HOOVER & STRONG AND SNAG HARMONY JEWELRY DESIGN COMPETITION

Honor HARMONY in Design. Celebrate HARMONY in the Environment.

Hoover & Strong and SNAG have launched the Harmony Jewelry Design Competition, for production jewelry.

Open to students and professional designers, this competition will celebrate designs that honor the environment. Using HARMONY Recycled Silver, finalists in this competition will be part of a truly remarkable shift to environmentally sustainable materials in the jewelry industry.

Read all details below or download the brochure.

THE DESIGN CHALLENGE

The design challenge for all participants is to design a piece of jewelry for production using specific pricing and production criteria. Since the winning piece will be manufactured and sold to raise charitable donations for the Nature Conservancy, these design directives must be followed.

   1. The design must represent an environmental concept. Recycling, Conservation, Renewable Energy, Environmental Clean-up.

   2. Participants must design the jewelry item using production manufacturing techniques and be able to produce the jewelry item at wholesale for no more than $25 including materials and labor.

   3. Ideally, Hoover & Strong would like to see designs where this year’s winning jewelry item could be worn with jewelry items from future competitions, so that all winning items could be worn together. (ie. charm necklace, scatter pins, stacking bracelets, etc.)

   4. The jewelry items that can be designed for this competition are limited to a bracelet, fob, charm, pendant, or pin.

   5. All finalist’s jewelry items, by both students and professionals, should be made from HARMONY Recycled Silver.

THE CATEGORIES

Student Designers - The Student Designer level of the competition is open to all jewelry students attending jewelry and metals programs throughout North America.

With this competition, Hoover & Strong hopes to foster connections between the jewelry industry and students, to make student design work more visible to potential future employers, and to help students of jewelry learn the principals behind production jewelry manufacturing, while supporting charitable causes and giving back.

   1. There will be no entry fee for student participants.

   2.  1st, 2nd, & 3rd place prizes will be awarded. The student winners will receive scholarships of $1,000 for 1st place, $500 for 2nd place and $250 for 3rd place.

   3. Hoover & Strong will retain those designs for possible production.

   4. All award winners’ pieces may be used in publicity for the design competition.

   5. SNAG encourages all educators whose students participate in the competition to have their schools join SNAG.

Professional Designers - The Professional Designer level of the competition is open to all SNAG members, independent artisans, and designer - manufacturers in the broader North American retail market.

   1. SNAG members will pay a $35 entry fee. Non-members will pay a $50 entry fee.

   2. Using the same design challenge parameters, the work by the professional designers will be judged separately from the student work.

   3. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place professional winners will receive trophies and trade press publicity.

   4. Professional designers can promote themselves by using the environmentally friendly HARMONY products.

THE RULES

All designs must be submitted to the CaFÉ™ online  submission site at www.callforentry.org, by midnight (11:59 Mountain Time) January 15th 2011, for preliminary judging. See the Online Submission Requirements below or go to the website for full details.

Designs can be submitted as hand drawn images, CAD illustrations, or photographic images of actual jewelry. Finished jewelry will NOT be accepted for preliminary judging. Participants may submit up to 2 images per entry. Detail views are acceptable but the maximum number of images submitted per design, including details, is no more than 2.

A 100 word (max.) statement of how your design would be mass-manufactured to remain within the restrictions of the competition, is required with your submission and should include dimensions, weight and finishing. No more than 3 entries per person will be accepted.

Finalists in the competition are asked to produce their designs as finished jewelry using HARMONY Recycled Silver.

JUDGING CRITERIA

Designs will be judged by nationally known jewelry designers for:

   1. Innovative design that honors the environment

   2. Creative use of HARMONY Recycled Precious Metals™

   3. Producing a well-designed piece within the specific pricing and production criteria

FINALISTS

Finalists will be notified in January and asked to produce their designs as finished jewelry for Final Judging on April 1, 2011. All decisions of the jurors are final.

WINNERS

Winners will be notified by phone and/or mail. A formal announcement to the public will be made on Earth Day, April 22, 2011. Winning and finalist pieces will be returned to designers by July 1, 2011.

THE CHARITY

Hoover and Strong will produce the winning piece and sell it through nationwide retail participation for approximately $50. All proceeds from the sales of the winning piece will be donated to the Nature Conservancy.

ONLINE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Submit all application materials electronically through CaFÉ™ at www.callforentry.org by midnight (11:59 PM) Mountain Time, January 15th, 2011.

To enter, visit www.callforentry.org, register a username and password, navigate to Apply to Calls, and search the list for HARMONY Jewelry Design Competition.

Participants must submit their digital images via www.callforentry.org and in accordance to the CaFÉ™ specifications. Instructions on how to format images to CaFÉ™ specifications are found online at Image Prep, https://www.callforentry.org/image_prep.phtml.

Only applications submitted through CaFÉ™ will be accepted. Entries submitted by any method other than through www.callforentry.org will NOT be accepted.

There is no fee for student applications. Student ID number and school name is required as proof of student status. There is a non-refundable entry fee of $35 for SNAG members and $50 for non-members at the Professional Level. There is no additional fee to use the CaFÉ™ online application system.

For detailed instructions on using the site, click on CaFÉ™ Help, www.callforentry.org/cafehelp.phtml. If this page  does not address your needs, please contact CaFÉ™ at  cafe@westaf.org Monday through Friday, between 8:30 am and 5:00 PM Mountain Time. Technical support is available until 5:00 PM Mountain Time the day of the deadline via  email at cafe@westaf.org.

AGREEMENT

By submitting design images for jurying, the artist agrees to all of the following:

   1. All work is original and made by the artist submitting the entry. He/she is solely responsible for the creation of their submitted work.

   2. I agree to abide by all the rules of the HARMONY Jewelry Design Competition and the final decision of the judges, and all terms and conditions set forth in this prospectus.

   3. It is the responsibility of the designer to insure their finished jewelry piece for loss, theft or damage during transit to Hoover & Strong.

   4. H&S/SNAG assume responsibility for the return shipping of all pieces to the designer. H&S/SNAG will insure the finalist jewelry pieces for the replacement cost of materials against loss, theft or damage while they’re in H&S/SNAG’s possession.

   5. H&S/SNAG will secure photography for the winning items. All such images will remain the property of H&S/SNAG. H&S/SNAG reserve the right to use the finished pieces in any marketing and promotion, including display on the H&S website, the SNAG  website, in advertising, and inclusion in any online communications, without further contract or compensation to the artist. Designers will be given credit whenever their piece is used in any promotion by H&S/SNAG.

   6. I agree to hold Hoover & Strong and the Society of North American Goldsmiths its directors, trustees, associates, advertising and publicity agency, and members harmless from any and all claims, litigation or other legal proceeding.

   7. Hoover & Strong retains the right to manufacture the winning piece and sell it through retail stores in North America.

Proceeds from the sales of the winning piece will be donated to the environmental group,  The Nature Conservancy.

For additional information, please visit www.hooverandstrong.com