Moccamaster Home Series

We are very excited to introduce our 'Moccamaster Home Series' to you today! The series consists of our three brewers and grinder and are brought to life by the fantastic illustrator Arne from NINE5NINE - Coffee and Artwork. 

To celebrate this great collaboration between NINE5NINE and Moccamaster, we asked the artist Arne some questions so you can get to know him a little bit. Here we go!

Hi Arne, great to have you on board! So, can you please give a short introduction about yourself for people who don't know you or your work yet?

Hi, or Moin as we say in the north, my name is Arne (aka Smutje), and I'm a coffee roaster, illustrator and founder of NINE5NINE - coffee and artworks from Hamburg, Germany. I have been working as a coffee roaster since 2016 and learned the craft in an old traditional roastery in Hamburg. After a few positions in various roasting companies, I started my own business with NINE5NINE at the end of 2021 to combine my two passions: coffee and art.

I have been working as an artist for over 15 years now, but more in a semi-professional way. There were jobs here and there, but most of it was for me or friends. I'm heavily influenced by children's book illustrators, such as E.H. Shepard, Sven Nordqvist or Janosch. But I came from the graffiti and street art scene. I love making people happy with my art. That's the goal of NINE5NINE, to put a smile on people's faces with good coffee and original art.

A question I often get asked is "how did you come up with the name and what does it mean?" The answer is quite simple: I googled my first name and found out that the asteroid nr. 959 is called Arne. Then I thought to myself, that fits perfectly. That's also why I sign most of my artworks with 959, it means Arne.

Arne in his atelier

Well, you surely make us happy with your art! And we love how you came up with the name (for our readers: we dare you to try and find where 959 is hidden in each artwork). When you start an illustration, do you have a vision of how it will look, or do you just start? 

That's a good question. Sometimes, like this - sometimes, like that should be the answer. But of course, there is usually an idea in my head at the beginning. Sometimes, I succeed, and sometimes I don't manage to put this idea on paper. Every now and then, the idea changes while I'm drawing, and the result looks completely different from the idea I had in mind. If I don't have a concrete idea, I just start drawing... but of course the error rate is higher ;)

Since the prints are a pure joy to look at and are so perfect and detailed, we are curious: how many trials and errors do you have before you have the final version? 

Oh, thank you. I'm very happy to hear that. It really depends; the idea is often implemented quickly, but before I'm really pleased it can take 5 to 6 drawings. Sometimes it's just one line or one dot too many, and I'm unsatisfied and start all over again. That's why I got into the habit of leaving each drawing for a day or two and then looking at it again. But, since I like to get lost in details, this process can take a little longer. Of course, there are also ideas and drawings that I'm never completely happy with...and sometimes no one gets to see them.

Now the final question, which we cannot answer as we love all the prints, but which of the four Moccamaster prints is your favourite? 

Oh, that's a hard one, all four of course ;). To be honest: it's probably the KBG Select, simply because I think its design is so beautiful and because you can immediately recognize a Moccamaster...and it was the first of the four drawings. But I also think the new grinder, the KM5, is very good. It's a little different in perspective and that gives it something special, I think.

When we met Arne at a coffee fair 

Ready to order

Thank you Arne for being part of our Moccamaster family and your great work for us. We are very excited to see your artwork live here in the webshop, and we of course hope you, as Moccamaster fans, will love them too. The prints are now available in a 4-pack A5 and A6 size and in A3 poster size per piece, so you can get your coffee corner complete!