06 · Spatial · Produced · 2006
Nespresso POS
One counter language extended into a family of coffee point-of-sale units, produced for retail floors and events.
- Discipline
- Spatial
- Status
- Produced
- Year
- 2006
- Materials
Dark laminated bodyConfirmed
Illuminated logo panelConfirmed
Brass-toned plinthConfirmed
Tubular steel rail and wheelsConfirmed
The question
How does one counter become a family?
A point-of-sale unit has to hold machines, cups, capsules and a person serving, and still read as a single clear volume from across a room. The work starts from one body proportion and one lit panel, then asks what has to change for a different setting.
Three units came out of it: a compact counter, the same counter with a raised information backwall for a retail floor, and a wheeled cart for tastings and events where nothing is fixed to the building. All three were built and put into use.
Retail conditions
Built for a floor that never stops.
Retail furniture is handled all day by people who did not choose it: cups land on it, capsules are restocked mid-service, cleaning happens fast. The dark laminated body was specified for exactly that — it takes contact and cleaning without showing every day of use.
The brass-toned plinth lifts the body off the floor so the unit reads as an object rather than joinery, and keeps mops and shoes away from the visible surface. The lit panel is recessed into the body, so nothing protrudes into a busy aisle.
The family
- Counter
- A closed dark body with a recessed lit panel and a brass-toned plinth lifting it off the floor.
- Counter with backwall
- The same body with a raised panel carrying information behind the machines.
- Serving cart
- A narrower body on four wheels with a curved rail, open shelves and trays for tasting cups.
- Shared language
- One panel proportion, one plinth line and one machine shelf height across all three.
- In use
- Built and deployed for retail floors and events, with the cart used for tastings.
Thinking
A retail object is read from six metres before it is ever used from half a metre.
Studies and details
Closing note
The family was built and put into service: the counter, the counter with its information backwall, and the cart that travels to tastings.