Have you ever tried to change the world? Too big of a question for most people to answer, at least until you narrow it down. For Douglas Weber of @weberworkshops, that niche is coffee. A former @Apple engineer, what Douglas excels in above all else is his ability to incorporate advanced engineering into a minimalist design. He held a strong curiosity for mechanisms from an early age and was obsessed with disassembling all kinds of machines that lay around his father’s garage to learn how they worked. He also developed a love for numerous Japanese subcultures, going on to study abroad in Fukuoka while in college. He considered working for a Japanese company for a while but joined Apple in the Steve Jobs years instead. “My first big project was in the development of the iPod nano,” he explains. “The first generation had an LCD that was prone to cracking, so I developed the second generation so that it could withstand the weight of a car without cracking.” Although he’s moved on from his time at Apple, Douglas’ products undeniably spark that same wave of inspiration that comes with holding an Apple product in one’s hand. I especially felt this with a cup of coffee that he brewed in front of me. He brews like he’s dancing through the movements of a tea ceremony. The design of his machines extends far beyond the way that they look, even the sounds they make is carefully considered, you can feel a design philosophy throughout. Douglas’ strength is that he has no preconceived notions. He is reexamining coffee culture from a flat perspective and is fundamentally changing what has been taken for granted in the industry. It’s not a world that I’m particularly familiar with, but even a glance through the products presented at @weberworkshops gives you the distinct impression that he’s doing things that have never been done before. “Existing coffee products have hardly evolved in the last century, so they require the skilled operation of professionals. I wanted to redesign the process from the ground up, so you could brew good coffee repeatedly without professional level skills.” Photos by @tomazawa Words by @shogojimbo (@drivethru.jp) Part 1/2