To celebrate International Coffee Day, Creative Bloq ran a lovely Design of the Day feature on the Moccamaster KBG, a filter coffee machine that launched in 1974 and has seen very few design changes since. Their verdict? It “wouldn’t look out of place in a kitchen from any of the last five decades.”
That really is the dream for every brand. Not a look that’s perfect for this season: a look that still feels right fifty years later.
So let’s pour a cup and talk about what makes design last.
Start with purpose, not a trend
Gerard Clement Smit didn’t set out to make a pretty appliance. According to Moccamaster’s heritage story, his goal was a machine that brewed the best-tasting cup while showing craftsmanship “that would last a lifetime.” He spent years refining it with coffee experts before the first model launched in 1969.
That’s the secret ingredient: every part of a Moccamaster is visible, and every part has a reason to be there. When design grows out of purpose, there’s nothing to go out of style.
The same goes for your brand. Before you pick colors or fonts, get crisp on what your design needs to do for your customer. Help them find you fast? Signal that you’re reliable? Stand out on a crowded shelf? Design built around a real job ages beautifully.
Brand consistency is how recognition grows
Here’s the fun part: the Moccamaster didn’t become iconic despite staying the same. It became iconic because it stayed the same. Year after year, it showed up looking like itself, and people got a little more familiar with it, until it simply became the coffee maker in design-loving kitchens.
Brands work the same way. Every time your logo, colors and voice show up consistently, you make a tiny deposit in someone’s memory. A refresh now and then is healthy, but a full reinvention every season usually isn’t needed, and it can quietly reset all those deposits.
Evolve the details, protect the core
“Barely changed” doesn’t mean “never changed.” Today’s version of the coffee maker, sold in the US as the Moccamaster KBGV Select, adds modern touches while the silhouette stays instantly recognizable.
That’s a great model for brand updates, and it’s exactly why McLaren’s rebrand is also a masterclass in evolving a brand identity. Decide which elements are your core: maybe your logo shape, a signature color or a distinctive type style. Protect those. Then let supporting pieces like photography, campaign graphics and seasonal palettes flex and play. You get freshness without losing the thread.
Fellow kitchen legend Le Creuset does this beautifully too. As we wrote in our look at Le Creuset, it keeps a handful of anchor colors steady while rotating limited-edition shades and specialty products, so the brand always feels fresh and never unfamiliar. Gold-star kitchen products clearly share a recipe.
Timeless design in a world of a million assets
This feels extra relevant right now. As Creative Bloq notes in its preview of Adobe MAX 2026, a big theme this year is helping teams produce more content, faster, with sessions on creating “one million assets.” That’s exciting, and it also means a lot more visuals competing for attention.
When anyone can make more, the brands that shine are the ones people recognize in a split second. A clear, purposeful design system is what makes all that new content look unmistakably like you.
Brew a brand that lasts
You don’t need a fifty-year track record to design like the Moccamaster. Start with what your design needs to do, show up consistently, and save the experimenting for the details. Do that, and your brand can feel just as right in 2036 as it does today.
