We are super stoked to showcase to you all a stunningly exquisite ecommerce website that everyone here in the studio had a part in creating! It’s for the talented wife and husband artist team from Metaphora. They create beautifully unique, hand-crafted glass jewelry that embodies the essence of the elemental planes, and are located here in Connecticut.
Right off the bat when the website loads your eyes are mesmerized by the transparent alchemical symbol that is spinning in the center of the screen behind the silhouette of a tree. This is one of five animated motion graphic videos we created for the site, and it houses all the elements that the artists call to when they create their jewelry – Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The four other videos can be seen in the header on each of the elemental product pages.
Read more about the project below!
custom animated videos and svg graphics
Below are 2 gifs of the animated videos created for each of the headers of the element pages that were created exclusively in After Effects. The fire element was the first video created, and originally the conceptual designs of the other videos were a lot more realistic; but after we did a rough animation of the water video and watched them after one another, we felt there was no unity and continuity between the videos. We really liked how organic and abstract the fire video was, so it set the precedent for the subsequent element videos. Doing so seriously unified the rest of the site – all of the design elements on the site flow seamlessly together.
Along with the animated videos, we also created animated SVG graphics for each of the elements, as well as the categories of jewelry they make. At first they look like static images, but come to life when your mouse pointer hovers over them!
Click the images below to see a .gif teaser of the animations
custom package design
We also designed custom product packages that will be used as the housing vessel for each piece of jewelry. The artists wanted it to be an experience for when the customer receives their product – and boy does this box deliver just that! From the soft, satiny texture of the box that makes it irresistible to not caress, to the trifold sleeve that has the alchemical symbol and all 4 elements emblazoned on it, to the revealing of both a satin card with the specific element of the collection on it and the hand-crafted glass jewelry safely nestled in the soft foam.
product photography
Another element of the site that we had the pleasure to work on was the product photography for their collections. We felt to do these works of art justice, we needed to create a still-life that felt organic and reflected aspects of the element the piece represents. A soft, gentle focus on the organic background, and a sharp, detailed focus on the piece of jewelry brings such clarity to the small, intricate details in each piece.
From initial design to conceptual art work, to animation and photography, to final touch-ups and QA – the reason this project came out as well, and as truly unique as it is, is because each one of us took part in working on it and were able to add our own, artistic voice to give it a life of its own. Truly a site to behold and one that we’re honored to have been a part of!
