The market for entry-level authentic jewelry in Mainland China presents a dual challenge: rampant quality inconsistency among untrustworthy local players and a new generation of emerging buyers culturally disconnected from legacy luxury spaces.
Legacy parent brand Tse Sui Luen (TSL) Jewellery, which services an upper- mid luxury market throughout China, Hong Kong, and Macau required a targeted mechanism to capture this rising post-teen consumer base without diluting its own traditional market equity or prestigious reputation. Working closely with renowned American Interior designer Bruce Brigham - the former interior design CD for Cartier, and working with Tiffany Jewelry interior design director William Lai, Crowded Studios worked in lock-step to develop a graphics style, photography and brand touch-point systems based on authenticity, music, and jewelry design that was a large, but affordable step up from other Chinese brands trying to capture the same market share.
SAXX Jewellery was engineered as a standalone, high-value retail sub-brand to capture these first-time buyers. By applying the principles of emotional branding, SAXX transforms a entry-level commercial transaction into an energetic lifecycle transition—securing a permanent place for the TSL family as a leader in this critical demographic.
Ⅰ. Strategic Brand Architecture
The Brand System Principle:Organize portfolios, offers, and sub-brands into systems designed for clarity, growth, and long-term value.
Application: Safeguarding the parent portfolio was paramount. The architecture explicitly positions SAXX as a standalone sub-brand endorsed by the legendary quality of the TSL family. This dual-layer architecture prevents identity drift or style dilution within TSL stores, while passing down parent-brand trust and baseline design authority to value-priced merchandise.
Saxx Ads and Branding
Saxx Style Guide
Ⅱ. Operational Brand Modernization
The Brand System Principle: Evolve legacy expressions with clarity—preserving trust while updating relevance and performance.
Application: Traditional jewelry environments often alienate youth cultures through rigid formality. SAXX modernizes this retail experience by building its core identity around the powerful, melodic storytelling of sax-jazz music. By embedding the concepts of improvisation, rhythm, syncopation, and creative energy into the retail space, the brand shifts the purchasing narrative from a traditional standard to a personal declaration of hip, confident style
Store Interior Design
As part of the continuing expansion in Mainland China, the new concept store created in unison with the TSL Group main brand reinvigoration strategy, under the brand name, 謝瑞麟|Saxx, was further expanded with the opening of 5 new stores by May 2015 after its extremely successful first opening of 3 stores in 2014.
This brand is an extension of the TSL Jewellery Group’s quality products and services to the young and trendy consumer segment in the Mainland China. Going in to it’s 2nd year, the interior design of the 謝瑞麟|Saxx shop won the award of “Design for Life Awards 2015 – Category : Retail” by the American Society of Interior Designers - ASID.
謝瑞麟|Saxx formed a new entry point for the Group to this young and trendy market segment.
Saxx Event Booth 关于珠宝展
Product Showcase Design
Product Photography
At the start of the development of the Saxx brand, I worked closely with renowned global fashion photographer/ director Jim Jordan, to set a very stylized way the Saxx products would be shot in studio - rigorously shaping light, on the spot testing and editing, to ensure the output represented in brand media projects kept with the authenticity foundation set at the conception of the store. This clean, product all-in focus direction made quite an impact in the Asian market - to the point where not only local competitors were investing heavily to copy the signature photo direction, international brands soon followed suit.
Lifestyle Image Direction & Influencer Evolution
Story board art direction and product planning
Authentic Musical Foundations
To build genuine trust with younger consumers, SAXX anchored its early campaigns in real musical talent. The brand partnered with up-and-coming musicians—first saxophonist Mindi Abair, followed by LA artist Alana Vincente—as authentic brand spokespersons. Their music was integrated directly into the retail experience, evolving over time from in-store CD displays to digital MP3 downloads, and eventually to curated Spotify channels.
Strategic Pivot to Film & Social Culture
As consumer media shifted toward social platforms and video, SAXX adapted its visual narrative by collaborating with film and fashion talent. Partnering with creative agency White Cross in Los Angeles and celebrity photographer Jim Jordan, the brand cast actress, model, and musician Kate Nauta to modernise the brand's image. Fashion stylist Charlie Altuna (America’s Next Top Model) curated a high-contrast look that accentuated the Art Deco design language of both the jewelry and the retail environments.
