When everyone sounds the same
Maybe this primarily reflects my own awakening, but I think we have begun to suffer from stagnation in the jewellery industry in terms of creative use of the new tools available to us. CAD has been around long enough for us to get past the beginner’s mistake of thinking, “Now that we can do this, we should.” Another halo ring anyone? Sheesh! Is it really a great idea, for example, to design and manufacture jewellery with tiny diamonds (or gems that are even more fragile) everywhere on the design?
It becomes a vicious cycle when consumers see a certain design style that is, in the beginning, innovative, though quickly becomes less so as more and more designers and manufacturers follow the trend. Don’t get me wrong—some of the micro-pavé stuff out there is esthetically stunning. But does it serve our industry to create an entire generation of this type of design?
I suppose it will keep our repair shops busy, but is that the legacy we wish to leave for the next wave of jewellery designers, marketers, and consumers? As we examine current design stagnation, a valid question might be, “Is this our voice or the computer’s voice speaking?”
