What in the world is going on with small appliances? We need a coffee maker for the store, and one for home too and it turns out our two favourite coffee makers–both unavailable in Canada–seem to be extinct in America too.

Jasper Morrison for Rowenta. We bought this one for the cottage, and desperately wanted to sell it at mjölk, but Rowenta Canada and US refused to accommodate us. Now even the MOMA no longer carries it, which tells me it’s on its way out. What a shame. Beautiful to look at, simple and clean, and easy to use–it even has a scoop and a place to put filters in the top.

BRAUN Then – we were reminded of BRAUN’s awesomeness while watching Objectified the other night.

What the what the? BRAUN Now. How does a company go from the slick white coffee maker above to this thing? I don’t need an aerodynamic EVERYTHING.

Remember your dad’s electric shaver? Simple, elegant, easy on the eyes.

BRAUN 1970s electric shaver

BRAUN 2009 electric shaver

I went looking for a shaver for John, and the simplest I could find was the one above. The designs today give me a headache. Flashy and silly, and often er, perverted (remember that crazy commercial where the cream comes out of the top? Geeze louise, give me a break). As a side note, we sold out of those Hantverk concrete shavings kits before Christmas. Could this mean a resurgence in analog?

Anyway, I digressed with the shaving, but are we alone in wondering what happened to well-designed small appliances? Is there not a market for it in North America? Are we all really THAT into stainless steel mixed with random colour, aerodynamics and mega-sizing? Sigh.

If anyone sees the above coffee makers for sale somewhere (besides ebay), please do let us know!!!

Any suggestions for worthy replacements?

Some parting notes (via Objectified):

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

Copyright Dieter Rams, amended March 2003 and October 2009.