The Problem with Calling Yourself a Jewelry Designer
"Hmmm... I guess everyone's busy. I haven't heard from anyone in a while.
"Perhaps that's what I get for my long periods of absence...
"At any rate, I've devoted myself rather heavily lately to determining the state of my industry and the future of my career.
"Before I go on, I will admit this information is highly specialized stuff, and I'm betting my narrowing focus has made this blog progressively less popular over time. Nevertheless, this is what is on my mind, and I have to get it out of my system somehow.
"With that disclaimer, here are some results of my recent research:"
1.) My biggest stumbling block has been figuring out what to bill myself as. Jewelry Designer seems to be a difficult field to peg in terms of career categories, and therefore, it's a tough one to find an "average wage" for. Product design is different, as is accessory design.
Part of the problem is connotation-- many people who call themselves jewelry designers either spend 6-12 hours a day in front of the telly stringing beads for sale on tourist resort street corners, or make repeated weekly attempts to blow up their shed with noxious chemicals and blowtorches attempting to compete with a 300-man silver sweatshop in Thailand.
2.) CAD/CAM Operator is also a problematic term for career categorization. The most common use of this distinction is for what we like to call "CAD Monkey". (Kind of like a "Grease Monkey") That is, those trained to build shapes in 3D software without doing much actual design. Essentially, they do what wax builders in a factory do-- they take a designer's diagrams and make them work in 3D.
This is problematic because, at most, only 30% of my typical week is devoted to this kind of work, and even then I'm thinking about design as I work in 3D, more like a sculptor than a technician.
3.) Just like every other field of design, a designer spends every day justifying his existence. How hard he works doing this depends on how much others take his line of work seriously. Even in fields as obviously important to profits as print and product design, this is still a problem.
If only I had a doller for every time I've heard or read "Why can't we just hire a printing press to design that brochure, or a shop corner jewelry repair man design that ring?"
Well, you get what you pay for... ;-P
4.) It seems you can't discuss CAD/CAM in a group or forum without someone trying to sell you a five thousand dollar software package. Ugh.
5.) The way I see it, jewelry design is in a state of transformation right now. It's obvious computerized mass production techniques are coming in (a la industrial design), but nobody's sure how much they will affect the industry. A few software packages and machines have come to dominate the market for now, but it's hard to tell if they're hindering or helping market development.
"For now, I'm still trying to decide where I want to be when the smoke clears."
"Perhaps that's what I get for my long periods of absence...
"At any rate, I've devoted myself rather heavily lately to determining the state of my industry and the future of my career.
"Before I go on, I will admit this information is highly specialized stuff, and I'm betting my narrowing focus has made this blog progressively less popular over time. Nevertheless, this is what is on my mind, and I have to get it out of my system somehow.
"With that disclaimer, here are some results of my recent research:"
1.) My biggest stumbling block has been figuring out what to bill myself as. Jewelry Designer seems to be a difficult field to peg in terms of career categories, and therefore, it's a tough one to find an "average wage" for. Product design is different, as is accessory design.
Part of the problem is connotation-- many people who call themselves jewelry designers either spend 6-12 hours a day in front of the telly stringing beads for sale on tourist resort street corners, or make repeated weekly attempts to blow up their shed with noxious chemicals and blowtorches attempting to compete with a 300-man silver sweatshop in Thailand.
2.) CAD/CAM Operator is also a problematic term for career categorization. The most common use of this distinction is for what we like to call "CAD Monkey". (Kind of like a "Grease Monkey") That is, those trained to build shapes in 3D software without doing much actual design. Essentially, they do what wax builders in a factory do-- they take a designer's diagrams and make them work in 3D.
This is problematic because, at most, only 30% of my typical week is devoted to this kind of work, and even then I'm thinking about design as I work in 3D, more like a sculptor than a technician.
3.) Just like every other field of design, a designer spends every day justifying his existence. How hard he works doing this depends on how much others take his line of work seriously. Even in fields as obviously important to profits as print and product design, this is still a problem.
If only I had a doller for every time I've heard or read "Why can't we just hire a printing press to design that brochure, or a shop corner jewelry repair man design that ring?"
Well, you get what you pay for... ;-P
4.) It seems you can't discuss CAD/CAM in a group or forum without someone trying to sell you a five thousand dollar software package. Ugh.
5.) The way I see it, jewelry design is in a state of transformation right now. It's obvious computerized mass production techniques are coming in (a la industrial design), but nobody's sure how much they will affect the industry. A few software packages and machines have come to dominate the market for now, but it's hard to tell if they're hindering or helping market development.
"For now, I'm still trying to decide where I want to be when the smoke clears."