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 By Phil Patton. Photography by James Wojcik |
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| Like most Americans, I spend a lot of time on the road and drink a lot of coffee while I'm there. Lids began to pile up on my car floor and I noticed how many varieties there were, how various and intricate the device is and how intensely designed they were. | |
 Coffee lids are coinage of our speed-up society, we use about a billion and a half lids each year. If you look at them without touching or lifting, lids can seem as stately as sculpted plaster or marble. |
 One designer recalled how in the primitive days of lids, before sip tabs, it was a badge of skill to be able to neatly tear out a space for sipping. The purpose of most lids is not just to keep coffee from spilling or cooling during transportation, but also to enable drinking while at the wheel, on the train or even walking. They are disposable in feel as well as in function. There are several basic types of lids, I quickly learned: the simple vented model, with an aperture to let steam escape; the lock-back, with a sipping aperture and a piece of plastic that can be folded back out of the way; and the gourmet, for lattes or cappuccinos. |
When you stop to consider the coffee lid, you become aware of the whole vast machinery of modern culture. Every day, people in fields such as material engineering, marketing, advertising and design address themselves to this -and thousands of other- most mundane and quotidian of objects. |
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