Espace Presse
Watch Design Contest 2008
Cutting edge competition inspires instant online design community
The 2008 ENLIGHTENED™ - Swarovski Elements Watch Design Contest, which featured cutting-edge internet technology,drew a wealth of inspirational entries from amateur and professional designers. It also allowed them to go beyond the norm by presenting their personally inspired watch designs to an instant international forum.
The result was the creation of a virtual social network where designers were confronted with online critiques and suggestions and registered community members could vote for their favourite designs. An expert jury, headed by Swarovski family member Nadja Swarovski-Adams, evaluated the designs and selected the award-winning entries.
An ENLIGHTENED™ way to inspire design
ENLIGHTENED™ - Swarovski Elements (formerly Signity) is the new product brand for Swarovski’s precision-cut genuine gemstones and created stones. The 2008 competition provided alternative ways of participating by using an online watch configuration tool or via the possibility of uploading freely created designs. Making use of viral effects that spread news of the competition across online forums and websites,the competition was an inspired means of cross fertilizing design ideas. Banners on selected websites,and a commitment from 17 international universities and design schools to promote the contest, also encouraged the participation of design students.
Competition enhanced by Web 2.0 technologies
Thanks to the deployment of Web 2.0 technology, participants had the opportunity of voting for their favourite designs but also to submit comments and suggestions. This, along with the possibility of uploading avatars and pictures, and inviting friends to evaluate own designs, were attractive interactive features that quickly proved popular with the registered users.
Expert Jury
Swarovski called on the skills and perception of industry experts to serve on the jury of the watch contest and they gathered in London at the end of May to evaluate the designs. They included Nadja Swarovski-Adams, Vice President International Communications at Swarovski, international jewellery designer Pippa Small, Patrice Reynaud, Head of Design and Development Watches for Daniel Swarovski and Birgit Rieder, Head of the Gem Creative Team at the Synthetic and Gemstone Business of Swarovski.
Some 142 designs were selected from the 757 submissions and the jury then chose the final winners from a shortlist of 30 entries. The evaluations were based on – creativity in design and source of inspiration – uniqueness of the idea and technical innovation – feasibility of producing a prototype and/or a commercially viable model – the use of gemstones and created stones and – wear-ability
