Soho Chocolate Jewelry Shop

Dedicated to the concept of de-speculation, their design for a shop in Soho for chocolate brand Xocolatti (that’s Aztec for chocolate) is a case in point. In collaboration with art director Damian Kaufman of Exit Creative, created a 150-square-foot storefront prototype for a company that’s counting on expansion in the future. A family jewelry business presents chocolate that looks like jewelry.

The 10-foot by 15-foot flagship on Prince Street grew out of a search for a solution to building a monolithic kind of space – out of chocolate boxes. A floor-to-ceiling, custom shelving system that displays 2,500 boxes designed to hold 4, 9, 16, or 24 chocolates. Some are pre-packaged, while others are empty, waiting to be filled by shoppers or owners. By stacking the containers and the boxes, the designers have sought to transform the storage component, turning the space into a display grid of graphics and patterns that change as boxes are removed. It’s a practical solution for a practical problem so they needed to make use of the entire space as a storage device. Chocolates and truffles are arranged on top of protruding boxes, like light boxes with labels, all designed by Kaufman and Exit Creative. True to the De-Spec mission, the project defines the polar opposite of generic.