Coffee time is a ritual: every morning, same process, a strong taste and a warm feeling. As every ritual, it initiates a 'letting go' moment, the kind of moment that unleashes your creativity and makes ideas happen.
I've always been fascinated by the purity of the Creative Cloud logo. It's soft, balanced and it's the entry point to my creative apps. So one morning, as I was drinking a Guatemalan coffee, I got this idea of designing a Creative Cloud coffee cup. I'm not a object designer, but in today's world, you can reinvent yourself. Here is the story of this project:
The Creative Cloud espresso cup in action
Sketch on iPad
It started with a simple sketch on an iPad. The coffee would reside on the main circle of the logo. The other one is left empty to welcome a spoon and a sugar stick. It's also a clever way to create a cold handle so that you don't risk to burn your fingers when grabbing the cup.
3D model in Photoshop CC
Once the 3D model created, we played with it in Photoshop CC to render some professional visual graphics.
This is the final 3D model rendered in the browser with SketchFab (directly from Photoshop CC):
3D printing - plastic prototype
To print a prototype, we visited a FabShop in Paris. It's a temporary space where you can borrow a MakerBot 3D printer and print prototypes. This is the time-lapse of our first prototype:
The plastic prototype helped us to fine-tune the ergonomics of the cup and its dimensions. At that point, we were ready to start producing a white ceramic cup. To do so, we used Photoshop CC to prepare the model for Shapeways.com, an online 3D printing service. A few weeks later, we received the cup and we were amazed by the result.
White ceramic final cup
The espresso cup is beautiful. Designing objects is magical, although it's very different from designing for the web. You have to make decisions on tons of details: dimensions, material, how to bevel the edges, how to separates the two holes... but holding an object you designed is very gratifying !!!
Thanks to 3D printing, we are all potential object designers. The Creative Cloud applications associated with Shapeways.com dramatically eases your creative process if you plan to jump in this new world.
Feel free to post a comment if you have any question.
NEW ! You can order your Creative Cloud Espresso Cup
You can order the cup, the saucer and the stirrer on Sculpteo. They will be 3D-printed in white ceramic and shipped to your place after 2 to 3 weeks. Here is the link to the objects:
