'Xocolatti', Chocolate Shop, Soho, New York

Xocolatti Flagship Store

Building size: 150 sq ft
Location: SoHo, New York, NY
Program: Commercial retail space
Prototype for Design Display system & Brand Experience

Opened in 2011, a radical functionalism defines the interior of Xocolatti’s 150-square-foot flagship in SoHo. In addition to collaborating with Damian Totman and Exit Creative Company to produce the brand identity for a new luxury chocolate company, de-spec’s market-entry design strategy entailed eliminating the traditional barrier of a storefront and window display to create an interactive vitrine-like space that seamlessly integrates with the streetscape. Designed to change daily, new visual patterns emerge as product is sold and displayed, leaving the store uniquely animated at the end of each day.

The Xocolatti project reflects a merging of creative disciplines to engineer a functional, well-designed retail space, and develop a brand identity. The intersection of architecture, environmental design and graphic design, specifically, not only informs the design and layout of the store, but also the systems and operations of the store itself, including the overall staff and customer experience.

The walls are lined with custom-designed, floor-to-ceiling bronze shelving systems that are
structured around the multiple sizes of the brand’s iconic green and brown chocolate boxes.

The wall, functioning as both storage and display, permits bold graphic
patterns embedded in the architecture

Designed to change daily, new visual patterns emerge as product is sold and displayed,
leaving the store uniquely animated at the end of each day.

In this project, de-spec collaborated with Damian Totman and Exit Creative Company to produce the brand identity of this new company. Acting as both designer and developer, de-spec put together a strong team of craftsmen to produce and install the new display system and its components using CNC, laser cutting and casting of various bronze metalworks.

Working with Exit, we created the glowing light boxes which feature each product, with a layer of information over the grid to allow the customer a more clear reading of flavors and product descriptions.

Principal-Lead Designer: Farnaz Mansuri
Other Participants: Damian Totman and Exit Creative Company
Photographer: Frank Oudeman
Interior Designer: de-spec
Construction Manager: de-spec

Published :
“Xocolatti”, Maru: Interior, Lifestyle Design, 2011
“By Design”, Home Journal, 2011
“Excellence in Design”, World Architecture News, 2011
“Xocolatti”, Sites Archi, 2012
“Box of Chocolates”, DDI, The Creativity Issue, 2012
“Guilty Pleasures from De-Spec”, Frame, 2012
“Like a Box of Chocolates”, Interior Design Magazine, 2012
“Xocolatti”, GDR Creative Intelligence: Global Innovation Report, 2012
“Xocolatti,” Brand Spaces: Branded Architecture and the Future of Retail Design, 2013

Recognition :
AIA Interiors Merit Award, 2012
“20th Annual Will Ching Award”, Interior Design Magazine, 2012
“39th Annual International Interior Design Award (IIDA)”, Interior Design Magazine, 2012
“Interior Design Award (IDA)”, Interior Design Magazine, 2012
“Annual Azure Award”, Azure Magazine, 2012