Case Studies·03·Brand systems·with Asa Gilmore

Brand that earns trust.

Asa Gilmore and I work as a two-person design team. For a fine art gallery and two auction houses, we design the identity, the website, the catalogues, and the photography, so that buyers spending real money trust what they see and act on it.

These three lots come from our studio portfolio. Together they show the same discipline behind a good product design system: one visual language that holds across print, web, and the platforms the business runs on, for years.

Visit design.asagilmore.com ↗

Team: Carah + Asa Gilmore
Comstock, Nevada
Clients: Fine art gallery
Two auction houses
Scope: Identity · Web · Print
Photography · Platforms
Proof: 10+ year relationship
98% sell-through sale

Lot 01 · Stremmel Gallery

A decade of presentation worthy of the walls.

Contemporary fine art · Reno, est. 1969Ongoing, 10+ yearsstremmelgallery.com ↗

The problem. The inherited brand was scattered. Invitations changed typefaces every season, the website had grown piecemeal, and the presentation didn't match the quality of the work on the walls.

One voice

Consolidated the identity around a single engraved typeface that has carried every invitation since.

A quiet site

A white ground, minimal navigation, and in-house installation photography, so the online space feels like the gallery itself. Each redesign refines the system rather than replacing it.

Print, every show

An invitation for nearly every exhibition, with an archive spanning thirteen years, plus national advertising in Western Art Collector.

Photography in-house

Installation, artwork, and artist portraits that carry through invitations, the site, and press.

stremmelgallery.com, a white-walled gallery interface with a full-bleed installation photograph — Website · desktop

stremmelgallery.com on a phone, showing the exhibition listing — Mobile

Tom Judd show invitation cover, 2016 — 2016

Woodward show invitation cover, 2024 — 2024

Confluence invitation, November 2025 — 2025

Nolan Preece show invitation, 2026 — 2026

Thirteen years of invitations, and they still look like one family.

Lot 02 · Witherell's

A luxury brand, carried across a replatform.

Luxury auction house · Sacramento, est. 1982Ongoingwitherells.com ↗

The problem. An aging site undersold a house whose appraisers have appeared on Antiques Roadshow since 1997. The deeper driver was a replatform: the house was moving its catalogue and bidding to Bidsquare White Label, so the marketing site, catalogue flow, and brand all had to be rebuilt around a system we didn't own.

Let the mark lead

Pared the design back so the gold W carries the identity: restrained type, photography up front, American and modern enough to earn trust from younger collectors without losing long-time consignors.

Seamless handoff

Marketing pages on WordPress, catalogue and bidding on the white-label platform, with one consistent brand across the seam.

Results as creative

A full-page Maine Antique Digest ad built from the sale's own lots, turning the outcome into the message.

witherells.com dark homepage with the gold W sunburst over a twilight photograph — Website · desktop

The Witherell W monogram, a gold W drawn in radiating rays — Monogram

Full-page Maine Antique Digest ad with a large 98% built as a photo mosaic of auction lots — Maine Antique Digest · Feb 2026

98%sell-through rate for the Cali Collection sale, carried by one visual language from consignment pitch to printed catalogue to results.

Lot 03 · Nevada Gun Auctions

A sibling brand built to scale.

Specialist auction house · Gardnerville, NV2026nevadagunauction.com ↗

The problem. The old mark relied on color and failed in black and white, a real issue for a house that still advertises in newsprint. The emblem had no tie to Nevada, the type had drifted from the parent brand, and the core question was how much a sibling house should share with Witherell's: enough to inherit its trust, not so much that the two blur together.

A mark that holds

An engraved bison skull that works in one color, reversed, and at any size, tied to Nevada through thousand-year-old bison remains found in Cathedral Gorge.

Endorsed, not merged

Strictly Witherell gold and black, with a 'by Witherell' endorsement line instead of a combined logo.

A system, not a logo

Four engraved category marks in the same hand, so new themed sales can be branded without a new identity.

Everywhere it lands

Catalogues, tradeshow banners, truck signage, newsprint, favicons, and a dark catalogue-style website.

Nevada Gun Auctions primary mark, an engraved bison skull in gold and black — Primary mark

Horizontal lockup in full color and one-color black — Color and one-color

World War I category mark — Category · WWI

World War II category mark — Category · WWII

U.S. Civil War category mark — Category · Civil War

Revolvers category mark — Category · Revolvers

nevadagunauction.com dark catalogue homepage — Website · desktop

nevadagunauction.com on a phone — Mobile

04 · What carries forward

The same discipline, at product scale.

01
Consistency is earned over years. A brand that still reads as one family after thirteen years is the same problem as a design system that still holds after a hundred releases: restraint, a few strong decisions, and refinement instead of replacement.
02
Trust survives the handoff, or it doesn't. Moving a luxury brand onto a platform we didn't own taught us to design the seams. Patients and bidders both notice when the experience changes hands.
03
Build systems, not one-offs. A category mark system lets a team launch new sales without new design work. That's the same leverage as a well-built component library.
04
Design that converts is design people believe. A 98% sell-through came from a consistent story at every touchpoint, from the first pitch to the final results.