Martin Trachsel
Business owner
Contact lens specialist
Mr Trachsel, what prompted you to set up your business anew?
There were different drivers for the renewal of the spaces. On the one hand, the existing shop was thirteen years old and we didn't want to just touch up and repaint. On the other hand, I felt a great desire to convey clear messages with the redesign: differentiation, craft, shapes. The presentation of the eyewear collections, as well as the architecture as a whole, will now cultivate a much stronger functionalism with sophistication and thus subtly and precisely resist the ubiquitous franchise styling of the big masses.
What are the most striking accents of the new staging?
The new architecture is an expression of design, of consciously chosen materials, forms and colours. The seamless floor symbolises an earthy ground that lends a kind of lightness to the undulating, spacious walls and a museum-like atmosphere to the presentation of glasses in the cubic niches. The rooms are characterised by this basic museum attitude. This takes the heaviness out of the rooms. This aesthetic elevates the products on display to the status of admirable works of art. When customers are in such rooms, they pay special attention to and appreciate the products on display, like a work of art, and treat the purchased object accordingly. Unlike most museums, however, the products can be touched, tried out and experienced with the senses in this relaxed atmosphere. This also makes the customer a part of a multi-layered process.
What distinguishes your philosophy and your offer?
As a matter of principle, we only stock products of which we know the suppliers and producers and thus also the respective production process. This gives us the guarantee that the products are manufactured fairly and ecologically according to today's principles, but also have a high standard of design. This also creates a value chain that is coherent for us. Our own eyewear collection "Manos" is a strong ambassador of these values. The focus is, of course, above all on our advisory skills. The customers' search for something special begins even before they put on their glasses and look in the mirror. If you are looking for glasses that match your personality and face shape, you want to do so in an appropriate place. This shopping experience becomes a promise for the time afterwards, when people live with their glasses.
Thus, the function of the salesroom is not only to display, but also to create an atmosphere that announces that here, the face as well as the glasses are not pressed into schemata. Shopping should become a conscious experience with us, far away from dreary monotony.
What was the biggest challenge during the realisation?
I think in shopfitting/conversion the time factor is often the big challenge. To completely renovate a two-storey shop within about seven weeks, while the business was largely running, was very ambitious and required precise planning, clever logistics and unconditional implementation. Not sacrificing quality in all phases under the pressure of time is what I would call the greatest challenge.
How did you come across Glaeser Projekt AG and how did you experience the cooperation?
In our company we live the principle "as professional as possible" in all respects, but also "as regional as possible". In this respect, a cooperation with Glaeser Wogg was obvious. In many respects we have, albeit in different sectors and company sizes, a similar basic attitude: craft, local production, no expression of mass or uniform egalitarianism. But the passion for quality and attention to detail are also unifying elements. The collaboration was fruitful and iterative, especially in the area of design and sampling, a way of working that is close to my heart.
