Snøhetta: Faust

Snøhetta has created a complete visual identity for shoe maker brand Faust, and its first signature store in Oslo. The design includes retail design, web design, signage, and brand design: from business cards to shoe boxes, as well as a customized typeface bringing all the elements together. 

  The store offers both tailor-made shoes as well as handcrafted ready-made shoes. Located in Oslo’s Barcode-area, the 20 square meter space consists of five custom concrete niches with massive carved wooden doors. The five niches and their vaulted shapes each have their own specific programmatic purpose; the designer’s personal cabinet with tools and materials, a place for sitting, a display niche, and two storage niches.

With large-scaled oiled oak doors with a milled and brushed finish, the design of the cabinetry reflects the handmade details and the tactility of the products being displayed and sold in the shop. The niches reference a historic, almost religious architectural language, giving homage to the thoughtful and quality driven trade of shoemaking.

The interior design and visual identity both have a strong link to shoemaking as a craft, with focus on tactility, quality, and elegance. Another important reference for the design is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s legend of Faust from Renaissance times – a legend which has been the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works through the ages. The interior elements of the design, including the vaulted shapes, carved patterns, and the material palette, as well as the brand’s reconceived typography and color scheme, reference this historical period in which Goethe first penned the manuscript.

Faust Store, Oslo, Norway
Program: shop interior design
Design: Snøhetta
Client: Faust
Year: 2016