto one another. Zhang also redesigned the spout for modules containing liquid by both flattening it, offering slower pours, and lengthening it for easy pickup.

An integrated interface of two aluminum switches, located on the design’s electric base component, gives users the option to either use a high-speed motor or a heater. Once decided, additional modular components can then be attached to the base component to prepare food items according to the chosen mechanism. In addition to the three modules mentioned, Zhang designed frying pan, steamer, and breakfast pot modules to attach to the base component for other options. The product design’s efficiency is attained through Zhang’s commitment to practicality above all else. This practical approach to design is shown through the modular kitchenware’s conceptualization phase. Moving through three generations of products, Zhang ultimately designed a modular tool for the kitchen that allows users to choose between six different functioning cooking appliances.

Designer: ChenKai Zhang

This humidifier-heater appliance will keep you healthy and warm all year round

Posted on 10/06/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

We have all been here – you are sick, you have chills so you turn up the heat but that makes your room dry, meanwhile, your tea gets cold and you are too tired to go heat it up for the fourth time. And if you are anything like me you have probably tried to warm your tea in front of the heater but obviously failed. That is exactly when we need a product like Heattle – a heater and humidifier in one that uses the simple mechanism of a kettle. Now you see why the reheating-my-tea part was important?

Heaters usually make the air in any room dry and arid which can cause dry eyes, sore throat, and colds – not the best when you are sick, getting chills and all you want to do is feel the warmth. Heattle creates a balance by maintaining the humidity in the air at a recommended 40-60% which is healthier for you and also keeps the room warm for a longer period of time thus saving energy (we all know how the electric bill shoots up in winter)! The inspiration for its form was the visual of a warm kettle on a cold winter day and Heattle manages to radiate that exact emotion through its design. It not only heats the room but also creates an emotional connect to the product itself.

The three settings of Heattle are Warming, Heating, and Humidify. Warm keeps your room warm without the hot wind. Heating adopts a high-efficiency PTC ceramic wire which lets it heat much faster without any pre-heating time. It also reduces the dryness because it heats the cold air without burning oxygen. Humidify provides heated humidification without any bacterial concerns. The dial on the top of Heattle lets you set the temperature and pick your desired setting. The most intuitive and homely part of this design is the kettle water storage for the humidifier, it makes refilling and changing the water convenient and I am curious to know if I can just use it for tea too!

Designer: Dongje Park

This kettle-inspired dehumidifier solves the tedious process of emptying water

Posted on 07/04/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

Our home appliances are getting more efficient by the day. To stand out in the competitive market, any appliance has to be either be a multifunctional product or be a portable version of its predecessors – and if you have them both in one product, you have a winning design. That is exactly what makes the Humi Pot a product design concept set for success because it combines the best parts of a dehumidifier with an electric kettle.

An appliance is universally loved when it is easily usable which means the fewer steps or behavioral changes it takes, the faster it will become essential in our lives. That is the idealogy the Humi Pot functions on as well, it took the simple inherent gesture of tilting the kettle to pour and applied it to how we use a dehumidifier. The action and function of the two appliances were then mechanically merged to give us a dehumidifier that is inspired by the functional form of a kettle. This solves one of the most cumbersome things about using a dehumidifier – the emptying of the water which now becomes a one-step process. So to empty the water in the Humi Pot, you simply pour the collected water out by slightly tilting the appliance. Cleaning is easy too, just detach the top part and rinse the container like you would with a kettle. Unlike the traditional dehumidifiers, this does not require multiple steps to separate the product parts and put them all back. It is also is very convenient for elderly living without assistance.

Since it is portable, you can set it anywhere you like and it doesn’t have to be tied down to a plug point on the wall. The cheery ergonomic build will brighten up your space up instantly unlike the dull, bulky traditional ones. The Humi Pot serves as a modern dehumidifier while saving space and time because of its smaller, more portable form and the elimination of steps that saves time.

Designer: Seongmin Kwon

The best gifts for coffee geeks

Posted on 13/11/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

There are two types of coffee drinkers: people who drink coffee and people who are obsessed with coffee. I fall into the latter category. A few years ago I became friends with a couple roasters while living in Savannah, Georgia and I've never looked...

Molo’s floating glass tea-brewer is a fusion of culture and future

Posted on 02/08/2019 by Sarang Sheth

Taking tradition and turning it into something contemporary, the Molo Float Tea Lantern is an absolute design delight. With a thin borosilicate glass construction and double walls, the tea-brewing kit almost makes the liquid look like it’s levitating in mid air, as the glass, as the images show, is hardly visible, given how thin its cross section is. Master glassblowers in the Czech Republic handcraft each piece from the finest German borosilicate glass, keeping the tea-kit unbelievably thin, while allowing it to hold incredibly hot or cold liquids without cracking.

Molo’s Float Tea Lantern presents an absolutely new way of brewing and consuming tea that’s still steeped in tradition. The brewer features a double-wall construction, with enough space below the inner vessel for a tea-light candle to help keep your brew warm. A perforated glass chamber sits atop the ‘kettle’, allowing you to brew green tea as it filters through into the kettle, being heated to consumption temperature by the candle. The double-wall construction proves handy here, allowing you to lift and serve the vessel without feeling its heat, as the outer wall stays conveniently insulated against high temperatures thanks to a constriction in the middle of the kettle’s design. The miniature glasses come with a double-walled construction too, allowing you to sip your tea at leisure, without worrying about your fingers burning from holding a cup full of hot tea! The Float Tea Lantern even comes in a frosted version, blurring the crisp lines of the kettle and cup’s inner walls, creating a sense of steam or frost, and even arousing one’s curiosity!

Designers: Stephanie Forsythe & Todd MacAllen for Molo.

Darth Vader Helmet Tea Kettle: I’m a Little Teapot Tall and Evil

Posted on 09/04/2019 by Shane McGlaun

Do you think Darth Vader sat in his round ball thing drinking tea at the end of a long, tough day of blowing up planets and force choking people? If he did this would be the kettle Lord Vader would use. This kettle will make hot water to get your favorite beverage going, be it coffee, hot chocolate, or tea.

The kettle looks like Vader’s iconic dark helmet and has a lightsaber for its handle. It’s made from 80% aluminum, 20% stainless steel, and 100% evil. It holds 1.7 liters of fluid, and is hand-wash only, just like Vader himself.

ThinkGeek will sell you a Darth Vader tea kettle for $39.99, and it is available now. It’s too bad the kettle whistles like a normal kettle rather than making the deep breathing sound Vader makes.

Heatworks’ Duo carafe is instant kettle meets stylish Brita

Posted on 07/01/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

We're all thinking it: Waiting for the kettle to boil is so 2018. But that hot minute of idly poking Insta while you await your coffee fix could be eliminated if Heatworks has anything to say about it. The company has created Duo, a "carafe" that hea...

GIZMODO.cz

Syndicated rss news

Tag Archives: Kettle