Mucca recently designed a brand identity for Tiny Gods, a fine jewelry retailer and concierge founded by Mary Margaret Beaver. The new branding honors the character and stories behind each unique piece of jewelry.
Beaver is a fine jewelry retailer and concierge, whose deep background in the industry finally led her to open her own store, both online and brick and mortar in North Carolina. But, as Mucca came to realize, her ambitions extended far beyond the reach of a local small business.
"Mary Margaret wanted her store to become the mecca for the most highly and beautifully curated collection of jewelry in the United States," explained Mucca Founder and Creative Director Matteo Bologna. "She wanted to be known as a true confidant, not far removed from the people buying the pieces she curated. It was clear that she loved personally helping people find unique pieces that speak to them emotionally. She wanted to build a brand that reflected that point of view."
This challenge led Mucca to engage in a rigorous naming process, choosing a variety of words and phrases that evoked a range of emotions and qualities -- love, passion, fertility, and others. In the end, their team finally decided on Tiny Gods, a name designed to suggest a collection of something small but powerful, mysterious and eternal.
"The name captures not only the spirit of what Mary Margaret was offering, but also how jewelry makes its wearers feel," added Mucca Design Director Andrea Brown. "We applied this thinking throughout the entire brand, striking a balance between elegant luxury and something a little more 'badass.' Her collection is diverse with unusual pieces that are still very extravagant. Everything about the brand needed to be romantic without being sappy, and high-end without being stuffy."
For the identity design, Mucca drew inspiration from their knowledge of modern luxury and independent brands that they believed weren't afraid to have a point of view and break some rules. Unlike the typically neutral and minimal logos of high-end brands, the Tiny Gods logo is unconventional and expressive, just like the pieces themselves. Additional design elements have an elegant geometry, suggesting gemstones without being too literal. The brand language is poetically descriptive of the moment of discovering the piece that speaks to you, or of opening the box when it's received as a gift. Also, since jewelry is such a personal choice, each piece includes an information card that gives the buyer some background about the materials and the designer, to make it feel more precious and intimate. This attention to detail extended to every brand touchpoint Mucca designed, including the monogram, patterns, colors, typography, copywriting, packaging, an e-commerce website, and even the Tiny Gods Instagram account.
