005. Akano Diamonds

Overview

Akano Diamonds is a distinguished luxury jewelry house founded in 2020, known for crafting bespoke pieces that embody African heritage with a modern twist. As their brand evolved, Akano needed a digital presence that mirrored their identity. Timeless, refined, and grounded in cultural elegance. I led the redesign of their website to align with this vision, improve user experience, and ultimately boost conversions.

Challenge

The existing website lacked clarity, emotional depth, and the high-end feel expected of a luxury brand. My challenge was to design an experience that felt just as exquisite and intentional as the jewelry Akano creates.

Design Approach

I began with an in-depth analysis of leading luxury jewelry brands such as Cartier, Bvlgari, Messika, Tiffany to understand the patterns, tone, and expectations within this niche. These insights helped inform decisions around layout, whitespace, motion, and the tone of content.

UX & Structural Design

Simplicity was a key directive. I designed a minimal yet intuitive structure that allowed the jewelry to speak for itself. Wireframes prioritized clarity, easy product discovery, and smooth storytelling across the homepage, product pages, and editorial features

UI & Visual Design

Collaborating closely with Akano’s brand designer, I applied their guidelines to the interface-preserving elegance through: Soft typography hierarchy, warm neutral color palettes, luxurious image curation, subtle transitions and hover interactions. While I largely adhered to the brand system, we occasionally broke convention to heighten usability or visual impact. Particularly in layout rhythm and call-to-action treatment.

Impact & Reflection

The redesign successfully elevated Akano's digital presence, resulting in increased engagement and recognition-including features in The New York Times and Debonair Afrik. The most rewarding challenge was finding the balance between creative expression and minimalism. While my initial direction leaned bold, refining the design to match the client's vision taught me the value of restraint. In the end, simplicity is the true expression of luxury.