David Louis Product Design

Well I did say we would begin to focus more on hand made sterling silver items. This week we have added the Sterling Silver Chip Fork Key Ring to the Gifts of Distinction range.

We have had many debates here at Gifts of Distinction: David-Louis as to what category to add this Jewellery Quarter made item to and have come up with an innovative category for our Gifts of Distinction site – here it is ‘Sterling Silver Key rings’ yes its not exciting but the Chip Fork is a key ring so making it really useful and much more portable than the fork you need to keep in your wallet.

The Silver chip fork is both a gadget and an excellent gift for any one who goes out and about, it adds pizzazz to any take away or night out.

The Sterling silver Chip forks features are, Hand made in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, Hallmarked at Birmingham’s Assay Office, Supplied in an elegant gift box and available on the Gifts of Distinctions web site for  20.00 plus VAT.

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Currently at David-Louis and our sister business Gifts of Distinction we are experiencing a surge in interest in our sterling silver products.

In particular are our sterling silver chop sticks, a product I have loved making and am delighted to see it is now in ascension.

Based on this surge of interest in sterling silver we are in the process of building on our sterling silver product range. Watch this space for each product launch over the coming weeks.

Each solid silver chop sticks is hallmarked with our Gifts of Distinction hallmark as is our exclusive chop stick holder that comes with each pair. I thought it worth emphasising that the chop sticks are 100 percent sterling silver, they are delicate and light enough to eat any meal with yet are 100% silver.

You can view and order our sterling silver chop sticks on our David-Louis site.

B4AM – Birmingham At 4AM – Jewellery Quarter

Originally uploaded by karenstrunks

Here is a Jewellery Quarter photo project by Karen Strunks, her project is entitled B4AM and I recommend you have a look at the rest of the images, totaly fantastic.

From our Gifts of Distinction arm of the business we are proud to present our new Heart Shaped Cufflink, supplied in an elegant presentation box – Ideal cufflink for any man in your life.

Here is a little hand made gem of a Valentines gift, we have but a few available but the heart shaped hip flask is sweet, small and subtle. They are available through our Hip Flask business, Flaskstore – enjoy

http://tinyurl.com/9c54hp

Please do get involved – it takes around 5 seconds.

Well, we couldn’t resist this one for our specialist Hip Flask business.

This Hip Flask is kitsch, cool, handy and sexy – well we think so.

We have also recieved a new batch of sexy pink hip flasks for the lady in your life, now that Valetines day is on its way.

Look if you dare.

David-Louis

Well the New Year has arrived and we have all crossed over from the fantastic frenzy that is the Christmas rush.

I wanted to look at how creative enterprise and entrepreneurs can avoid the dreaded credit crunch and somehow come out stronger when it passes, which it will eventually. It does call for action though and simply doing the same thing year on year especially when moving into quieter times will not create growth in any business.

In my own business (es) we have come up with a few commercial strategies to combat the potential fall out from the dreaded credit crunch, the words on all entrepreneurial lips at the moment. Some of these are real world bricks and mortar strategies and others are online – where the potential for growth is incredible.

How can a creative enterprise flourish in this climate? Well, I believe the answer is to target you product online to people that adore what you do.

This is a valid strategy as far as sustaining the Jewellery Quarter and holding onto heritage. The income streams comes form both local people, just down the road who find you online and indeed order both online and visit you in your workshop and also from global customers that are looking for high quality individual work.

The key is to actually get very specific, sell specific products online and target specific niche markets by using strategy, the generic term or keyword ’silver ring’ will get you nowhere on the internet, you must describe the attributes of the ring that the customer will use when enquiring about a desired item. Text based content is king.

At the moment I am working in several ways to encourage new, emerging and existing makers to think strategy not just ad hoc responses to enquiries.

I am currently writing a business course for the BA Honours Design for Industry course at the School of Jewellery and will deliver it over five days in January and February 2009.

Update: here is a news artice about Rachel Briggs from the BA about her designs going on sale in Jewellery Quarter after winning competition: http://tinyurl.com/bcpz5h

The business content of the course I am writing gives an overview from the initial stages of concept development all the way through set up of the business to delivery to market using current trends in distribution and marketing while supporting traditional routes – the emphasis is on strategy and sustainability – we want designer makers to succeed in business and to stay in business as a career and life long makers and designers (Lifers) not simply to open what I will call ‘spring flower’ businesses that explode in a burst of colour only to fade away after one season.

I am emphasing the fact that the bottom line is… the bottom line, in other words a creative enterprise should capitalise on low cost systems to attract a new audience to the business in question.

Sustainability is achieved through strategy and foresight this takes planning, January is a great time to look at your strategy for the next year and I would encourage all designer makers to sit down for one day and think as opposed to do. It will reap rewards.

David-Louis

www.david-louis.com

www.gifts-of-distinction.co.uk

www.flaskstore.com

www.gifts-of-distinction.co.uk/blog