RATNADEEPA Gem Dealer Showcase

Read it as

Problem: A buyer abroad cannot hold a stone up to the window. One photo under one light hides the question every dealer asks, which is how the stone looks by evening light.
Constraint: A luxury trade that runs on trust, viewed mostly on phones, where retouched photography is common and buyers know it.
Decision: A vault aesthetic with near-black surfaces, brass and a restrained serif, and a light table that moves each stone between D65 daylight and 2800 K tungsten photographs.
Outcome: Shipped. Buyers can answer the colour question themselves before they book the flight.

The problem

Coloured stones are judged by eye, and the eye depends on the light. Dealers look at a stone in daylight and again under a warm lamp, because a sapphire that looks velvet blue at noon can turn inky by evening, and some stones change colour entirely. A buyer in Europe looking at one retouched photo cannot ask that question.

The constraint

The site had to feel like the trade, quiet, expensive and trustworthy, and it had to work on a phone, which is where most buyers look first. It also had to ship before every stone had been photographed twice.

The decision

A vault, not a shop. Near-black surfaces, brass accents and a restrained serif. No discount banners and no carousels.
The light table. Each stone is photographed twice on the same rig, under D65 daylight and 2800 K tungsten, without retouching, and a slider moves between the two. Same stone, two lights. The buyer drags and decides.
Ship before the photography. Stones without photographs yet are drawn procedurally in SVG as faceted, step and cabochon cuts, so the catalogue worked on the first day and improves as photographs arrive.

The outcome

Shipped as a mobile-first showcase, with the light table as its one signature interaction.