The Alien espresso cups set by David Byrne was released in the year 2000. It quickly sold out and has been one of the most sought after illy espresso cup collections.David's alien espresso cups were sold as boxed sets. In addition, a special limited edition of "spaceship" packaging was produced in 2001 and quickly sold out.  

Illy 和 David Byrne合作推出外星人系列濃縮咖啡杯。組合內共有四個外星杯和一艘太空船造型的糖罐。千禧年由 David Byrne 所設計的外星人咖啡杯，一上市很快就被搶購一空，並成為全世界 illy 咖啡杯系列中最受歡迎的典藏。隨著盒裝組合的熱賣，於2001年再度推出「太空飛船」特別限量版，亦很快被搶購一空。

each cup has two handles representing the ears of the aliens. Byrne has illustrated the cups with very amusing and colorful faces of outer space visitors. "Today, we are all Aliens", says the artist. "Seeing these small Aliens on the cups, we can recognize parts of ourselves. You only have to look around to see that they are everywhere... on our T-shirts, in night clubs, on skateboards, in movies, on TV, in advertising... We are close to Aliens and they look rather friendly... If you ever wondered what's inside an Alien's head, I can tell you — it's coffee!"

每杯子用兩個手柄代替了外星人的耳朵，Byrne 用有趣且豐富多彩的面孔向我們介紹從外星來的朋友。 藝術家這麼說：「現今，我們全都是外星人」。看到這些小外星人在咖啡杯上，可以感覺我們也是其中的一份子，你只需要看看四周，看看他們無所不在......在我們的T卹、酒吧、滑板，電影、電視、甚至廣告...其實我們很親近外星來的朋友，而且他們看起來也相當友好...如果你想知道外星人的腦子裡都裝了什麼? 我可以告訴你 – 就是咖啡！」