The project involves the development of a new concept for the jewelry franchise Zlatarna Celje. This new design concept has furnished 9 of its shops in Slovenia and Serbia in 2011, and will be developed and applied to around 100 more locations over the next two years.
There are three main store typologies; high street flagship stores, shopping center shops and gold investment centers. The design is based around a core concept for the Zlatarna Celje brand that its customers will identify in which ever of the three typologies because they each use a variation of this principal idea.
The project concept derives from the idea of a bank safety deposit box, using the simple idea of a strong, protective box safeguarding valuable jewelry. A box module is repeated through out the store to create a sense of continuity and repetition, using the same material and module.
In both the shopping center and high street stores the concept combines the safe deposit box idea with a warm domestic feeling, using timber as the principal material to put the customer in a softer and comfortable atmosphere to encourage tactility, as these stores are sales oriented. Furniture modules of 60x60 cm are finished in wood at the bottom (and sometimes top), creating accesible storage space. The middle portion is a glazed vitrine.
The investment center, however, is more reminiscent of a steel bank vault in feel and appearance. The safety deposit boxes create a slightly more formal feeling since business proceedings take place within this type of store.
The simple use of two different materials for the two store typologies create an obvious visual difference between them for the customer to distinguish.
The pilot/prototype project developed for the company's flagship store presented in the photos is one of Maribor's busiest streets, in the center of the city's old town inside a historical building.
