The Art of the Disposable Coffee Cup - Only in New York

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Only in NYC: The Art of the Disposable Coffee Cup

Development and progress in know-how are making combining different materials and skills possible, resulting in unique solutions for packaging using various different product applications in diversified designs, all eye-catching to the buying public. These packaging solutions include coffee cups and lids with excellent insulating and safety properties, which now come in innovative art designs, including promotional information such as logos and advertisements.


In New York, coffee started coming out of creatively designed coffee cups instead of the usual plain white Styrofoam cups that looked so sterile and boring. Thanks to an NYC design agency, the old dull disposable cups now come in very interesting designs worthy of saving, instead of disposing. Even the plastic lids have been given a revolutionary re-design.

The disposable coffee cup lid is perhaps one of the more unnoticed and undervalued items in our life every morning. We only appreciate it because of the protection it gives us against our steaming hot coffee which can give us ravaging burns. We often overlooked the disposable lid so much; we did not know that it is now the subject of art collectors and art exhibits because of their new wonder of engineering and contemporary artistic designs.

NYC coffee on-the-go has created its own design place when New York-based design professor Louise Harpman started collecting over 500 coffee lids. At the same time, another New Yorker in the person of photographer Henry Hargreaves also has a fascination for coffee cups, and has collected over 200 “artful cups� from around the world because he considers these objects as vital works of art that deserve our high regard and esteem.

Every small item around us is designed by somebody; so many of these objects deserve attention. We should be mindful of these items, give them further appreciation, valuing the design, the production, assembling, developing, and the brainpower that was utilized to come up with these remarkable designs.


Take an example the coffee cups of art made by Cheeming Boey, a Malaysian artist based in California, whose creations consists of amazingly detailed, circular line drawings using Sharpie pens on disposable coffee cups that are fetching surprising 4 digit dollar amounts per cup (coffee not included), depending on the complication of the design.

These artistic coffee cups are all about celebrating design, coffee, and New York all together. So the next time you have that coffee-to-go in NYC or in Brooklyn, be mindful that you may be enjoying your coffee in one of those awesome works of art!

Jonah Engler is a finance expert and a full time coffee lover from New York City. Engler owns a small coffee shop in the UES.


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