Anza Studios
Brand Strategy · Content Direction · Art Direction · Photography
The Client:
Anza Coffee (now Anza Studios) began as a Kickstarter in 2017, born out of a group of designers who shared a studio with an espresso machine company and decided the category needed more personality.
More of a statement object than an appliance.
They started experimenting with materials and finishes, and the concrete espresso machine was born — initially in concrete and in white Corian. The Kickstarter raised more than they anticipated, and the machines started shipping. They now sell globally, with machines in homes across the world.
I have worked Anza across two distinct chapters. Each requiring a different kind of thinking.
Chapter One
Building brand from the ground up
In 2020, Anza had just come through its Kickstarter moment with a product, an Instagram account, and very little else.
No clear brand voice, no visual language, no real sense of who it was for or where it wanted to go. It existed, but it didn't yet mean anything.
Strategy:
World Building
The priority in 2020 was simple: give the brand a reason to exist in someone's feed.
That meant developing a consistent visual language, building content that communicated both the product and the world around it, and growing a community that actually cared.
Alongside creating and directing content in-house, I began reaching out to influencers and sending machines in exchange for organic coverage, seeding the product into the right hands rather than advertising it.
Chapter Two
New Product Launch
In 2023, the brand was in a different position but facing an equally defining moment.
They were ready to move into a new creative space, attract a new audience, and launch an updated version of their original machine.
A significant product milestone that needed to land with confidence and clarity.
Strategic Thinking
Growing Community
Who is the Anza customer now?
Finding an aspirational community of designers, architects, and creatives who could act as proof points for the lifestyle the brand represented.
Reaching out to influencers and sending machines in exchange for organic coverage — seeding the product into the right hands rather than advertising it.
Product Placement
Becoming the Aesop of Coffee machines. Be synonymous with curated kitchen spaces.
Beyond influencers and customer base making sure we were featured in established and respected places and media from magazines, retail, collaborations, design events and film and TV sets.
New Launch
Building enough trust and desire around a product that most people couldn't yet hold in their hands on.
Audience insight that shaped everything and the Anza's customer isn't a coffee obsessive.
They're someone stepping up from a basic machine, curious but potentially intimidated. Every creative decision had to make the product feel approachable and exciting, not technical and exclusive.
The Roll-Out
I worked closely with the designers on naming, positioning, and deciding which accessories would best accompany the new machine.
With only one prototype available in London, we built a video series around it. The designer and I talked through the new features and why they mattered, the machine being used in real conditions, the process being documented honestly.
This became the backbone of the website and gave potential customers something to watch, understand, and trust.
Alongside that, we got production line imagery and behind-the-scenes content from the team making the machines — putting real faces and hands to what was being built. The human element was intentional.
Making noise in the design space
Anza secured a retail deal with GoodHood, an article and interview with Dwell Magazine, appeared in a few TV shows and Movies (my favourite appearance featured below).
Hinter, a cabin company in Canada, who placed the machine in their spaces for guests to use.
Hinter Cabins
Mr & Mrs Smith (amazon prime)
Dwell Magazine (click for interview)
GoodHood London
Milan Design Week 2026
The trajectory that started with Kickstarter in 2020 culminated this year with Anza exhibiting at Milan Design Week, one of the most significant stages in the design world — a moment that reflects exactly where the brand has positioned itself and the audience it has built.
It was so great exhibiting and having other designers and creatives in the space come up to us and say they had been following us, seen us on socials and getting a chance to chat about the machine and brand with them was priceless.
Getting the community involved
When a second machine became available we ran a pop-up in London, inviting influencers, collaborators, and strangers off the street to try it firsthand.
The goal was proof that the machine was real, that it worked, that anyone could use it.
The video content from that event generated significant interest and a strong wave of preorder enquiries.
Content In the Wild
