Purchasing a new pair of specs can be a daunting task. And quite often, clinical-feeling optical stores don’t help the process. Luckily, Magrabi optical takes customer experience seriously and has refurbished its stores with a new look that’s sleek, stylish and functional.
The lighting scheme follows the same design intent throughout the 250 retail locations, changing to fit individual architectural layouts – quite a task at times. The compulsory use of LEDs also had its challenges. Why? Well, there’s a danger that light becomes flat – not good in retail – so we avoided this by layering the light in various applications throughout the stores.
The overall concept creates the perfect level of contrast, highlighting different areas in-store, adding a sense of atmosphere, while putting emphasis on the designer eyewear. Design details include feature pendants to add character, perimeter cove lighting to draw customers in and slimline display lighting in the cabinets to make the merchandise sparkle. In comparison, the ceiling layout has a strong, definitive form through the use of black troughs with concealed track lighting.
In the laboratory and testing rooms, where important stuff happens, we’ve made sure people can see exactly what they’re doing – light levels are purposely higher and more uniform. The issue of “glare” was also considered in the design process, not only due to all of the glasses, but also because of the digital media and touch screen interfaces throughout the space.
Images: © Kriszta Gonda
— Daniel Blaker
