Making More with Less
Building on KitchenAid’s 100 year legacy of elevating domestic making
By Matt Geiger, Franklin Guttman, Alex Heyison, and Maddy Sides
This piece is Part 2 of 2. To learn more about this project, read Part 1:
“KitchenAid’s 100 year recipe for durable design.”
In our initial exploration, our design team found that the KitchenAid stand mixer is truly designed to last. It promises decades of reliable use. The mixer is upgradeable through its proprietary “Power Hub.” This accessory port has remained the same since the original K-series was released in 1937.
With this feature, users can forgo single-purpose kitchen gadgets and instead opt for mixer attachments that save space, require fewer materials, and are built with the promise of KitchenAid quality.
In analyzing the stand mixer, we found that its durability has created a conundrum for the brand. Every retail purchase must compete with a growing inventory of used KitchenAid mixers. In response, KitchenAid now offers mostly superficial improvements to the mixer, such as exclusive “color of the year” options and other cosmetic features.
Our team proposes an alternative: expanding the role of the KitchenAid beyond food preparation. We believe that the durable motor inside this legendary product can be used in new and exciting ways that complement, rather than detract from, the product’s original mixing function.
Design Principles
In addition to following KitchenAid’s visual language, we decided to adhere to two key principles that have guided KitchenAid’s attachments thus far.
1. It looks “at home” no matter what it’s doing
For example, by utilizing the same shape and style as the original mixing bowl, the ice cream maker attachment looks right at home. Likewise, the meat grinder, food processor, and juicer fit right in — a feat, when you consider that 50 years have passed since the K-series release.
2. You always need to be able to make cookies at a moment’s notice
These attachments radically change the functionality of the KitchenAid mixer, yet it takes very little effort to convert back to what this device does best. This principle helps preserve the user relationship with the product, justifying its occupation of precious kitchen counter space.
Keeping the Motor Spinning
The Hobart mixer, KitchenAid’s industrial predecessor, changed our perception of what products belong in the home. This tool helped home cooks access methods that were once exclusively for professionals. Over the decades, a proliferation of attachments and recipes have continued to expand the capabilities for domestic makers, but only for those who wish to make food.
It is our belief that as both a physically and emotionally durable product, the only shortcoming of the KitchenAid mixer is that it is not used more frequently.
Our team proposes the KitchenAid Modern Homesteading Line as a way to pay tribute to the rugged domestic empowerment that established the KitchenAid mixer as a century-worthy product, while also extending the mechanical power of its 1 horsepower motor to other areas of domestic making.
KitchenAid Composting
“Make a Cake, Save Your Scraps, Reduce Waste”
The KitchenAid website provides a series of recipes to utilize food scraps, encouraging brand users to “get scrappy at home” and tackle food waste. Managing food waste is part of any food making, and not all scraps can be fried up into a fritter. A KitchenAid-based solution to this challenge would offer the brand a frequent touchpoint with its customers beyond occasional baking.
Electric food composters turn food scraps into sterile, dry pellets. Current offerings will set the consumer back $400. These compact, sustainability-minded machines can heat, grind and cool food scraps in several hours. KitchenAid has an opportunity to offer a simple composting device, utilizing the mixer’s motor to grind food scraps. This would be a competitive offering, as it would be more compact than other composting machines, requiring fewer parts and materials while also selling at a lower price.
The Modern Homesteading Line
The composting attachment is one of many entries into new and exciting territory for KitchenAid. Honoring their history of rugged empowerment and their unique ability to elevate the status of domestic labor, our “Homestead Extender” cable aims to maximize the utility of the KitchenAid mixer to cover a wide range of applications by extending the reach of the KitchenAid Power Hub.
In this proposal, we reframe the KitchenAid as a domestic general purpose motor that transforms a kitchen into a bespoke maker space. By transforming the customer’s perception of their mixer as a central hub for domestic making, and by leveraging the durable and powerful motor and flexible attachment port system, KitchenAid can offer dozens of new products that all use the same electric motor. This approach redirects usage towards a motor and gear assembly that is ready to work for years and years.
Transitioning to the Future
Much of the potential in the Modern Homestead line lies in its diversity — the ‘flagship’ Composter is an easy next step for the brand as it continues to occupy the culinary making space. The Scrubber begins to push the mixer into new territory, and beyond that, KitchenAid can use the Power Hub as a way to form entirely new relationships with their users, from pottery wheels to electric dynamos and even fitness equipment. This stepped approach eases KitchenAid and its consumers from their limited space of kitchen utility into progressively more transformative ways of looking at their product. This path to diversified and expanded durability within a single product could open up opportunities for both brands and consumers, creating enticing product lines and richer experiences that run counter to the norm, generating additional profit, DIY, customization, and consumer “hacks” that transform brand identities, and last much, much longer.
- David Kindy, “For 100 Years, KitchenAid Has Been the Stand-Up Brand of Stand Mixers,” Smithsonian Magazine, accessed February 11, 2021, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/100-years-kitchenaid-has-been-stand-brand-stand-mixers-180972838/
- Mariano Moretti “Don’t Buy Before You Read: KitchenAid Mixer Attachments.”https://marianoskitchen.com/kitchenaid-mixer-attachments/
- “KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-quart Mixer Buyers’ Guide,” https://www.katom.com/vendor/kitchenaid/kitchenaid-artisan-series-stand-mixer-brings-style-power.html
- “Make it Homemade with KitchenAid: Mixer & Attachment Chart,” https://www.partselect.com/JustForFun/Make-it-Homemade-with-KitchenAid-Infographic.aspx
