Career Paths for A Jewelry Designer

In the world of design, jewelry designing is one of the most rewarding career paths to choose. Here’s why it could be the best for you.

Jewelry is not just a chunk of metal in India. It’s a sign of prestige and honor. It welcomes festivities and deities into our homes. Be it Holi or Diwali, it won’t be any surprise to see jewelry shops filled up with enthusiastic buyers, ushering in the big festivals with a beautiful gold or diamond pendant, ring, etc. Not to forget the new era jewelry buying occasions for the millennials and Gen Z, such as Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, among others. 

So what makes an avid jewelry lover choose one jewelry over another? The answer is in its design. While the buyer may be at the store to purchase an item, they will choose to purchase the jewelry item that best stands out from the rest. Jewelry design draws people in. It seems to speak to them, speak to their individuality, which ultimately makes it irresistible to not have. 

You might have felt this way too when shopping for the perfect pendant, ring, earring or any other product. And you might have developed a taste for a certain style or design by now. This is an exciting skill to have, because it gets you all the more closer to the world of gems and jewelry – to becoming a Jewelry Designer. 

Who is a Jewelry Designer?

A Jewelry Designer is someone who designs original and unique pieces of jewelry. Sometimes, they even manufacture the piece of jewelry as well. Jewelry designers have a good taste in design and a creative imagination to come up with unique and authentic designs. They are generally the trend setters in the jewelry space.

It’s important for a jewelry designer to have the skillsets needed to bring their imagination to life. This means that they need to have a good understanding of the latest trends, as well as sound technical knowledge. 

Today’s jewelry designers must not only know manual/creative aspects of jewelry designing but also know how to use Computer-Aided Designing (CAD) in order to visualize any jewelry design for clients to their closest expectations. They also need to have some background in working with precious gems and stones. A good understanding of each stone or gem’s durability, shine, weight etc. will let them experiment and create revolutionary jewelry. And finally, an understanding in marketing and networking can help greatly in promoting yourself and your creations. 

How to become a Jewelry Designer?

The best way to pursue your passion in design is by pursuing a professional course on jewelry designing. At JK Diamonds Institute of Gems and Jewelry, we offer aspiring jewelry designers a range of practical market-studied resources to hone their skills in design.

If you’re looking to get into jewelry designing as a beginner or even you upgrade your skills, our Jewelry Design Graduate (Manual) course is the perfect start. It provides you the basics and advanced teachings to design and create stunning jewelry pieces. Students enrolling in the course learn various forms of jewelry designing including their technical parameters needed for jewelry making or manufacturing. Unlike other jewelry designing degree courses in India, we focus on encouraging creative thinking and aesthetic understanding of fine and fashion jewelry designing processes. The curriculum involves practical designing for domestic markets as well as international markets. By the end of the course, each student designs creates her own unique portfolio.

Once you have gained knowledge on how to go about designing, the next step is to make yourself familiar with Computer Aided Designing (CAD). With our Jewelry Design Graduate (CAD) course, you can become familiar with industry tools used by jewelry businesses to create unique jewelry for clients. You learn to bring your imagination and creativity to life. It is also an important technical skill to learn in order to present your clients your jewelry pieces, almost in the flesh. The 2D and 3D features of these tools helps your clients in visualizing your jewelry, and convincing them of its radiant beauty.

The recent boom in the gems and jewelry industry is providing an abundance of professional opportunities for designers to start their careers and venture into the glorious world of jewelry. With your talent and your professional qualification certificates under your belt, you can move forward with a slight head-start in the industry.

Career Paths for a Jewelry Designer

Once you have realized your goals to become a jewelry designer and have completed your degree in design, you can then choose your career path in an abundance of options in front of you. You can use your newly gained knowledge in the following places:

• Freelance jewelry designer
• Customised Jeweller
• Boutiques 
• Start your own jewelry brand
• Work for Jewelry Brands / Retail Chains
• Television and the Film Industry 
• Accessory Designing Houses

The Pros and Cons of Jewelry Designing

With every exciting path in life, comes a set of positives and negatives. Jewelry Design is one such exciting road to take, but it too comes with its own positives and negatives. 

The positives: Jewelry design serves as a great outlet for your creativity. The job and entrepreneurial profile allows you to experiment, learn and flourish with your imagination as the primary driving tool. It lets you get closer to working with jewelry brands that you look up to or create one yourself. Jewelry Designing is a lucrative field as well as a glamourous one. Profit margins are high. Also, jewelry industry, being a luxury product gains more customers based on desire than need. It means that the customers are financially sound and usually have a happy occasion to celebrate.  

The negatives: When something sounds this good, you can expect that many would want to become a part of this. The market is filled with people like you, which means that there is a lot of competition to achieve the same goals as you. However, as economies are growing in the post pandemic scenario, as well as the developing economies such as India pick up pace, the customer base is rapidly increasing leading to new opportunities. The economic situation of where you live also plays an important role in judging the resources you can use to become a jewelry designer. 

How to get started as a jewelry designer?

The best way to get started as a newcomer is by creating a portfolio. If you don’t have any professional experience with designing jewelry for companies, you can simply create some designs as samples to present to the companies you approach. Pursuing a Jewelry Designing course at J K Diamonds Institute is a big advantage as every student is made to design a unique portfolio for herself. 

Students also receive access to JK Alumni Connect where job vacancies and freelance jewelry designing requirements are posted. Students and Alumni can take advantage of this portal to find a job, freelance opportunities as well as network. Another way is to attend tradeshows and exhibitions as they are a concentration of professionals who are part of gems and jewelry industry. You never know who might be looking for a designer like you! 

There will always be many reasons not to pursue your goal. But with determination, skill and professional qualification, you can set out and be the best jewelry designer you know!