schneew[eyes]s optik, Leipzig

Brief

Buying glasses is something intimate. For many people, there is also a certain shyness. Advice, eye tests, fittings require a certain closeness and trust. A good store and furnishing concept is therefore required to place those looking for glasses at ease and allow them to concentrate on the task. Tricky, one would think. But not for the young optician start-up of the schneeweyess optik GmbH, which builds its business model on exactly such an approach and positions itself against more traditional approaches to customer service and store design.

More complicated was finding suitable and affordable space: but after a year of searching the contract was concluded in December 2021. At the same time, the starting signal was given to turn the previously gloomy rooms into a bright, friendly shop that does not overwhelm customers with walls covered in glasses, but rather scores with individuality.

is how owner Felix Schneeweiss, envisioned the space, and that it should be bright and clean without appearing sterile. And all of that – planning, design, construction, furnishing – within three months.

Realisation

The basis for the shop development lay in the conception by designer Anne Krieger, managing director of Leipzig based agency Ohja, who created a comprehensive colour and material concept at the beginning of the project. A mood board was used to visually describe the concept. Clean and bright, but non-sterile and special, with a focus on light wood as an ideal means to capture the required character. While the grain and warmth of the material negates ideas of something created "off the peg". Instead, the focus was on the individual, just as individual as the glasses in the store.

Eye tests or adjustments to existing eyewear are of course part of an optician's daily life, as social cups of coffee: customer communication is not limited to optician-specific topics, the customers should feel welcome here and in this way build up the necessary trust to give their eyesight into snow-white[eyes]se hands.

The entire colour, material and space utilization concept was implemented within three months; Showcases, cupboards and shelves were designed by Anne Krieger (Ohja GmbH) and individually manufactured by a carpentry company. Walls and a pillar in the store have been altered to create a completely new spatial fabric, which is emphasized by the counter and its coffee bar. Behind which the bluish "Dots" wallpaper by Arte International acts as a splash of colour.

In the "living room area" the Bell coffee and side table from Classicon, arranged with the Odin sofa and the Euvira Rocking Chairs from the same manufacturer, invite for to a cozy chat. Similarly the lighting concept by smow Leipzig. A pendant light by Flos hangs above the seating area, reminiscent of an installation and at the same time picking up on the geometric shapes of the product. A fear of glasses has no place in such a space.