For a state-of-the-art ice-cream parlour

We looked deeper into the topics and problems concerning projects for ice-cream parlours with an important company that has been on the market for over forty years now.

ISA has been at the service of caterers (and others) for over forty years, and is involved in the whole gamut of issues that mirror the path, not always straight, leading from an idea to its realisation, with a vast range of solutions and processes for taking customers by the hand, considering their demands, needs and tastes.

Today’s ice-cream parlour
Nowadays there are many opportunities to exchange notes on the renewed meaning of today’s ice-cream parlours. Just like other activities, one realises that they are no longer stiff and monothematic like they used to be. New parlours try to stay close to their customers twenty-four hours a day, from breakfast time to lunch break to aperitifs, offering valid and solid alternatives to the traditional ice.

Rediscovering the value of habit, that neither denies nor tramples on tradition, means working out new paradigms, interpreting and encouraging the habits of today’s customers.

So ISA accompanies and responds to current needs, presenting a wide range of solutions depending on specific needs and the available space: from the small showcase to the large display counter, in a series of configurations capable of meeting any requirements whatsoever.

A solution to every problem
The precision of this business approach starts out from extremely detailed considerations on the needs of those who want to offer ice-cream in a new style. It therefore becomes essential to be able to focus on one’s own specific needs.

There is always a solution to our problems, but first the problems have to be identified. This is sometimes easier said than done: in this respect ISA provides a whole range of professionals to work alongside customers in order to guide them all the way to implementing their projects: from financial planning to illustration of the layout plans, from assistance at the building site to management of servicing.

These solutions are extremely flexible and can be adapted on the basis of every customer’s own needs, since intermediate configurations are possible. For example, the project could be drafted by outside architects and then put into practice by the company. The flexibility of the project lies precisely in the different levels of communication that the company, the customer and possible third parties are in a position to handle.

Organisation of the spaces
Solutions are often designed without taking appearance into account. This is the case, for example, for the layout of services, a functional plan that suggests how to organise one’s premises from the point of view of the positions of the various different functions, without going into the details of specific solutions such as the materials of coverings or the colour scheme of the premises.

The layout of services is one aspect of fundamental importance that is, however, exceedingly undervalued, no attention being paid to paths to be followed, to movements between one point and another, to stopping places and to functional areas for the people who actually work on the premises. The spatial economy  of any premises is directly dependent on a clear-headed analysis of these problems.

Giving the product visibility
Similarly, a room being designed specifically and in every detail for the purpose for which it is used must take into account all the aspects connected with the product being sold. Visibility is perhaps the most significant of all these characteristics.

What tempts most to eat ice-cream is probably the ice-cream itself: its shapes, its colours, the sensations it inspires. The concept of visibility is therefore absolutely essential.

In this respect, in recent years ISA has developed an extremely innovative line of  products called “Show”. The basic concept is that of total transparency.

The concept of transparency
In the products of the Show line, the ice-cream is visible in all three dimensions thanks to a new display system that focuses on the structure of the showcase and on the transparent tubs.

The content becomes once again the leading player, attempting to diminish the importance of the container. The ice-cream takes a ringside chair, once again “calling” to the customer directly from the showcase.

What the new line suggests is closely tied to the reality of recent years, in which the technology and the intricacy of ice-cream parlour furnishings often ended up by sacrificing the ice-cream itself. This should simply induce us to think about what we consider most important for us, what we want the customer to look at, and what we would want to offer him.

So a whole range of important points come up that we cannot ignore.

In addition to these, there are all those factors that can contribute towards making our activity, that is to say everyday work, easier: innovative and lightweight materials that are easy to clean, hygienic and long-lasting; a simple but well-tended area, with exactly the right lighting and the right atmosphere, proper attention paid to customers in order to meet their needs, their tastes and – why not – their whims.

Each of these comments starts out from a clear interpretation of the world of ice-cream today: a universe that is as many-faceted as ice-cream itself, multifarious and varied, and nowadays there are so many optional elements and accessories.

Ultimately, what we would like to stress is the constant multi-directional nature of  the approaches. It is important to know that we are dealing with a complex world. This is the first step towards reaching solutions that meet our needs.

The new mission
ISA is now facing the market with a new philosophy. In addition to ‘normal’ presentations of what’s new in the field of furniture, the company offers a package of new interpretations, of configurations entrusted to famous architects of our time who represent the present; personal and determined interpretations of space, capable of identifying style and requirements in a single gesture but capable, at the same time, of bringing forward the future.

I GHIACCI by Claudio Silvestrin

It was Claudio Silvestrin who designed ISA’s latest product, an extremely personal and lively range called “I Ghiacci”, dedicated entirely to catering. It is a determined and attractive product, featuring futurist and innovative shapes. As the architect himself stated, “I wanted to give the bar counter an assertive, strong, dynamic configuration. I think that it deserves this. I chose an innovative and futurist shape because I would like it to last in time.
I can imagine it on an aeroplane or on the spacecraft that will take us travelling through the skies of the future. They will be pleasanter trips”.

I Ghiacci looks onto the present-day world, looking forward to all the aspirations that the future can bring us. The concept of transparency is reiterated assertively. The soft, ergonomic lines accompany the operator as he works on the product and the customer as he chooses it, and the technological aspect becomes essential. A new language for combining the very concepts of tradition.

I Ghiacci is offered on the market like a genuine state of the art, but featuring extremely refined thinking. According to Silvestrin, on the subject of a taking a break to have an ice-cream, “Those few seconds of our day that we spent in front of the counter of a bar or of an ice-cream parlour are often moments of joy, of warmth, of friendship, of perceptive pleasure, of a small wish coming true.
It is the vibration one feels when disobeying the doctor’s orders or ignoring the dietician’s recommendations, it is the pleasure of exchanging a few words with a friend in harmony.
I cannot remember ever having quarrelled in front of a window full of cakes, ice-creams or aperitifs”.