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Retail
Rock Star Designers
Jewelry Television hosted a design competition to find the next big talent.
By Amber Michelle
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| Hoffman’s cuff from the Unconventional Materials challenge. Contestants had two minutes to pull as many items as they could from a table filled with things not usually used in jewelry. |
Project Runway” meets “The Next Food Network Star” in Jewelry Television’s (JTV) design competition show, “Rock Star Designer.” On the program, which aired for seven consecutive weeks in August and September, five jewelry designers competed for a prize of $5,000 and an opportunity to work with a JTV merchandising team to have their line manufactured and a one-time on-air opportunity to pitch their creations to the network’s viewers.
“Rock Star Designer,” which aired on Friday nights right before the “Girlfriend Friday” show — the network’s most-watched series — was the brainchild of Jill Johnson, vice president, marketing, JTV. “The idea came up when I was working on a project with Kris Kulesza, our vice president and general manager, merchandising. We were planning an open house so we could connect with emerging designers,” explains Johnson. “The idea came about to have a reality show similar to ‘Project Runway’ or ‘The Next Food Network Star.’”
Originally, the show was conceived to be a digital buy on YouTube, but when it was presented to the top network brass, the consensus was that it should air on television. “That was a big step, since it takes time away from selling,” notes Johnson.
JTV sent out a call for designers at Charleston Fashion Week in South Carolina in March 2015. The network also pitched design schools and advertised on the Emerging Designer website in order to attract entrants for the competition. Through an online voting process the field was narrowed down to ten designers and the first episode of the show saw those ten whittled down to five designers who actually competed on the show. The contenders not only have to be sharp designers, but they have the added challenge of needing to have a personality that comes across well on television.
There were three judges for the show. Johnson and Kulesza were joined by celebrity stylist and television spokesperson Michael O’Connor, president of New York City–based Style & Substance. The contestants were judged on five criteria: Marketability, producibility, creativity, theme consistency and personality.
“As a judge with 14 years of television jewelry-selling experience as well as a marketing and design background, I also looked at the designers to see if they would go outside of their comfort zone,” comments O’Connor. “Every designer has a comfort zone and the challenges pushed the designers to explore outside of themselves.”
The challenges were created to bring out a different aspect of each jeweler’s talent. The first directive was the International Challenge. Each designer got a small trunk with gemstones and books about a different country. The artist had to create a piece that would represent the style of their assigned country and appeal to network viewers. The second test involved the ability to interpret color according to an archetype in a color season from the book “Color Your Style” by stylist David Zyla. The third week had contestants taking obscure objects not usually used in jewelry, such as plumbing hardware or seashells, and turning them into something wearable for the Unconventional Materials challenge. Last but not least was a Red Carpet throwdown using traditional gemstones and precious metals to create a piece for the red carpet at either a music or movie awards show. “The designers could collect a maximum of five points in each of the five criteria,” reveals Johnson. “The most points from any one judge was 25. The winner of each challenge was the one who scored the most points from the three judges. The overall winner was the one who scored the most points throughout the competition.”
The judges were hard graders, notes Johnson, who comments that Kulesza made a point of saying that she did not give fives. “This was a tight competition. There was a significant amount of talent among the top three,” comments Kulesza. “But the winner’s competitive nature really came through in the end. She gave it her all, plus more in the last challenge. She pushed her creativity beyond her own boundaries yet still created jewelry within her own design aesthetic. The winner is also a ‘complete package’: creative, talented, articulate, smart, comfortable in front of the camera and always thinking of the customer.”
O’Connor adds that salability of the jewelry was a big factor in the judging process and he felt that the winner stood out in part because of her story. “I looked at how compelling the story of the piece would be to persuade a consumer to purchase the jewelry,” says O’Connor. “It was about the thought process behind the jewelry. How and where should it be worn? The personality of the designer had to come through.”
Marketability of the pieces was a key factor in Kulesza’s assessment of the jewelry. “The winner had good design. The pieces were fairly easy to manufacture with some minor changes and they were not age specific. They were also fun and interesting without being over the top. There was a level of maturity and experience that showed in the designs,” she observes.
The winner, Ashley Hoffman, of Ash Hoffman Jewelry, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was revealed in the last week of the program in a double feature, which broadcast two episodes as one. “This competition is groundbreaking because it allows us small-town designers to reach a much bigger scale,” says Hoffman. “I have 2,000 or so followers on Facebook, but to have all of JTV’s 85 million viewers is amazing.”
Beyond the chance to reach a much bigger audience with her work, Hoffman notes that the competition forced her to stretch as a designer. “It made me think about who I was designing for,” she says, adding that she usually designs diamond jewelry. “In my business, I do a lot of design that is my personal style, but this time I had to design for the JTV customer and the jewelry has to be mass produced.”
On top of that, the designers didn’t always have their usual tools and materials to work with, which presented another set of challenges, but also helped to inform the designs. “It caused me to edit my designs,” notes Hoffman. “I use tools that are more complicated, so I had to simplify my designs. I had to focus on one idea. I had to edit to fit the time frame allotted for the challenge and according to what they were asking for.”
With one successful season wrapped, Johnson predicts that there will be a season two for “Rock Star Design,” sometime in 2016.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2015. To subscribe click here.
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