Moodboards
We made sensory moodboards for the retail strategy.
We also made a moodboard for the jewelry design.
Sketching
At this point of the design process, we had decided to collaborate with Tree-Nation and centre the collection around tree species that they plant. We each chose 2 species we liked and sketched ideas for jewelry based on that. Here's an excerpt of some of those sketches.
We looked through each other's sketches and built upon each other's ideas and moved onto the second phase of sketching. Here's an excerpt of those sketches.
Next step was clustering our designs according to species and types of jewelry. Below you can see an example of a cluster with two similar species.
Next, we chose our favorite designs and made the collection cohesive by combining our design ideas.
Refining storytelling
At this point in our design process, we decided to focus on the Moringa species. We did some deeper research about the moringa tree to refine our storytelling. We needed to tell a vivid story about the tree we would be planting with each piece of sold jewelry.
Collection Logo & Color scheme
Deciding on one species to plant made it easier to decide the collection name and to sketch out and make the logo. The color scheme was chosen to match the concept.
Initial prototyping
We used paper, aluminum foil and string to make physical prototypes.
Testing
At this point in the process, we had a finished designing the first version of the collection.
We diverged into four different directions to test this collection each on our own and redesign the collection and branding according to the results of our testing. We came back with new insight and incorporated and combined some of our ideas we had gained on our own. For example, we eliminated some pieces from the collection after finding out that many of the people we tested the collection with thought that it was not cohesive enough.
Prototyping with 3d-models
The designs were drawn in Rhino and printed so we could test the physical resin prototypes for size, thickness and placement on the body. We adjusted the designs several times and printed them again to get the details just right.
To be able to show our design process in even more detail, we have made a document that shows it in a perspicuous way. You can view and download it below.
To learn more about our production methods and how we used technology to create the beautiful end result, check out the Technology section below.
