Nespresso Lattissima: Hands-On Review

by Letizia Rossi

The Lattissima marks a successful collaboration between Nespresso and the Italian household appliance company De'Longhi. The new home espresso machine is capable of combining the perfect brew that results from Nespresso’s hermetically sealed capsule system with the perfect milk froth.

By far the easiest-to-use home espresso maker we’ve tested, the Lattissima also makes the best-tasting coffee. Besides its sturdy construction, the device also boasts more than a few features that make operation near effortless: a “one touch” fresh milk froth function for preparing a range of espresso-based beverages, an adjustable cup platform for filling coffee cups as well as latte glasses, “auto clean” automatic rinsing function and (exclusive to the chrome model) a heated upper surface for warming cups. A twin pump and heating systems allow for simultaneous coffee making and milk frothing at the same time.

Among our favorite features is the clever design that uses a simple red button to indicate water level in the overspill tray simply by floating into visibility. Renowned designer Antoine Cahen from Ateliers du Nord created the Lattissima with an emphasis on “one-of–a kind functionality and user-friendliness mirrored by its classic, modern design”.

The machine also features an automatic capsule disposal, collecting them in a removable bin. Also, we were pleased to discover an answer to one of our long-standing gripes about pod-based espresso machines—the coffee capsules are recyclable and, at around 50 cents a pop, more affordable than expected.

Available online at Sur La Table in chrome for $800 and red for $700.

Also on Cool Hunting Espresso Accessories, Coffee Classics, Coffee Innovations, and Nespresso Romeo.

Portland Fashion Week

by Tim Yu

by Valery Joseph

That Portland, Oregon, is a poster-child of green values and sustainable living is hardly news. Consistently name-checked in the media and the recipient of countless awards—most recently, the honor of "Greenest U.S. City"—the Pacific Northwest town has become the urban darling of the eco-set. So, who better to celebrate the ever-increasing union between fashion and the environment?

With its 4th annual Portland Fashion Week—the world's first sustainable fashion week taking place through today— the city is throwing its hat in the style ring, proving that eco-conscious fashion is not merely a fleeting fad. Here are some runway highlights from the week in Green:

Lara Miller
Chicago native Lara Miller's architecturally inspired pieces are studies in contrast: with the flip of a garment, each can be re-created to suit the style of the individual wearer.

Stewart Brown
Husband-and-wife duo Karen Stewart and Howard Brown fashions easygoing knitwear and accessories from luxe yet sustainable fabrics such as super-soft Mongolian cashmere.

Anna Cohen
A vintage sensibility informs this designer, whose work combines organic cotton, hemp, soy, and wool to tasteful effect.

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Bountee: Direct to Garment Printing for the People

by Mike Giles

Hailing a brief mention in one of Ami's postings a couple weeks back I decided to find out more about the web based T-shirt company Bountee. With less than a year's uptime, the company's fast becoming a top contender in the online t-shirt industry. Offering pre-designed prints in their gallery which are uploaded and voted on by the online community, as well as the option to create and sell your own designs, this two pronged approach seems to solve all the traditional problems associated with silkscreen methods. With no set up charges, a user-friendly interface and the option for single units and short-runs it seems they've mastered the art of on-demand printing. Using a “Direct to garment” printing method, in which graphics are literally printed directly onto the tees, Bountee offers unlimited numbers of colors, gradient printing and a turn around time that a traditional screenprinter would scowl at! If you like what you see at their website feel free to use the code "lovecoolhunting" at checkout for 15% off your order. To delve deeper Bountee's Steve Hunt was kind enough to answer a few questions

Who came up with the business model/idea and why?
Bountee was really born out of a couple of other t-shirt sites that I used to run. I actually studied fashion illustration back in the day and really enjoyed the freedom that t-shirt design offered, but having to squeeze design work into my spare time on evenings and weekends really didn't fit with the day job and I was gradually spending less and less time designing and more time fixing code and answering emails—basically doing day-to-day website running tasks and not enough sketching.

What I really wanted was a service that would take the hassle out of website owning and shirt printing for me while still allowing me freedom to pretty much design what and when I wanted.

I'd always been interested in on demand printing (especially as it considerably reduces overhead/outlay as a designer), but was never really impressed with the vinyl and transfer methods that some of the other, big "print on demand" websites offered. Both of my sites used the same techniques and it was a little embarrassing to be honest and I didn't really have an interest in printing mugs or mouse mats either. I had heard vague rumblings about a newer technology based on ink-jet printing, so I hooked up with a couple of friends and we starting talking around the idea of a website that pretty much ran itself and would cost nothing for the designer to get started. This beta version of Bountee is the first step along that path really...

In fact, as a designer I don't need anything to start selling t-shirts now, except for ideas and a graphics program capable of producing vector artwork. It's almost too easy now!

As for the business model, one core aspect of the site that we are proud of is our Terms and Conditions, especially our views on copyright, which have never changed since the day we sat down and started sketching stuff out. We own nothing of the designs that get sold through our website, and everything belongs to the designer.

We see a lot of sites these days paying a few hundred bucks for exclusive use of a design and basically locking the designer out of any future profit, and that kind of rankled with us. Sure we make some money off of each sale, but the key to Bountee is that the greater chance for profit from each individual sale is with the designer; the creator. And if a designer decides that he or she wants to go off and print a hundred of their designs and pimp them to their local shirt store, then who are we to stop 'em?

Our model is pretty simple really. We hope that in time we will have earned the respect and trust of the designer so that they keep using the site and to keep working with us.

Tell us a bit about your printing method (as opposed to silk screening)?

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Quantic Soul Orchestra: Tropidelico

by Evan Orensten

Don't you love it when things just happen by perfect coincidence? So I'm scratching my head, knowing I need some new music in my life, but having no idea what to get when the new Quantic Soul Orchestra album arrives through my door. We're huge fans of main-man Will Holland here at CH, and even went crate-digging with him last year for Cool Hunting Video. His latest album, released this week, is deeply inspired by his numerous record-hunting excursions across Europe and the Americas, and boils all the influences down into music he describes as tropical, funky and heavy. Tropidelico indeed.

Evocative places like San Sebastian, Marrakech and Panama City double as track names for tight, addictively toe-tapping work-outs that freely pull bits of rhythm from Afrobeat and pieces of melody from Latin American cumbia folk-dance music. American rapper J-Live lends his rhymes to the Cuban-sounding She Said What? and Noelle Scaggs' soulful vocals appear on Lead Us To The End. Things mellow significantly towrads the end for Father, which, judging by the liner notes, is a tune for Holland's own dad, who died last year. Taken as a whole, the record is both a fitting tribute and a cracking listen.

Available from Tru Thoughts Records now on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon or iTunes.

Interview with Alex Trochut

by Lost At E Minor

Deanne Cheuk name-checked him in a recent interview we did with her, so we thought we'd peek into the artistic world of Barcelona-based illustrator, Alex Trochut.

How did your assignment to illustrate the cover of Beautiful Decay magazine come about?
I was asked to do an interview for Beautiful Decay and, after that, [founder] Amir H. Fallah asked me if I wanted to do the cover for that issue, which was called "The Hyper Spectrum." So I said: Sure!

Is there a thriving creative scene there in Barcelona?
Yes, Barcelona is a very condensed and intense spot for a creative person. The city breathes design everywhere, under tough conditions though. Clients usually give no time or money, and you have to fight hard to discover that they to allow creativity to sneak into projects. It's a big mix too between the desire of people to create and the reality of the design culture in this country. It's still a bit close-minded, but step-by-step it's changing. I believe we are building a little army of high qualified designers here.

Your work is colorful and full of bold shapes and patterns. What state of mind are you generally in when creating an illustration?
Depending on which project, I'm always trying to be like an actor who has to play a role with a script, so it can turn from dark to happiness depending the mood of the work. But if you mean what is going through my mind all the time, I can say music helps me a lot to concentrate and focus on my work. Especially electronic music.

Which other illustrators do you admire for both the quality of their work and the creativity that they express?
I love the work of the American classics such as Rick Grffin, Herb Lubalin, and Milton Glasser. I'm also digging the work of Steve Harrington, Dan Funderburgh, Raza Uno, Jethro Haynes, Mario Hugo, Aaron Horkey, PMKFA, Brendan Monroe, Mars-1, Jeremy Fish, Marian Bantjes, Si Scott, SerialCut, Inocuo The Sign, and Emil Kozak.