Project Details
The first De Beers Diamond Jewellers store opened at 50 Old Bond Street, London and its network of stores has since grown to over 30 worldwide. Hourglass has worked with the British designers, Swiss architects and German shop fitters to develop a decorative screen panel which give privacy to the customer without compromising security.
The solution was a toughened glass panel engraved with artwork comprising of thousands of horizontal and vertical lines. The design needed to be textured to sparkle when edge-lit, so traditional sandblasting and screen printing were not suitable techniques.
Hourglass used existing equipment in an imaginative way to engrave and toughen the low iron glass and make the design work. Panels have been supplied for DeBeers in Bond St, Westfield shopping centre, Harrods, Printemps and Gallery Lafayette in Paris, Moscow and a number of sites in Japan and USA. Air-freighting large glass panels around the world should be problematic, but so far the toughened glass panels have arrived at their destinations without a single breakage.
