Stefan Sagmeister - illy Art Collection

The Designer

This illy Art Collection designed by Stefan Sagmeister. Short term media like Twitter and hourly news create an impression of a world out of control, with democracy in peril, ubiquitous conflicts and an overall outlook of doom. But if we look at developments concerning the world from a long term perspective - the only sense making way - many aspects concerning humanity seem to get better. All of us live longer. Around the world, significantly fewer people suffer from abject poverty, more people live in democracies than ever before. 200 years ago 9 out of 10 people could neither read nor write, now it is just 1 out of 10.


Illy Art Collection

A passion for beauty and well-made objects, a deep admiration for contemporary art , and our blend’s exceptional quality all led us to combine coffee’s sensory pleasure with the aesthetic pleasure of art by rethinking an everyday object: the coffee cup.

This is how the illy Art Collections are born: small works of art in the form of a cup, numbered and signed, transforming the act of drinking an espresso into an experience that involves the senses and mind.