The second day of Design Inspirations 2016, the annual event of the GJEPC that focuses on good design and trends, offered a wide range of opinions and perspectives on various aspects of the theme. The vast canvas helped the participants deepen their understanding and grasp of the subject.

The day started with designer Laksh Pahuja, who has made waves with his stunning creations, discussing “Building Iconic Pieces”. Taking the audience through some of the classics that he has created over the years including the World’s Most Expensive Armband, Tributes to RK Laxman and MF Hussain etc., Laksh stressed that it was critical to have a story to tell, do thorough research on the concept and ensure that there is accuracy in the detailing during execution. The piece should be a true reflection of the individual, place or event that inspired it.

Kapil Hetamsaria, Velvetcase.com spoke on “Marketing Online Effectively”. He contended that it was essential for every designer and every brand to have a clear cut profile of their consumer, and said technology could help in achieving this. He added that the profile should be in terms of a “Buyer Persona”, not abstract categories, and that data analytics and metrics are useful tools that help an online store create it.

Reena Ahluwalia, well known designer from Canada who elaborated on “Inspiration” said it is a state of mind. “It is everywhere around us, we have to learn to see it,” she said. Some of the key aspects of the process were Openness, Curiousity, Collaboration, Outside-In thinking and Movement. Reena visually demonstrated the importance of these approaches through some of her own projects, notably those done with the Asscher group and Diamonds Unleashed, a jewellery line that stands for women’s empowerment.

The next presentation was by Manreet Deol of Manifest Design, a Pondicherry based start up that has specialised in jewellery collections that seek to bridge the gap between traditional precious metal and regular fashion jewellery. Manreet outlined the process by which her pieces of “everyday wearable art” are conceptualised and crafted. Designers should “tap into ideas” by looking around and draw inspirations at the macro and well as micro levels, she said. While Manreet creates basic designs in clay and uses textures and finishes to give a unique look to the pieces, recently the company has also tied up with a Harvard based manufacturer of wearable technology to create a line of wearable tech jewellery.

Shivaram of Retail Gurukul, an organisation specialising in retail training, created a stir with his assertion that designers cannot be aloof from the needs of a business; they must understand concepts like ROI and also create collections that sell. “You must know what consumer expectations are and develop lines that will be accepted by the market,” he said, adding that signature pieces or iconic collections could be a marketing tool to draw traffic to your store, but they are usually more difficult to sell.

Kicking off the post lunch session was Fashion Directorof Vogue Anaita Shroff Adajania, who is also a celebrity stylist working with a number of well known Bollywood stars. Anaita said that styling was not only about making a celeb look good, but also ensuring she feels good. Explaining the role of a stylist, she said it is not about clothes, or make up, or jewellery in isolation, but like putting together the various pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to create a look. Stylists are always on the look out for striking and unique jewellery pieces that can be used for photo shoots or events.

Anil Bharwani, a popular jewellery desiger traced his journey in the industry and how he has grown over the last two decades. He said that he works directly with the karigars to give shape to a piece and often has multilple meetings with them to ensure that it is perfect. Bharwani has been unveiling new collections each year at IIJS and said that each of them requires many months of work – from concept to research and creation.

Sachin Jain of Forevermark held the audience spellbound with his presentation that was an ideal blend of attractive graphics, slick videos and a compelling narrative. He said that Building a Global Diamond Brand was not easy and there were no quick fixes or shortcuts. The ability to have a universal experience and emotional connect with your consumer was one of the hallmarks of a sucessful global brand, while the ability to customise and fine tune this to each specific market and cultural category was crucial to sustained growth and a lasting impact.

Forevermark gives great importance to understanding the consumer, he said, adding that the brand had recently carried out one of the largest ever consumer surveys in the country. Sachin added that this not only gave them new insights, but helped change perceptions and create new product lines. “Our survey indicated that diamond nose rings are the 2nd most important category of diamond jewellery in India,” said Sachin, pointing out that this finding led Forevermark to create its latest Capricci collection.

The last session of the day was devoted to a workshop conducted by Paola De Luca of The Futurist Ltd. It was a facinating narration of the road from Design Strategy to Product Development, embellished with numerous real life examples from Paula’s own journey. The session covered multiple aspects of the process by which good jewellery is created such as designing, strategising, developing collections, merchandising and trend forecasting.

During her presentation, Paula talked about the role of the designer in grasping what the market and the consumer wanted, searching for inspirations across a wide canvas and freezing the stories and concepts for new collections. She stressed that designing is not about “developing products” but about “creating collections”, and added that every collection must have its own visual language. This could be used to bring consistency in design elements across product categories, she explained.

A good collection must have a mix of product categories, and the same iconic design and visual elements can be used to create large and small pieces, high end and more affordable pieces and could even be translated using different metals and gemstones. She consluded with a glimpse about the possible trends that are shaping up for next year.

In his summary of the proceedings, Colin Shah of the GJEPC’s PMBD Sub-Committee which spearheaded the event announced that the Council now plans to take this initiative further and will be releasing a Trends book for the Indian market at the IIJS this year while also formalising a Trends Cell for the industry.

Pic Caption: Sachin Jain of Forevermark making his presentation at the seminar