In this project we got the opportunity to work with an upstart company in the jewellery industry; Pearl Stories, by entrepreneur and marketing specialist Annette Spanggaard. It was the first project where we were to focus on the entire process of idea to branded product. We were to base our concept on hunches and current trends, create a branded collection for Pearl Stories SS16 to be pitched and evaluated by Annette Spanggaard, who decided that our collection, Maxima & Maxima, was her favourite and best filled the requirement for this project. We then were then able to work in collaboration with her lead designer to further develop the pieces and she bought our designs.
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TRENDS & HUNCHES
Hunch - Maximalism
Bigger with color injection
We forecast that bigger and more color jewellery will be back in trend after minimalism has been around for the past 10 years. We call it Maximalism and DART Method is used to support our hunch.
Maximalism has been popular for the past year among the trendsetter from the street and internet. A good example is Anna Dello Russo whom we would use in our mood board. Maximalism is also one of the Scandinavian styles used currently for interior design with colour coordination (especially white) and mix-and-match to a cohesive look.
Our persona is called Olivia. She is a blogger and the assistant buyer in a danish fashion brand. She is 26 years old. Her idol is Anna Dello Russo. She always hopes to dress like her idol – the Queen of the street styles but never dares to do the same. Her work wardrobe is mainly black, grey and white quality simple style with her danish background. Jewellery is an outlet for her to express.
What is Danish Maximalism?
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Depth and richness are the essentials for maximalism. The end result should be complementary and not clashing but gives a strong impression. It is about life style and requires big personality to carry it and live in it.
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Maximalism is not exactly a Danish lifestyle with all the excessiveness. Based on our survey with our target customers, 86% thinks Danish design is about simple and clean while 54% would like to see more color and bigger jewellery in the new future. We use our findings and define Danish maximalism
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Danish maximalism is about:
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Clean lines
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Layers
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Lots of white
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Lots of stuff in order
Moodboard
From our research and inspiration we took to ideating and creating first prototypes. We used a very hands on method, using cheap and easy to manipulate materials; plastic imitation pearls, plastic beads and copper wire, so we could very quickly and inexpensively make many variations and test them out.
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Once we found a few ideas we liked we tried to explore variations on the form and body placement and then narrowed it down to create a cohesive collection.
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We decided not mix metals and colours of pearls and to keep the forms simple yet exaggerate them and constrast the thin wire forms with large almost excessive amount of pearls to create a 'maximalisim' feel.
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Design
Branding
As our collection was aimed younger target audience than most pearl jewellery and that our pieces didn't have a lot of colour we felt that the branding material needed to portray a loud, fun and extremely brightly coloured universe to convey the style and essence of the collection.
