Metaté
"Make your morning meaningful."
An ancient tool for a modern rise and grind.
What
Metaté references an ancient grinding tool, redesigned for modern mornings. As technology fills and simplifies our routines, Metaté seeks to help bring a healthy balance to the mix.
Who
Metaté is for humans seeking something real. We crave meaning, and are currently starved for it. All around us digital interfaces mask real experiences. They make us feel good in the moment but lack actual interaction.
Why
Rather than immerse ourselves in social media or the news, take some time for yourself in the morning. Metaté gives us a way to work with our hands, clearing the fog of sleep and getting us ready for the day ahead. You grind your beans. You smell their fragrance and notice subtle notes listed on the bag. When you drink it, it tastes better because you’ve worked for it.
How
Metaté uses the ancient grinding technique used by indigenous peoples of the Southwest. By rolling the crisp roasted coffee beans between the rough textures of a hand held stone, and the sloped base, the coffee begins to quickly break into fine pieces. Once ground to preference, the beans are poured into the coffee making device of choice.
The manual process give you a stronger and fresher taste by balancing the extraction of oils from the coffee beans.
15 min
Use
There is not shortcut, no mechanism, no batteries, no instructions. It is you, two stones, some beans, and the best damn coffee you’ve ever tasted. You made this coffee. It's real, and your efforts endue your every sip with meaning.
Presence
We exercise our bodies, our minds should be no different. For meaningful mornings, embrace effort.
Metaté
Design Details
Staying true to the most meaningful design meant keeping everything simple, from the look to the function to the manufacturing.
03 04 05 06 09 07
03 Carved | 04 Pressed | 05 Scooped | 06 Slab cut | 09 Press mold | 07 Slab cut
Not everything made it.
Final Design
Sturdy base, gentle slope, strong wall thicknesses. Small enough to fit in a small apartment, large enough to make one cup of coffee. Sustainable & made in the USA.
The bowl on the metaté is sized for a single serving of coffee - about 16oz. The stone is asymmetrical and encourages multiple ergonomic positions.
Metate grips the counter top surface with an adhered cork underside.
Process
Making it
The goal was to find a method that worked best for getting a good Metaté result, over and over again. Of all the variations, the simple press mold yielded the best quality with the fewest touch points. After being in the mold a few hours, the clay body shrinks, allowing for 0 degree draft removal. The body is then finished by hand, adding chamfers and smoothing surfaces with rasps. Once the piece is 'bone dry' it is bisque fired at 1840, then high fired at cone ten, 2381. Cutting out the cork pad base is simple using a template, and placing it with industrial adhesive. Matatés are rinsed and scrubbed of dust. Click images for descriptions.
Figuring Out
Scanned spreads showing design details and decisions from kiln notes to presentation formats. Part of doing a 'simple' product design like Metaté meant having the details figured out. Keeping all these ideas in an accessible, editable, form was key to flexibility and adaptation throughout the process.
Click images to expand >
Building 'Metaté' and assembling the pieces. Lots of testing, trying and refining to find the best shape for the grinding process. Working with clay was an enjoyable experience because it could be sculpted immediately with simple tools. For example, if you wanted to see what an edge would look like with a radius, you could use a damp sponge to smooth the corners down.
Click images to expand >
Construction
The final rough mockup for 'Metaté'. Foam body, small enough to fit in the hand, large enough to fit a coffee cup's worth of beans. Used to grind beans, and as a reference point for the next round of even more functional ceramic mockups.
Click images to expand >
Form Direction
Final Concepts
Coffee grinding sketches for including as much meaning as possible into a morning routine. The iso grid helps explore families and the storyboard helps communicate the purpose, inspirations and background to the project.
Click images to expand >
Before arriving at the classic metaté form, I had been exploring various ways to grind coffee by hand. Ideally the method would include some rhythm but as I found asymmetrical motions were not as enjoyable as symmetrical ones. Both hands should be equally engaged. The fire-starter motion of rubbing both hands back and forth with the grinder in between felt really cool at first, but was too tiring overall. Exploring the different grinding flows helped refine direction.
Click images to expand >
Grinding Tests
Round 7 Concepts
Top three final concepts around more 'meaning' at home. "Ritual", shown below, is the one that became Metaté. I was drawn to the potential of offering a low tech solution to assist people getting out of the habit of "smashing a device in their face" first thing in the morning.
Click an image to expand >
Round 6 Concepts
6 concepts looking to add more 'meaning' at home. I really enjoyed the mix of high tech internals and low tech exteriors on some of these.
Click an image to expand >
Round 5 Concepts
6 additional concepts for design and meaning. My favorite this round was the Roller Chair concept - designed for people working from home who need to stretch from time to time.
Click an image to expand >
Round 4 Concepts
6 additional pages around more 'meaning' at home. This round was fun because the imagery behind really helped communicate the concepts.
Click an image to expand >
Round 3 Concepts
6 ideas that take place in the near future. These designs all stemmed from big brainstorm sessions where trends and tech were being referenced to make concepts for hypotheticals.
Click an image to expand>
Round 2 Concepts
These 6 concepts are an exploration common tiny home issues. I actually really liked all of these and would love to revisit them again someday.
Click an image to expand >
Initial Concepts
30 Initial Concepts around "Design and Meaning" - they range all over the place but generally try to incorporate delightful features and healthier outcomes.
Click image to expand >
Thank you.
Grateful to all the classmates in DSID 134 and our Professor John McClusky for making the class so engaging and meaningful.
