This was a crazy and fun experiment: horizontal AND responsive. This site mirrors the futuristic and asymmetric tone of this talented artisan — an Aquarian herself.
HANDMADE
Grace Gow is a handcrafted jewelry one-woman enterprise
with a focus on being transparent about her own process,
rather than products and social media.
EXPERIMENTAL
A WEB 2.0 approach allowed features such as "store" and "blog" to be handled externally — by Big Cartel and WordPress — freeing the site to be a hub to play with the innovative aspects of the branding.
THEIR BRAND
Core aspects are dualities,
gritty and poetic,
beach and city,
light and shadow,
all strongly communicated through photography layouts and composition — photos are entirely from the owner's collection maintaining her presence where it matters.
THE END GAME
Authenticity and
a personal touch.
HORIZONTAL AS THE EYES
Also part of the brand, the experimental flavor was accomplished by a horizontal experience, just like our eyes work = doubly larger than their height. I even researched how in the heck papyri showed up — the "cave man ancestor of the web scrolling" — since human eyes can see much more horizontally... But, story for another time. (Though books also work horizontally! Well, I am bookmaker, what can I do?)The mouse wheel scrolls the site horizontally, for ease of use.
FUTURISTIC
ARTISANAL
GLAMOUR
Illustrations of her actual collection pieces underline the handmade, one-of-a-kind quality of Grace Gow's jewelry, as they overlap the contrast-y imagery.
I have one of GG's super long sequin earrings to this day.
WHAT DO FOLKS SAY?
Our visitors have confirmed we succeeded on our goal to communicate a sense of opposites working together(oh, so, so Aquarian this) and the handmade essence of Grace Gow's work, as well as the vibe of an artisan who loves experimentation.
And you know: I do too.
To experiment
is to evolve.
ON MY PLATE
Art direction
UX
Visual design
Illustration
Development