How I Design My Jewelry Collections + Giveaway

During my design process, I tend to get really overwhelmed by the array of beauty out in the world. You don’t start to notice it until you put your designer cap on. There are basic elements I definitely know I want in my collection before I start in order to stay on-brand with my business and target customers but beyond that… I have no idea what will come about until I dig into the design process. I’ve designed many collections but I’ve actually executed two of them which says how much more work it is to produce the collection. 

Designing anything is so personal and subjective. There are no right and wrong answers or guides to follow here, which is why I’m writing this post as my own personal process of designing. Let’s dive in!

INSPIRATION

You can’t force inspiration (I’m sure you already knew that) so it’s so important for designers to have multiple inspiration collection inboxes. For example, the Notes app on your photos to jot down fleeting ideas, also a cloud service with a “collection inspiration” folder for snapping quick photos. Google voice is great for when you’re in the shower (a.k.a. The idea generator box).

My favorite way of collecting inspiration is Pinterest. If you don’t have a Pinterest board titled “Collection Inspiration” are you even designing? Lol! My best tip for looking at other brands for inspiration is to look at brands outside the jewelry industry. For example, I’ve always been inspired by the Rifle Paper Co. brand. I feel like when you look too much into other jewelry brands it’s hard to get their designs out of your head when you’re designing your own collection.

Once you’re ready to put pen to paper, upload all your inspiration notes, magazine clippings and photos and put them all in a single file so you can see everything in one window (you can snap photos of magazine clippings, fabric swatches, physical items, etc. and upload them to your computer). For the purposes of this blog post, I designed a “fake” collection where Pinterest was my sole source of inspiration.

COMMON ELEMENTS

With all your inspiration sitting in front of you try to notice patterns within the collection. For example, do you see a lot of geometry, a lot of fluid motion, a specific colorway? Here are a few elements you can design your collection around.

Theme: For example; nature, anatomy, celestial, religious, etc. While Oden Sleeps does this well with her collection focused around sacred symbols.

Material: For example, using a certain gemstone or certain metals or adding fiber to your metal designs. Acanthus is well known for her process of keum boo, which fuses a thin gold foil on top of silver. 

Color: Maybe you love the color blue and only want to use blue stones. Kokopilli does this really well using a specific range of colors like blue, pink, green, and natural. 

Motif: You can use the same repeated motif, like a leaf, a circle, or a hand, that you use in every single piece, just in different ways. 

Cause: Perhaps you want to design a collection around something you believe in, like only using sustainable materials, or because you want to be a part of the fair trade federation providing income to women in small villages around the world. 

DESIGNING

Get a pen and paper and start drawing any shape or motif you see repeated in your collection of images. Don’t worry about your drawings being perfect, just do a brainstorm of drawings. At this point I don’t worry about bracelets, necklaces, earrings or rings, that can come later, because you can take, for example, a circle motif and turn it into a ring, a pendant, etc. 

When drawing, you’ll start to notice a theme appear. Once you’ve settled on which motifs you want in your collection then you can begin designing how you’ll incorporate them into specific jewelry pieces like rings, bracelets, etc. 

Because of what I saw in my inspiration board, geometric shapes, a lot of brass, and a cohesive colorway, I’m deciding to use brass as my main metal with colored enamel lines to accent the pieces.

PRICE ANCHORING

When you’re designing a collection you don’t want everything to be the same price otherwise you’ll exclude people who can’t afford it. You want to make sure you have at least 3 price points in your collection.

The Impulse Piece: These are the lower-priced, impulse buy pieces. It’s the piece your customer adds to their cart just before checking out. (Just like the impulse buys in the checkout lines at department stores). These are simpler designs that are quick, easy, and inexpensive to make. 

The Inlet Piece: The inlet pieces are your bread and butter design. They’re mid-priced because they are typically the most purchased pieces of your collection. These should become your best sellers, the pieces everyone wears, and what you’re most known for making.

The Iconic Piece: These are the biggest, boldest, and most expensive pieces in the collection. Imagine your whole collection is displayed in a glass case (or on your IG feed), the iconic piece is what your customers will see first and are instantly attracted to. Its job is to bring your customers to your website to see the rest of your collection. It’s rarely the piece your customer will buy but it’s the one they strive to purchase while collecting the Inlet and Impulse pieces from your collection.

Here’s an example of this price anchoring strategy from one of my jewelry collections:

And now, the details of the giveaway! Enter for a chance to win. 1 winner will be chosen by Tuesday, February 11, 2020, by 10 pm EST. Open to US residents only. 1 winner total. The winner will receive (2) larimar gemstone cabochons!

How to enter:

• Leave a thoughtful comment on one of my last 5 blog posts.

• Follow me on Instagram (leave your IG handle in the comments of this post so I can check).

• [Optional, but appreciated] Share this post with your friends!