About Craig lyn design studio

A little bit about what we do, and why we do it.

I originally designed and manufactured the HG-one—that’s what it was called back then—with a good friend of mine.

We had both bought Olympia Cremina espresso machines and desperately needed grinders to go with them. We hunted high and low and couldn’t find anything that really suited what we wanted. So we did the silliest thing possible and designed and manufactured one ourselves.

That was back in 2012.

The idea behind the HG-one was pretty simple. Take a set of very large commercial conical burrs and build the simplest, most direct machine we could around them. Make it by hand. Make it extremely well. And make something that we would actually want sitting on our own kitchen counters.

It turned out other people wanted one too. A few thousand, give or take.

A lot has changed. The important stuff hasn’t.

Over the years the company has evolved, as have the products. Development hasn’t always moved at the same pace, but the ideas have never stopped, and neither has the desire to keep improving what we make.

Through all of that, the basic philosophy has stayed pretty much the same.

I like objects that are simple, mechanical and built extremely well. I like materials that feel good in your hand and get better with age. And I think the things we live with every day should be as enjoyable to look at as they are to use.

There’s something satisfying about picking up a well-made tool. You can usually tell immediately. The weight is right. Things fit together properly. Nothing rattles that shouldn’t. And there’s a sense that someone actually cared about all the little details that most people will probably never notice.

That’s what we try to make.

The original HG-1 lives here.

The HG-1 started here in 2012. It was our design, and more than a decade later it’s still the foundation of what we do.

Over the years it’s been copied, imitated and, occasionally, outright counterfeited. I suppose that comes with making something recognizable enough that other people decide it’s worth copying.

Marc Newson once bought a $10 counterfeit of one of his own Ikepod watches from a Hong Kong street market and later included it among a collection of objects he selected for the Design Museum. I’ve always liked that story. There’s something strangely flattering about making something recognizable enough that somebody decides it’s worth copying.

So if you’re looking for where the HG-1 actually came from, you found it.

This is its home.

Our products are designed by us, final assembly and quality control on our grinders is performed by our in-house team, and we ship directly from the United States to customers around the world.

This means there isn’t much distance between us and the people who buy our products. If you have a question or something goes wrong, you’re dealing with the people who actually know the product and can do something about it.

We’ve been making and shipping grinders since 2012. We intend to be doing it for a long time to come.

—Craig