Alchemy Coffee Co.
The Alchemy Coffee set is all about ritual; from running your fingers across the lid of the handmade wormy maple box, to neatly arranging all the components on the leather lined serving tray, to grinding and brewing the perfect beans, to spinning the ceramic cups and watching the morning light reflect off the facets as you contemplate life. It's all black because we wanted something that would match our v-necks. Throughout the project the goal was to emphasize craftsmanship. Whether it was machine-made or handmade, we wanted the level of detail and quality of execution to be apparent. Leveraging the appropriate process for each element and seamlessly combining them; 3d printed ceramics, laser engraved illustration and branding elements, hand tooled and dyed leather, handmade wormy maple parts and CNC'd leather embossing stamps. We were intrigued by the concept that craftsmanship is not limited to things made by hand; perfectly forming a bezier curve on a tablet or modelling a nice facet in CAD, can be just as valid and beautiful as hand carving a wooden spoon. Alchemy Coffee Co was a self directed collaborative side project between industrial designer Mark Simmons and graphic designer and letterer Ben Johnston. Like all our side projects, we used it as an opportunity to test out new styles, techniques, materials and processes. We see side projects as an unrestricted and risk free way to try things that we can hopefully apply later on in our client work. Photography by: www.stuartmcconnell.ca
