Refurbishing Popcorn Makers’ Design

WestBend – The Legacy Companies

Making a classic snack machine feel at home.

A Modern Design for a Timeless Snack.

A Brief History of Popcorn

Popcorn has a rich history. Corn was domesticated from wild grass in Mexico nearly 9,000 years ago and spread throughout the Americas. However, the first popcorn machine links to Charles Cretors of Chicago. Cretors invented the mobile popcorn cart in 1885 and is known as the modern-day inventor of the popcorn maker. Interestingly, over 100 years later, Beyond Design, a Chicago-based company, developed a new yet familiar design for WestBend’s popcorn machines to match its family of kitchen products.

Designs That Pop And Aren’t Corny

Beyond Design executed the industrial design and created a new Visual Brand Language (VBL) for three different popcorn maker models. The visual design language includes contours with attention to detail on every touchpoint, and a clean and classic look developed to be especially cozy in millennial kitchens. This VBL was applied to all of WestBend’s kitchen appliances to create a distinct family line in the market.

Optimizing Design for Manufacturing Efficiency

The new industrial design needed to house existing electrical components in the machine. Beyond Design’s proficiency in design for manufacturing provided simple assembly solutions to reduce part count and further improve manufacturing efficiencies.

The final machines came in three distinct models: a 4qt hot air model, a 6qt hot air and bowl model, and a 4qt theatre oil model. It was important for the products to be vibrant to capture the fun spirit of popcorn. Designers added subtle silhouette graphics and configured brightly light typography to make the designs POP!