The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2023–2024
Franke Mytico: a full-auto espresso machine dressed as the Italian classic — iF Gold 2024
Franke hired Italian studio EMO design to disguise its full-auto coffee machine as the classic espresso icon; the Mytico line won iF Design Award 2024 Gold.
Franke Coffee Systems
What it had to solve
Franke Coffee Systems (Aarburg, Switzerland) sells professional fully automatic coffee machines whose engineering and speed won offices and hotels — but the look read as office appliance, not café craft. To enter specialty cafés, where the premium growth sits, Franke commissioned the Italian studio EMO design (Vittorio Veneto).
How it works
Franke Coffee Systems (Aarburg, Switzerland) is a leading maker of professional fully automatic coffee machines. Its engineering and speed won offices, hotels and airports — but visually the machines read as office appliances. The specialty café segment, where the premium growth sits, revolves around the ritual of the traditional Italian espresso machine: the portafilter, the barista's theater, the eye contact across the counter. Franke's technology could not be argued into that culture through specification sheets.
Franke's answer was to commission the Italian studio EMO design, led by Francesco Fornasier in Vittorio Veneto, to redesign the line. The conceptual move: don't make the machine more futuristic, dress it as the classic Italian espresso machine. The Mytico pairs a portafilter-shaped spout, slanted feet and exposed industrial-look screws with a deliberately low height so the barista stays in the customer's sightline. The brief, as CEO Marco Zancolò put it, was a machine 'that celebrates the craft of traditional coffee making without requiring extensive training.'
The line won the iF Design Award 2024 Gold in Product Design — one of just 75 Golds among almost 11,000 entries from 72 countries. The jury statement praised its 'outstanding material authenticity and modularity' and the seamless fusion of the iconic Italian form with the technology and speed of a fully automatic machine. The Gold was the first in Franke Coffee Systems' history and the line's fifth major award, following the 2023 Good Design Award, MICE Product Innovation Award, HostMilano Smart Label and German Design Award.
Why it lands
- The Gold jury cited 'material authenticity and modularity': exposed screws and honest materials gave judges craft they could touch, not a feature list to compare.
- The disguise did the segment work — specialty cafés read heritage, not office tech, so the machine could step into the espresso ritual instead of interrupting it.
- The low height is the hidden trick: spout and barista's face stay in the customer's sightline, preserving the café exchange that full-auto machines usually erase.
- Craft without training was the brief — the design stages the ritual but asks nothing of the operator, widening the pool of cafés that can serve it well.
What it did
The Mytico line won the iF Design Award 2024 Gold in Product Design — one of 75 Golds among almost 11,000 entries from 72 countries (0.7 per cent of entries). The jury cited its 'outstanding material authenticity and modularity'; CEO Marco Zancolò called it the company's first Gold. It was the line's fifth major award, after Good Design 2023, MICE Product Innovation 2023, HostMilano Smart Label and German Design Award 2023.
What you can take
To enter a ritual-driven market, borrow the ritual's icon: a portafilter-shaped spout and honest industrial screws let aesthetics sell what spec sheets could not.
Since then
The Gold was Franke Coffee Systems' first and the line's fifth major award, and the trade press amplified it as proof that a full-auto machine could carry the Italian espresso heritage. Franke kept the 'BeyondTraditional' framing at the center of Mytico's identity; its cues — ritual aesthetics over appliance logic, craft show without training — became the calling card into the specialty café market the redesign was built to enter. For the design world it stayed a rare case of a literal disguise, a modern machine wearing an icon's face, winning the top prize instead of being read as pastiche.
Sources
- Franke Mytico — iF Design Award 2024 Gold (project page)
- Franke Mytico wins iF Design Award 2024 Gold
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