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Officially this coffee machine is called Essenza, but it is deliberately designed to look like a character and so has affectionately come to be known as the Birdy because of its broad shoulders, its oversized beak and its large pouch collecting, not nuts, but disused coffee capsules. Already a design icon, I'm convinced that the Birdy - which was launched by Nespresso in 2005 - will soon come to roost on the shelves of  design museums worldwide.   Designed by the the Swiss product designers, brothers Antoine and Philipe Cahen of Les Ateliers du Nord, the machine has all the necessary ingredients of a successful piece of product design, combining commodity, firmness and delight. Some models are coated with a soft, tactile rubberised surface that absorbs rather than reflects the light, and with the deliberate absence of any chrome parts, the Birdy's presence on a kitchen worktop is barely felt. Despite being tiny, the Birdy manages to deliver cups of espresso no less delicious and creamy than its chrome polished Heath Robinson predecessors, that always reminded me of bits of a Harley Davidson spot welded together.   As Antoine Cahen says: 'If the car looks like a beetle and the coffee machine looks like a bird, it means you touch something. It is our mission to design products that have a soul and an expression, plain simple and pleasant'. Cahen's philosophy is confirmed by the astonishing sale figures, with some five million machines produced, making up a large proportion of  Nespresso's sales.  The Nespresso technique for making coffee was invented 23 years ago by an engineer from Nestle. The original idea was to produce capsules that keep coffee fresh for one year. Ordinary coffee is no good after one hour as it oxidises very quickly. In 1986 Nespresso was formed as a small company inside Nestle and a range of companies use the Nespresso concept to manufacture coffee machines.  As Antoine and Phillipe Cahen were part of the design team from the outset their working relationship with Nespresso is based on trust which gave them the freedom to try something new. With the Birdy their only brief was to produce a machine that would cost half of existing machines without compromising on the quality of the coffee.  The entire concept had to be re-thought – and Antoine and Philipe abandoned the concept of placing the capsule into a screw holder as was the case with traditional espresso machines. Instead they came up with the new concept of dropping the capsules in from the top, and using a large ergonomic lever to secure the capsules into place.  The push down mechanism is very easy to operate even with  a lack of grip or arthritic fingers.  Antoine explains that the development of the new concept took four months to design and two years in production. By reducing the many parts down to a few simple ones they ended up with a high quality, affordable product. The cheapest Nespresso machine retails for 149 Euros. The Cahen's studio is in Lausanne. Antoine studied product design at the Academy in Lausanne and Philipe is a qualified architect who studied at the AA in London. The result of their joint efforts is a carefully honed, modest and minimalistic product with function at the heart of its design. Beyond that, the Birdy's comical anthropomorphic form engages our emotions and stirs our innermost feelings.  As Antoine Cahen says, 'we like to take our designs beyond function: it is not true that we can sell any old thing because the consumer is not stupid'.  Gabriele Bramante is director of Bramante Architects Tell us about your favorite product. Email info@blueprintmagazine.co.uk