OK, a different thought on design

Some 20 years ago, then mayor (now senator) Dianne Feinsten proclaimed that San Francisco would have “Fleet Week” to honor our armed forces but mostly the Navy.  That’s because they have some presence here, a major seaport.  Part of that celebration is the annual buzzing of downtown by the Blue Angels.  That’s our Navy’s version of a precision flying team, for those who don’t know.  So, I’m sitting here on a Friday afternoon with five FA-18’s burning up the sky over my head, wishing I was in one of them, frankly….

OK, design.  More specifically, making a career in the jewelry business, whatever genre you might choose, speaking mostly to the real newbies in the business who wonder what it’s about.  The issue I think many people have is that somehow jewelry design has to be, or needs to be, different or unique.  There are two sides to that coin – first is people who know less about jewelry history and the marketplace than they think they do, and make stuff they think is unique that’s really not at all.  There’s a recent book out that I won’t name wherein 2/3 of the work is essentially the same, all thinking they are great artists.  The other side of the coin is those who may or may not have the above POV, but go out there and make strange, exaggerated jewelry, in the name of being “unique”.

Well, that’s all fine and dandy.  It’s also not really necessary if one wants to make jewelry and make a living at it, too.  Most people buying jewelry don’t actually want strange and exaggerated jewelry, they want macaroni and cheese or perhaps a filet mignon.  Imagine if you could never eat your favorite meal because every meal had to be unique..  Now, this is not to say that everybody should make macaroni and cheese, either.  It’s only to say that there is a difference between unique and strange.  If you make a solitaire ring, whether cabochon or faceted, you are making a unique piece, at least in some fashion.  It is YOUR solitaire ring.  When you add some doodad on the side that accents it in your own inimitable way, then it is even more so.  When you put wings on the side that poke the wearer in the eye, then you have become exaggerated and strange.  I’ll make it clear that I don’t care whether anybody designs anything – this post isn’t some rant about outre’ design work.  The issue here is, Can you sell it, and do that consistently?  I would maintain that having at least a base in the familiar will give one an edge, there.  There is indeed a thriving business in selling the same models that have been sold for 100 years.  There’s also a thriving business in making jewelry that’s familiar enough that people respond to it, but also innovative and fresh.  The key to making jewelry into a business is that people have to respond to it.  And although there are chefs who make cactus and nettles soup, and 30 people a night pay him $100 a night for the privilege, there are a million people eating macaroni and cheese as I write this.

I only mean this as a pep talk for those starting out – this is not so much about design as sales, though the two are intimately entwined.  “Art for Art’s sake” is a fine concept.  Art to wear was, too, though I haven’t even heard that term for awhile.  Somebody who knows told me that almost all of the pieces in a famous national show went on tour for a year, and then were broken up because nobody bought them.  You might make your macaroni and cheese with orange Yak cheese from the Himalayas, but just that fact that there is something people can respond and relate to means they will try it out. 

I say, in our business, that the customer is NOT always right – they aren’t jewelry manufacturers.  The buyer IS always right – they buy what they like, and don’t buy what they don’t like.  It’s your job as a designer to make sure they like it, or many of them.  I’m not suggesting people should recycle the standards, though there’s a good living to be made there, selling commodity jewelry.  The key to getting people to buy your jewelry is to make it in such a way that they will want to.  That means know your audience, and what is expected by them.  None of us live in a vacuum.  You can make a ring with a genuine razor blade sticking up out of it, thinking it’s some statement – maybe it is.  (Cutting edge, I suppose….)  But nobody will ever buy it, or at least not as jewelry.

You don’t need to make cactus and nettles soup to be unique.  You can make a grilled cheese sandwich and put pesto on it, or make your own cheese and bake your own bread.  That’s something that’s grounded in a reality that people can respond to, and they’ll fly out the door, if the workmanship is good, too.

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johndonivan

Latest posts by johndonivan (see all)

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