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Miller does this by putting the people who will use his During the interview, Miller shared that he is inspired
coffee ware front and center during design decisions. “First by brands like Nike, Dyson and Braun. And although sports
and foremost, understand your user and the specific problem gear, vacuum cleaners, and shavers may seem unlikely
you want to solve through your design,” he explained. muses for coffee ware, these brands seem to share an ethos
“During the design process create as many designs as with Miller and his team, of respecting both function and
you possibly can and then show as many users as you form in everyday items so people find using them a joy.
possibly can! User feedback is the key to launching some- Miller has been influenced most by Dieter Rams, the
thing your users will love and actually want to buy.” German industrial designer behind Braun and Vitsœ
Miller has built a strong team to help him create “long-living furniture”. (Rams developed a famous shelving
approachable, useful and inclusive pieces. He recruited system for Vitsœ that can be added to and adapted over a
Jessa Strayer to join Fellow, a senior designer from Apple, lifetime and move with people from home to home.) Fifty
the iconic brand with the reputation for making intuitive years ago, he created what has been affectionately coined,
devices and software. Last year, Fellow announced two the ‘Ten Commandments of Design’. In a 2015 interview
new recruits who specialize in the rare combination of with Fast Company Rams summarized them like this:
coffee expertise and engineering: Jeremy Kuempel and “Good design is innovative. Good design must be
Tom Carlson. They had previously worked with Miller as useful. Good design is aesthetic design. Good design makes
consultants on an early Fellow product, an AeroPress at- a product understandable. Good design is honest. Good
tachment called the Prismo. design is unobtrusive. Good design is long-lasting. Good
design is consistent in every detail. Good design is envi-
The Coffee Ware in Question ronmentally friendly. And last but not least, good design
is as little design as possible.”
So what are these fancy things Miller is introducing No surprises our “lifelong coffee lover” and function-
into the homes of style conscious coffee fans? Fellow make al design fan Jake Miller has applied these golden rules to
pieces like immersion brewers, pour over drippers, kettles, his coffee ware.
pitchers, canisters, and serving vessels such as mugs,
trump the traditional French press by preventing ‘gunky Q&A Which origin of coffee
glasses, and carafes. All these pieces are designed with
features that enhance their crucial function.
Fellow’s immersion brewers, for example, claim to
do you like best?
residue’ collecting in the bottom of your cup. Their pour Ethiopian coffees are my
go-to because of the fruity,
over kettles have precision spouts and weighted handles floral, and tea-like flavor notes. However, as a team we are
for steady, controlled streams. Their canisters have a vac- constantly trying coffees from incredible farms around the
uum seal to prolong the freshness of coffee beans. world. It’s so much fun to get to try a new coffee every day.
And these pieces are more than just functional but
fashionable too. Fellow’s stylish kettles have been spotted What do you do for leisure?
in the Instagram posts of the rich and famous at home, like I live in San Francisco and enjoy surfing, playing the game
Kourtney Kardashian and Amy Schumer. The discerning Pop-A-Shot, and traveling back home to Minnesota for ice
eye of a film set stylist must have taken a fancy to Fellow’s fishing season. Also, I love to travel. Thankfully because
ceramic mugs because at least one features in the series, of Fellow and the global specialty coffee industry, I’ve been
Star Trek: Discovery. Miller’s latest Fellow release is a able to see so many new countries. Asia is our second larg-
re-imagined “home grinder with cafe capabilities that re- est market, and I’ve been lucky enough to travel extensive-
duces mess and noise.” ly throughout China, South Korea, and Japan.

Don’t Design, Just to Design What coffee filter/maker do you use the most?
I use our Stagg [X] Dripper every morning. The steep in-
“Fellow was dreamed up with the spirit of never terior wall increases the height of the column of coffee
having to choose between aesthetics and functionality,” grounds which forces water to make more contact with the
Miller said. “Don’t design, just to design. Set out to solve coffee as it travels through the dripper. Also, the vacuum
a problem. Then, solve that problem in the most elegant insulated stainless steel body keeps the temperature con-
way imaginable.” stant and prevents heat loss during extraction.

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