Xanda
Creating a private-client showroom for fine jewellery
I designed a responsive digital showroom for Glenn Spiro, replacing a simple jewellery carousel with a more considered, image-led experience shaped by private-client expectations and small-agency constraints.
Context
Background
Glenn Spiro is a London-based jeweller who approached our team to create a digital showroom for his bespoke pieces. The site needed to help high-intent private clients, stylists, collectors, and people already familiar with the jeweller appreciate the work and get in touch, rather than sell online. I designed the desktop and mobile screens, prototyped the experience, and prepared handoff assets for development.
Challenge
The existing site used a basic fade carousel, which gave the pieces limited presence and did not fully reflect the craft behind them. The client wanted a more dynamic display, but our team had 4 weeks, one developer, static photography, and limited supporting content. I explored a richer motion-led concept, then translated the ambition into a buildable approach using composition, cropping, contrast, responsive layouts, and restrained interaction.
Research
Discovery centred on the existing site, the available assets, and how luxury jewellery and high-fashion brands present high-value pieces without relying on e-commerce patterns. A review of 6 luxury and fashion sites showed consistent use of large imagery, restrained UI, discreet contact routes, and limited transactional language. This helped frame the direction as a selective showroom rather than a catalogue.
Highlights
Showing each jewellery piece as a considered object
The old carousel gave every piece the same centred treatment, making the collection feel visually uniform. I used scale, cropping, and off-centre placement to give each piece a stronger sense of presence. In an internal before-and-after review with 3 stakeholders, the new direction was described as more “editorial,” “premium,” and “focused on the craft.”
Making sparse content feel deliberate
The available content was limited to 18 jewellery images, piece names, 3 short quotes, office imagery, and the logo. I kept captions minimal and used a light canvas texture to create contrast without distracting from colour, shape, and material detail. This made the limited content feel intentional rather than underdeveloped.
Designing mobile around the jewellery, not the desktop
The desktop concept relied on wide-canvas composition, which became fragile on smaller screens. I designed mobile layouts that centred the pieces, reduced surrounding visual complexity, and protected the clarity of each object. During responsive QA, we reduced key layout issues across breakpoints from 14 identified problems to 2 minor visual issues before handoff.
Turning an unbuildable motion idea into a practical showroom
The team initially wanted the jewellery to move in and out of frame through richer 3D or animated moments. Because that carried too much technical risk for the timeline and team, I created a simpler system based on static composition, controlled transitions, crop behaviour, and responsive rules. The final handoff defined image placement, mobile crop behaviour, background treatment, contact states, and spacing rules across 12 key screens and 3 responsive breakpoints.
Impact
Results
The work replaced a simple, non-responsive carousel with a more composed, responsive showroom direction for a live agency client. The direction was approved after 2 rounds of client feedback, with final changes focused mainly on background treatment and which jewellery pieces were highlighted.
Hard product metrics were not available, so the clearest impact is a before-and-after improvement in presentation quality, mobile readiness, and development handoff within a 4-week agency timeline.
Reflection
The project sharpened my understanding that luxury digital work often needs fewer features and stronger control over attention, hierarchy, and restraint. The key trade-off was stepping back from the more ambitious motion concept and finding a buildable way to create presence with static assets.
If revisiting the work, I would measure contact interaction, mobile engagement, image performance, and qualitative reactions from private-client or sales-facing users.
Summary
The challenge was making a small set of static jewellery assets feel appropriate for a high-value private-client context. The work balanced visual ambition, sparse content, responsive presentation, client preference, and the limits of a small agency build. The outcome treated the jewellery less like slideshow content and more like crafted objects worth closer attention.