graphically challenged

the link is jamesdiamond.com

Welcome to TWF

Does the company have a brochure? these are good if you can use sections of them, or even business card if it has a logo/emblem

I think colour would help, don't think purple gives that million dollar look you're after. Look around at other jewellery sites and see what they use (don't copy), and even junk mail for ideas.

Fancy fonts for logos can do wonders, and ding bat fonts have shapes and things you can adapt to suit.

IMO go for simple but elegant

No brochure we are a jewelry store. No logo. Nothing graphic. The two most popular sites are using a dark blue almost black with snow flakes as their header. As for color schemes I am open to suggestions. Thanx D

Some very quick suggestions:

Play around with textures. Try using maybe a smooth satin-like texture for the blue parts.

Also, instead of a bright blue, I'd go for a richer, deeper toned down blue...

Long, elegant curves will be more effective than sharp corners.

Use a Serif font... maybe Georgia, Palatine Linotype, Times.

Try and make a title of some sort. Possibly use a "gold text" effect for it. I'll try and locate a link to a tutorial showing that effect...

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Good luck.

I agree, you need to make this site simple and elegant. I would use a much richer colour rather than bright, autumn colours might work well with rich browny greens and beiges with a hint of gold? For the logo you could just have the name done in a fancy handwriting/calligraphy style which will help emphasise the sophisticated feel. My main piece of advise though is to get really good, clear photos of the jewellery as the ones you have on there now aren't going to do the jewellery, site or store any justice as they are blurry.

I've seen jewelery store sites doen really well with a very light, white-based look. You could think of it like an artist portfolio, in which you want to show off the products and not distract the user with superfluos interface extras. You could possibly use some very light blue or gold to add some depth. Alternately, you could use a dark rich colour like navy blue or maroon.

If you're graphically-challenged, it may be best to find someone to create a logo or grahic header for the site. What sort of a sign does the store have? What's the feeling when you go in? You could use that for some inspiration in terms of colour and fonts.

Thank you all for sharing your ideas. I will look for that tutorial that was mentioned. I found a few after reading the posts.