Optx Rhode Island

Many ophthalmologists are challenged with displaying a multitude of products – all of the same size and shape – without boring the customer to death, and in a space that also functions as a waiting room.

Craig Nealy’s solution for Optx Rhode Island was to mix things up a bit: The New York designer created a room with four different display configurations. These include an irregularly shaped wall opening with several shelves and LED MR-16 backlighting; four long, horizontal wall cutouts backed by multicolored opal acrylic; a freestanding structure of stacked shelves of frosted glass in an oval shape; and a curved wall with cantilevered and backlit glass shelves.

Much of the wall covering is walnut and the trim throughout the displays is polished chrome. “The walnut and the chrome together really provide a sense of luxury,” says Nealy. The colors are warm and the lighting is a combination of direct and indirect.

Because most eyewear displays are grouped by designer, and because “designers’ lines grow and shrink depending on which way the wind is blowing,” Nealy says, he also designed an acrylic block that acts as a divider and can be moved anywhere in the store.

Retailer: Optx Rhode Island, Johnston, R.I.

Design: Craig Nealy Intl. Inc., New York; Craig Nealy; Joseph Louis, project manager; Sampada Saxena designer; Hemanai Hirway, designer; General Contractor, Fixtures: Fleetwood, Leesport, Pa.

Props and decoratives, signage/graphics Poyant, Johnston, R.I.

Photography: Eric Roth, Boston