Mi Tienda de Arte

Growing to close a circle, to return to the beginning with more maturity. Hartem, the new brand specializing in Fine Arts, has meant many steps forward for My Art Store: to respond to a concrete and defined niche and welcome them with a physical store. Where? In Madrid's historic center.

Hartem is a space that pays homage to artists who aren't afraid to make mistakes and, from Soluble, we've provided guidance in applying the brand throughout the store, from the experience to screen designs and informational banners.

Guardians of the strategy

The goal of this project was to activate the brand and ensure that the store breathed all the work that had been laid out through strategy and identity. That the artist who visits it achieves, in the end, a connection with Hartem—both rational and emotional.

If we counted on Craftelier and Hartem—in its online version—, in this project we had to watch over two key concepts: freedom to create, which acts as an umbrella for both brands, and errare artem est, drawn directly from Hartem's Brand Strategy. A tribute to error, experimentation, and enjoyment as inherent parts of the creative and artistic process.

Accompaniment to shine

With the canvas well-built, we started working alongside the team—the leaders of this project, plus the marketing department—and other involved areas, like retail consulting and project management (HMY, Mostaza, Montblanc Obras e Interiorismo…). From Soluble we made sure the holistic vision would shine.

Beyond that coordination, accompaniment, and advisory work with other teams, we followed our standard processes by combining specialties like Visual Design, Brand Activation, and Motion Design to maximize all the brand's value.

Once again, management was critical to ensure information flowed internally, with the team, and with all suppliers. Only together could we land the ideas in perfect execution.

The artist's journey through the store

The first step was defining the users' journey through the store. To do that, we needed to understand the space's own configuration and keep it in mind to overcome barriers and seize every opportunity.

Drawing a parallel with UX design in the digital space, the user needed clear, useful, and human information at all times—a balance between functionality and emotion, an equilibrium between enjoying and shopping without complications.

The signage work and directory are the most obvious proof of this, but so are the design and precise positioning of dynamic strokes that define Hartem's identity, with which we managed to highlight zones and create coherence between sections, avoiding visual and conceptual noise.

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Noble materials and contextualized excellence

The possibilities were infinite, as in the art world. Optimizing the costs proposed for the store—where variables like materials come into play—was a priority, since we always understand projects as a challenge to achieve contextualized excellence.

For this reason, from the earliest brainstorming phases, we created a matrix that assessed necessary resources and the return on actions. In some cases, we proposed using noble materials, like marble, because we were facing a key moment in the purchase process that required special care.

In others, printed copy guaranteed that the experience would multiply. And there were also action-driven zones, like the kids' area, where you can experience the freedom to create… with chalk, of course.

The final project is an ode to numerous techniques, materials, and textures: sculpture, painting on various surfaces, vinyl, metal plaques, stencils, marbles, stones…

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Empowering the Hartem team with video

Screens are an essential element of Hartem's shopping experience because they offer flexibility and dynamism, a stronger appeal to the process. In the same store location, depending on the moment, you can talk about products or how the different materials that can be purchased are worked with.

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Since video allows us to adjust and distill information, we thought about the project's autonomy with a system to generate agile and up-to-date videos, if necessary, every day.

And now, what?

We continue with Accompaniment to define Hartem's complete experience, a living project that will continue to evolve, down to the smallest detail, with the artist at the center. We'll tell you more soon.