Becoming a Jewelry DesignerToday, it means possessing a range of skills and characteristics, for a sector that embraces technique, creativity and fashion. The jewellery designer is one of the design nichewhich combines creative and design skills, design and fashion, art and the jewellery industry. This professional is able to translate an idea into an object, using an innovative language and making past, present and future interact.
But how do you become a jewellery designer?
1. Start with jewellery design
The first step lies in design, an activity that is changing as technology evolves and is enriched with new tools and software. It will therefore be important to keep up with the times and changes and learn the main tools used for jewellery design.
In this regard, one must start from the basics, learning to master the basic concepts, strategies and techniques needed to succeed.
2. Good knowledge of materials and strategy
Prerequisite for becoming a jewellery designer is knowledge of materials: metals, fibre, glass, precious stones, textiles and countless other materials that today enrich a jewellery designer's possibilities of expression. From simple, mechanically produced designs to refined pieces of art made of precious metals and the finest stones, a jewellery designer will create a piece of jewellery from concept to final creation, taking into account aspects such as colour, balance and functionality.
The idea or the jewellery design concept is the first step in the creation process that guides the designer, followed by balance, movement, contrast and harmony, as well as the need to integrate these concepts into a final creation. But if good jewellery design starts with a concept, it is the strategy behind that concept that forms the building blocks: understanding what makes one piece of jewellery more attractive than another, what makes it stand out or make it unique and original, whether the particular combination of materials is appropriate, whether the piece meets the basic requirements of good design.
3. Training: IDI's Master in Jewelry Design
The jewellery design is also a question of technique. This profession requires specific skills that cannot be acquired through a YouTube video, but needs very good training, such as that provided in the master's degree in Jewelry Design of Italian Design Institute. The Jewlery designer is able to read social and cultural changes, translating them into accessories that become part of the collective imagination as an iconic object.
Becoming a Jewelry Design means first of all knowing how to create jewellery from a drawing, on paper or with a CAD programme (Computer-Aided Design), must be able to harmonise materials, know how they behave in heat and much more.
The exclusive teaching provided by Italian Design Institute points to practical skills acquired by the students during guided exercises, alternating with lectures, delivered by highly specialised and qualified professionals.
The training course, for a maximum of 18 participants, is divided into several stages:
- Preparatory lessons, with text study and lessons on an online platform
- Classroom phase, with lectures
- 96-hour goldsmith workshop
- Guided tour of the Vicenza Oro fair
- Project work with individual project realisation
- Optional 200-hour internship on national territory
- The most complete and interesting project work will also be rewarded with an internship within Maison Touscè, during which the student can realise the prototype.
The Master of Italian Design Institute presents a comprehensive programme covering many topics:
- History of jewellery and manufacturing technologies
- Materials and gems: Analysis of the physical, chemical and morphological characteristics of materials and gems; design methodologies; analysis of the process from idea to
- prototype realisation; design methodologies, choice of materials and stylistic references, elaboration of drafts and working drawings
- Technical jewellery design: freehand sketching and Rhinoceros: Hand and digital drawing techniques; techniques, technologies and 3D printing.
- Lessons in the goldsmith's workshop
- Visual communication and packaging
- Techniques of a prototype, a collection, a book
- Realization of a Moodboard
- Graphic image design
- Packaging design
- Market definition and marketing strategies
- Analysis of case studies
- Focus on movements, institutions, companies that constitute a model in Italy and abroad
- Study of the principles of marketing for a product launch on the jewelry market
