18k gold jewelerBranding

One showcase, in store and online

We formed the company, created the brand, keep the books and built the system that ties together the counter, the workshop and the online store of a gold jeweler in Nashville, Tennessee.

Client: Ferchez Jewelry
Business type: 18k gold jeweler
Service area: Branding
Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Services delivered

Company Formation
Sales Tax Registration
Accounting
Brand Design
Identity Manual
Web Design
Online Store
Management System
Hosting & Deployment

1inventory for the showcase and the online store: what sells at the counter stops being offered online without anyone touching it

The challenge

FERCHEZ was about to open an 18k gold jewelry store in Nashville. And a jeweler is not just any shop: many pieces are one of a kind, each one is worth a lot of money, and the ones that come in for repair aren't even theirs. On top of that it wanted to sell online, which is exactly where a business like this breaks: two inventories that stop matching, and the one-of-a-kind piece someone orders on the website after it already walked out the door that morning.

What we did

First the company: we formed it, registered it to collect Tennessee sales tax and have kept its books from the start. Then the brand: a monogram with a diamond, on black and ivory, and a single gold that isn't handed out, so it keeps meaning luxury rather than decoration. And finally the system that holds the business up. One inventory for the showcase and the website; a workshop where the customer's piece never counts as merchandise; a cash drawer whose balance isn't typed in but added up; and Tennessee sales tax, which isn't a flat rate, worked out properly on every invoice.

The result

The one-of-a-kind piece sold at the counter in the morning shows as sold out on the website before anyone remembers to take it down. The ring a customer leaves to be soldered can't be sold by mistake on a busy Saturday, and if one day she says “that dent wasn't there”, there is a photo of how it came in. And what costs a jeweler dearly no longer slips through: when a cash sale goes over $10,000, the panel warns that there are fifteen days to file Form 8300, and the warning lands with the same team that keeps the books.

I want a project like this

The brand

A monogram and a diamond

The F and the C cross into a monogram, and a small diamond says what the house does before you read “Jewelry”. Gold on black, which is the version that leads.

A version for every size

From the header lockup to the bare monogram in the browser tab, every space has its piece. Below 200 pixels wide the logo doesn't shrink: it switches version, which is what keeps it legible.

A single gold, and it isn't handed out

Black and ivory take the surfaces, and the gold —exactly the one in the logo— stays at a fifth of what you see. A sapphire, a wine and a champagne were tried as a second color, and none of them stayed.

Every background has its version

On black, gold; on ivory or on the gold itself, black. And on the website gold is never used as text on a light background: there it stays at a 1.55 contrast and can't be read.

Backgrounds drawn from the diamond

The patterns repeat the same diamond as the logo, in gold, in black or as a lattice. They always sit behind and give texture without adding a single color to the palette.

The project in pictures

The system that runs the store

The screenshots carry demonstration data: made-up customers, pieces and sales to show the system at work.

Sold in the showcase, sold out online

The online store works out availability from the same stock the counter moves, so a one-of-a-kind piece sold in the morning shows as sold out online minutes later. And outside it only says whether it can be bought: not the tag reference, nor how many are left inside.

The customer's piece is never merchandise

What comes in for repair is described in front of the customer —what it is, how it arrives and what they say it's worth— and that can't be rewritten afterwards. It doesn't show up in the counter's search, so there's no way to sell it by mistake.

Tennessee sales tax, done right

In Tennessee sales tax isn't a flat rate: the local part only applies to the first $1,600 of each piece, and there's a bracket of its own up to $3,200. Every invoice works it out and explains it, so the customer understands what they're paying.

A cash drawer that can't be dressed up

What should be in the drawer isn't typed in: it's added up from what was collected, and only cash counts, because card and Zelle go to the bank. At closing, what's counted is checked against that figure.

The warning that saves a fine

A jeweler that takes more than $10,000 in cash has fifteen days to file Form 8300, and the panel spots it in the sale itself. It doesn't block the sale, because the law asks for it to be reported, not refused: it stays pending until someone marks it as filed.