The Eye Place - Branding a Fleet Street optician

93 are extremely experienced at designing interiors, creating impactful brands and building bespoke cabinetry for opticians. 93 worked with The Eye Place to elevate their brand and create a traditional shop front for their new location on Fleet Street, London.

Building a brand for a premium eye-care company for over a decade and counting…

93’s relationship with our clients The Eye Place goes back well over a decade and has spanned website design, branding, interior design and architecture. In that time, The Eye Place has expanded across the UK with premises in Sheffield, Derbyshire, Hull, Northamptonshire and several locations across London including Spitalfields, Fitzrovia, Kensington and Fleet Street - and 93 has been right there alongside them. 

We’ve helped build this premium opticians, with an individual presence for each separate location underpinned by the overall brand flowing between different sites - avoiding a chain store feel whilst keeping the coherence that gives reassurance to customers. 

With a focus on an eye-catching (no pun intended…) modern heritage shop front with hand painted signage and sophisticated typography, leading into an interior with a premium feel, vintage furniture and bespoke manufactured cabinetry, our portfolio with The Eye Place is testament to our dedication and commitment to authenticity in branding. 

A traditional storefront to elevate the brand

The storefront was painted a rich red which provides a backdrop for the reeded glass windows. Mia Warner’s hand painted signage in real gold leaf brings these to life and reinforces that modern heritage feel. 

A painted timber bus stop sign draws the eye of passersby while a new tiled ramp to the door provides accessibility along with a solidly crafted foundation. 

Typography and logo

The Eye Place is a lifestyle brand offering an experience similar to that of a tailor, with a 'made-to-measure' service.  The brand is classical in approach, so we decided to go with a strong use of hand drawn lettering in the logo and on the storefront which gives a modern vintage feel. Our designers and illustrators produced some graphic devices and icons which could be used across the website and marketing materials. 

The logo’s scripted type style is bold and playful, with a supporting font that reflects tradition and heritage. It exudes its own personality and, when first designed, was quite different to what could be seen on the high street. 

Bespoke cabinetry and hand sourced vintage furniture 

Part of the experience of The Eye Place is the sense of opulence when a customer enters the store. Dark hardwood fittings and furniture, subtle, considered lighting and a sophisticated colour palette give an air of luxury that’s missing from striplight lit high street chains with their plastic display cases. 

Our team fitted out the Fleet Street store with a mixture of bespoke, handmade cabinetry, designed and manufactured by us, effortlessly complemented by some carefully chosen vintage furniture. 

Sapele glass fronted cabinets are built in to display the frames, heralding each one as a hero in its own right, backed by soft lighting that draws the eye and calms the soul. 

Pigeon hole bookcases tower over the desk, offering myriad curios that add to the sense of having travelled back in time. 

In the centre of the store, a bespoke display unit manufactured from reclaimed museum cabinet doors offers practical storage for excess stock, while the glass topped display case allows more frames to be showcased. 

The green panelled wall leads to the basement where there is a waiting area and the test rooms. In the waiting area there are vintage chairs and a bespoke light box which we made, and we designed a bespoke graphic which was painted onto the light box.

A carefully considered colour palette and expert interior design

Colour is key to a great scheme with a thoughtful use of heritage inspired colours and texture throughout the stores. They celebrate traditional handcrafted values paired with a modern, warm aesthetic. Farrow & Ball Calke Green was used down the stairs and in the basement, and the basement corridor was panelled and painted in the green with hand painted signage on the test room doors. 

We used a reclaimed window in the wall of the pre-screening room. We designed bespoke “eyeball” wallpaper to line the humidor interior walls and create a feature to the outside of the room where the more expensive glasses are kept, more of a private dispensing area. 

The dark green ceiling in the main retail space is Farrow & Ball Studio Green and we applied a warm neutral white, Farrow & Ball Stirabout, to the rest of the space. The kids area is highlighted with another bespoke light box but also is painted in a soft pink, Farrow & Ball Setting Plaster.

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