The second half of Design Inspirations, the annual seminar on trends organised by The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), which was this year held as part of the Signature IIJS 2019, turned the focus on India, covering both its rich design heritage and its transformation towards becoming a leading centre of jewellery, both in design and manufacturing.

The opening presentation during the second half was by Amit Singhee of IBM and focused on the role that cutting-edge developments in the world of computer programming, particularly Artificial Intelligence or AI, could play in aiding jewellery designers.

Drawing on design forecasting initiatives taken by IBM with some players in the apparel industry, he said that there were two sources that could supply vast amounts of data to guide the process. The first was trends culled from actual sales that had occurred within the preceding period, which could give valuable insights into what consumers actually desired in terms of colours, price points, materials, shapes and lots more. Similarly, he said, visual mapping of photographs from the fashion runways of the world could provide indications of the new design directions. Both these, which would be laborious and time-consuming processes if carried out manually, can now be accomplished in super-quick time using AI based computing.

Sachin Jain of Forevermark and RIcha Singh of Diamond Producers Association (DPA) presented their views on the process of design, the role of designers and the importance of diamonds. Jain, who made a brief presentation, emphasised the role of technology saying it was changing at an exponential rate and opening out immense new possibilities. He advised young designers to realise that ideas were the core driver of new designs, but it was also important for them to understand that simplicity of style, and adherence to cultural specifics of each market were other essential ingredients of success. He also touched upon some of the challenges of creating new concepts and lines of diamond jewellery – while they would need to be trendy, they also would need to bring out the amazing longevity of a diamond, including its past, having been created billions of years ago and its future, as it retained its value over generations, he elaborated.

Richa Singh, who engaged Paola De Luca of The Futurist in what was described as “Real Conversations”, discussed the need for designers to create smaller pieces of dailywear diamond jewellery that could be celebrations of the many small, special moments that loved ones experience in ordinary, everyday situations. She touched upon her organisation’s recent experience in bringing together jewellery designers and fashion designers at the Lakme Fashion Week and said that diamonds are not only decorative, but have a value in projecting one’s image and status as well. She stressed that in addition to catering to special occasions like engagements, weddings and anniversaries, designers must also create collections of smaller jewellery so that consumers could “enjoy the experience of wearing diamond designs every day”.

The concluding presentation by Paola De Luca, the well-known jewellery trend forecaster, presented an overview of Aatman - Inspirations 2020, the GJEPC Trend Book for India. She spoke about the growing importance of India in jewellery design, saying that the country was now poised to once again recapture the premier position in this field which it enjoyed in earlier periods.

The book, she explained touched upon this glorious design heritage of the country using examples of the rich artistic history of various aspects of Indian culture. It also explored different aspects of the diamond and jewellery industry today, covering diamonds, gold and gemstones, and provided insights from domain experts into aspects of designing such as Branding and Storytelling, the Future of Diamonds and many others.

Paola then took the audience through the Approach and Methodology followed in the creation of design-led jewellery collections. She explained the various steps involved beginning with Research, which included Data collection and analysis, consumer and market insights, design directions, technology and more. Following this the designer needed to apply this information to the particular needs of the company and the market it was intended for, with specific exclusive research required in some cases to fine tune the strategy. Finally, the execution involved creating the design brief, marketing materials and other content that could reach consumers through social media, print, electronic and other channels.

In the last part of her presentation, she briefly outlined some of the key trends or Inspirations for 2020 including the relevant design directions. The main themes for the next season in terms of design were defined as:

I-Deco – as culture evolves from the last century to this one, bringing together the old glory with the infinite possibilities of modern technology;

Storytelling –  bringing about introspection between the dreams for the future and the inner spirit and essence of each individual;

Ancestors – with a stress on depicting the past and the mysteries and myths of the stories narrated by generations gone by; and

Self-Expression – creatively interpreting and connecting various worlds, cultures, the real and the metaphysical in unconventional and uniquely individual styles.

Paola concluded by saying that the Indian jewellery industry was today poised to take major new leaps on the world stage and she was extremely happy to be associated with the GJEPC in helping to encourage new talent and give a direction for the future.

Pic caption: Paola De Luca of The Futurist presenting a brief overview of the new Trend Book for 2020