The silhouette could not change.
This was the main parameter guiding the designers and engineers at KitchenAid as they set out to upgrade one of the brand’s hero product, the stand mixer. Used by amateur and professional bakers for more than 70 years, the classic stand mixer is a staple of the kitchen appliance world, and much of its staying power has to do with the consistency of the product, which has changed remarkably little in all that time. Most notably, the mixer’s bowl-hugging form factor has defined it since the start.
So when the company decided to integrate some new features and functions into an updated version of the mixer—the Artisan Plus Stand Mixer, now on sale from $599—the design team knew that any change must not affect that signature look.
[Photo: KitchenAid]
“We’re in a unique spot here because we are really attached to the silhouette. We really don’t want to change the outside, which is a challenging engineering function when you say no, the package is fixed,” says Joseph Snyder, a system architect at KitchenAid.
[Photo: KitchenAid]
What’s new about KitchenAid’s stand mixer
The changes included in the new Artisan Plus are the biggest improvements to KitchenAid’s stand mixer in its 70-year history, according to the company. Features include a new, slower ingredient folding speed, continuous speed control for smooth transitions between speeds, an automatic light focused into the mixing area, and a special mixing wand that simultaneously stirs and wipes the inside of the bowl.
“Now you’ve got to put all this functionality in there. So we had to do a lot of work to fit this new control in here because we really couldn’t make any changes to the outside,” Snyder says. “We had to do this all inside.”
Adding these new features required the equivalent of industrial surgery. Snyder says the designers and engineers realized they had to make a major change to the internal workings of the mixer, replacing what Snyder calls “tried-and-true” analog electromechanical controls with a computer-like microcontroller.
