les meilleures propositions du concours de design 2008

ENLIGHTENED™ - Swarovski Elements 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.

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.

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

First place or a freely created design went to design student Eugen Dirksen of Germany for his “Julius” model expressed in back-printed glass, leather and ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements created stones.
“Time is the most valuable thing in life,” Eugen says. “I translated this metaphorically by replacing the clock dial with precious stones. Now the stones are not only jewellery but have a meaning as well.” Eugen's sleek and streamlined model attracted the attention of the judges and very much expressed the “now”, which he says is his own time vision. He was awarded the cash prize of € 3,000. Eugen Dirksen  “Julius”Second place went to Oved Valadez of Portland, USA, a professional designer who draws his inspiration from all the things and activities around him. His submission, called “Gem: Modern Craft” uses translucent smoked ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements genuine gemstones, laser-etched treated leather and polished metal with engraved branding - all crafted to reveal time with a simple gesture. The bracelet style watch reveals the time, which is integrated into the mesh and activated by a simple touch of the hand. “My vision is straight-forward.
Time needs to be simple, responsive and gestural,” he said. Second prize was rewarded with a cash prize of € 2,000.  Oved Valadez“Gem: Modern Craft”Third place went to Isabelle Lopes, a professional designer living in Shenzhen, China, whose personal fields of interests are jewellery and watches, the tradition of savoir faire, luxury handcrafts and self made creations.
She named her entry “Shine”, an ingenious series of four rings spinning alternately on horizontal and vertical axes that were inspired by gyroscopes and ancient maps. “I wanted to create an alive and playful jewellery watch that catches the light and keeps its main function mysterious until needed,” Isabelle said. She used gold plated stainless steel, a 5 1/2 slim movement and full paved prong set ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements Spessartite and Topaz in six shades from light yellow to dark orange. Isabelle received a cash prize of € 1,000 for her entry. Isabelle Lopes
“shine”Special prize for "most innovative" Wang Qian from China also submitted an entry that caught the eye of the judges with his “Samsara” bracelet watch, which was named “Most Innovative”. The hours and minutes are illuminated in pinpoints of light on the outer side of the bracelet while the seconds are indicated by 60 miniature lights hidden behind inset ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements genuine gemstones on the inner side of the bracelet. He received € 500 and an ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements Limited Edition USB stick for his innovative entry.   Wang Qian“samsara”Presentation at Baselworld The competition, which ran for eight weeks, offered cash prizes for the four best freely created designs, selected by an expert jury, plus presentation of selected designs at the ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements platform at BASELWORLD, the world's largest jewellery and watch fair, held in Basel, Switzerland (April 3-10, 2008).

High number of entries The contest attracted some 1650 participants from 48 different countries right across the globe. A total of 2043 designs, including 747 freely created designs and 1,296 configured designs were submitted. 18% of the participants declared themselves professional designers, 21% design students, 25 % hobby designers and 36% preferred not to be classified.

SWAROVSKI
In 1895, Daniel Swarovski I, a Bohemian inventor and visionary, moved to the village of Wattens, Tyrol in Austria, with his newly-invented machine for cutting and polishing crystal jewellery stones.
From these beginning that revolutionised the fashion world, Swarovski has grown to be the world's leading producer of precision-cut crystal, for fashion, jewellery and more recently lighting, architecture and interiors.
Today, the company, still based in Wattens, family-owned and run by 4th and 5th generation family members, has a global reach, with some 22.000 employees, a presence in over 120 countries and a turnover in 2007 of 2.56 billion Euros. Swarovski comprises two major businesses, one producing and selling loose elements to the industry and the other creating design-driven finished products.
Swarovski crystal components, known by their product brand names CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements for fashion and STRASS® Swarovski® Crystal for architecture and light, have become an essential ingredient of international design.
Since 1965 the company has also catered to the fine jewellery industry with precision-cut genuine and created gemstones, and from April 2008 has strengthened this relationship by revitalising and renaming the product brand ENLIGHTENED - Swarovski Elements.
Showing the creativity that lies at the heart of the company, Swarovski's own-brand lines of accessories, jewellery and home décor are sold through more than 1300 Swarovski stores and concessions in all major fashion capitals, while the exclusive DANIEL SWAROVSKI accessories collection has become the company's Couture signature.
The SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL SOCIETY has close to 400,000 members worldwide, keen collectors of the celebrated crystal figurines. And in Wattens, Swarovski KRISTALLWELTEN, the multi-media crystal museum, was opened in 1995, as a celebration of Swarovski's universe of innovation and inspiration.
The Swarovski corporation also includes Tyrolit®, manufacturing grinding tools, Swareflex, for road safety reflectors and SWAROVSKI OPTIK, producing precision optical instruments.