The Knicks Made the Finals. We Made Gemstone Layouts

New York is having a moment right now. The Knicks are headed to the Finals for the first time in 27 years, and suddenly the entire city is speaking the same joyful language. Blue and orange are everywhere. Every conversation somehow circles back to basketball. Complete strangers are talking to each other. Taxi drivers have opinions. The guy making your coffee has opinions.

Honestly, it's been hard not to get caught up in it. So we did what we usually do when something catches our attention. We made gemstone layouts.

One became a basketball. Another became the number 27. A few others pulled from the same color story that's currently taking over New York. Tanzanite and  Blue Sapphire added a perfect, clean blue. Spessartite Garnet supplied the orange.

Once the Knicks clinched their spot in the Finals, the layouts felt inevitable. The city was celebrating, blue and orange were everywhere, and it seemed like the perfect excuse for a die-hard Knicks fan on our marketing team, who has waited 29 years (quite literally my whole life), for this moment, to have a little fun with stones we already loved working with.

For those who love the feeling of being inspired, one of the best parts of working with gemstones is that inspiration doesn't have to come from jewelry itself. Designers pull ideas from fashion, architecture, music, sports, travel, color, street signs, packaging, restaurants. The source almost doesn't matter. What matters is noticing something interesting and finding a way to translate it into your own work.

That's exactly what these layouts are: A celebration of a moment. A reminder that design inspiration is usually closer than we think it is. This week, for our marketing crew, the inspiration happened to be basketball. More specifically, a city that waited 27 years for this moment.

For now, we're enjoying the ride right along with everyone else. View more of our Knicks-themed calibration on Instagram!