adminTell us a little bit more about yourself
My name is Karen Zaayman and I am from Potchefstroom in South Africa. I am currently working as a part-time Pharmacist while pursuing various passions of mine. My husband and I have our own recording studio at home where we write, and record, and produce our own music on YouTube. Currently, we are busy with lots of creative projects and we love to learn new skills.
How did your collaboration with Dr Arabica and Claytan® start?
When Claytan® approached me for a design concept for their new ceramic series, I was immediately intrigued, as I am a coffee lover myself.
Our town has a vibrant coffee community that serves exceptional good coffee, and it is one of our favorite things to do, is to go to coffee shops and try out new coffees. At home, my husband and I grind our own beans, so we love good coffee.
So, this project was a dead giveaway to me to except because we love coffee, and I was intrigued to design something that is beautiful and considers all the technical aspects of making a good cup of coffee.
Can you tell us more about these design elements that you incorporated?
Firstly, I paid attention to the shape of the cup. Traditional cups are round-shaped, so I wanted to play around with designing an oval-shaped cup with slight angles. This allows for a perfect curve to form between your lips and the base of the cup. As you view the cup from the side, it has irregular slopes on both ends and this allows for perfect pouring, and perfect rotation when pouring into the cup.
When considering the colors of the cups, I wanted it to be bold and vibrant. Nudes and pastels are popular trends all over the world. But I specifically felt that these cups should stand out. As you can see these colors are warm yet decisive – and it will surely be the X-factor on your shelve and not the safe choice.
A very important and I would say underrated element I took time to consider in my design was the handle of the cup. Okay, so the handle connects you to your cup and it also determines for how long you can actually hold on to your cup. So, I therefore incorporated an ergonomic structure when designing the cup, so this ensures a very comfortable fit when you’re holding your cup of coffee.
This was such a fun project to work on and I just feel so privileged for this opportunity. So, thank you Claytan® and Dr. Arabica, it was amazing working with you! And I cannot wait to drink lots and lots of coffee in these wonderful cups. So, thank you for asking me to join you, and working with you, it was an honor and a privilege. Thank You!