David Louis Product Design

Gifts of Distinction do exactly what it says on the tin, design, make and supply personalised sterling silver gifts and corporate awards, including this year’s prestigious Birmingham Post Business Awards, to both local and international customers.

Says owner David Louis Hendley “We hand make, engrave and ship beautiful sterling silver gifts to local people via our web site www.gifts-of-distinction.co.uk”. David is fond of saying “We bring the Jewellery Quarter to your door”.

Every gent’s gift item, from quirky chip forks made in sterling silver to silver Marmite lids and back to sterling silver pens and cufflinks plus the corporate awards on Gifts of Distinctions web site are hand made in the jewellery quarter by locally based silversmiths. They are all available online; each item can be engraved for a nominal charge too.

“We specialise in hand making, engraving and delivering prestigious sterling silver gifts and awards to our customers, online and on time” says David proudly.

Made in the Jewellery Quarter group are launching another showcase at the IDEA Birmingham show in The Mail Box, Birmingham. Please do visit level 5 to see exquisite and exclusive products and jewellery made in Birmingham.

Here are some elements of the David-Louis Tableware range on show at the recent Made in the Jewellery Quarter exhibition in the Jewellery Quarter. I will be uploading more pictures of the launch event on the Made in the Jewellery Quarter web site over the coming days. Check them out.

…compliments of our new brand….

The Truth is out…here..

Yes – we love cool stuff, yes we love a few beers, yes we love great product design and as every designer knows you have to cut your design teeth by making a few bottle openers… this is defacto – factomundo…. and most definitlely true etc and we can prove it with this vast collection of cool, stylish, sleek, multi functional bottle openers.

Choice bottle openers.

We have hand picked some of our own in house bottle opener designs in bottleopenerstore.net plus we have introduced to date thirty more bottle openers on top of our own bottle openers and we are definitely on the hunt for more – loads more in fact. Here is a brief selection of some of the great design led bottle openers we provide -

1: The cool key tool bottle opener

The KeyTool bottle opener from BottleOpenerStore.net

2) Beer Kit Bottle Opener by Jakob Wagner

The Beer Kit Bottle Opener from BottleOpenerStore.net

3) Peter Holmbland Cylinda Bottle Opener

Cylinda Bottle Opener from BottleOpenerStore.net

So get on down (over!!) to bottle opener store and check out the goods – ‘Your bottle cap will come off’ (Jumps in pool)….

Morrie\’s wigs… the opposite to beer bottle caps..

Gifts of Distinction specialise in production of lapel pins and corporate badges in precious metal including sterling silver, 9ct gold, 18 ct gold, 22ct gold and platinum.

We make high quality UK manufactured hand made lapel pins.

The features that make our lapel pins high quality are the polished edges, excellent soldering of the well made component parts, hand finished, in gold, silver, silver plate or any material you wish.

All our precious metal goods are Made in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham using Die making, stamping, etching, casting, hand polishing and enameling. Any shape can be made to order.

For further details visit our web site Gifts of Distinction or call us on 0121 233 4757.

David.

There are many things that make me a happy man, being a husband, a father, being a designer & business owner, the original Wickerman is my favorite film plus I love Lego Starwars.. hence this morning I was playing with my son & as the Lego wickerman began to take shape I got really into it, setting up a photoshoot as the wee man was told to go & play with his trains… Well I asked myself what sort of Daddy am I? .. A happy one?

Well here we all are on the cusp of the Great Exhibition Feb’ 12. As a team we have all been working hard on the launch event and between us it is coming together, granted I will be spending the next few days assembling stock for it but we are nearly there, I am also in two minds as to how to display the David-Louis product, I have always wanted to go for a science feel with test tubes and jars and suchlike but I think I will have to reign that in this time, I will definitly upload some pics to the blog and on twitter once the event is launched.

I wanted to emphasise we are a collaborative group of Jewellery Quarter based companies and are holding a month long show of our combined work for the month of February.

The goal of ‘ Made in the Jewellery Quarter’ is to let the people of Birmingham and the wider region know what is made on their doorstep,
plus give them the opportunity to buy a piece of craftsmanship and a contemporary product from artisans, designers and most importantly locally based businesses.

https://madeinthejewelleryquarter.wordpress.com/

All four companies in “Made in the Jewellery Quarter” are renowned for the quality of their design capabilities and their contribution to the Birmingham product brand and are aiming to help each other’s businesses to succeed together.

Exhibitors include

LJ Millington I David-Louis I Alabaster & Wilson I Capricorn Coating

Well, I am coming up to the end of lecturing at BCU School of Jewellery for this academic year and have been creating a summary of the content for the students to discuss tomorrow and lo and behold when put in order it appears to me to be a useful guide to starting up a new business in the creative sector.

Although I have many projects on the go at the moment including launching a  new brand plus developing my MA project alongside the running of the businesses and oh yeah I am organising an exhibition called “Made in the Jewellery Quarter” for Feb 2012… next month please do come along, anyway, I do think there is the makings of a good start your own business book there so perhaps in the future I will be able to apply myself to this.

Here is the basic content of the course I have developed if you have need of a lecturer or two in any of these areas in the creative sector just give me a call.

Course Overview

Entrepreneurship in the creative sector.

David Hendley (c)

Course Goals

To develop the skills you need to succeed in the current working climate.

To assist with developing an online portfolio.

To assist with developing your vision and create a clear next step when you graduate.

Course Overview

Puropse of a career / business plan

Create a mission statement

Outline of a basic career / business plan

Establish your personal vision

SWOT analysis of your core skills or idea.

Researching & developing your own logo and brand.

Market research -types of, how to & practical.

Freelance employment – rates & marketing

Costing your work professionally

Overheads of a studio

Distribution of your products strategically

Legal structures of a business

Marketing using press releases

Developing your online strategy

Basic web design and architecture

Building an online portfolio

Harnessing social networks

………………………………………….

of course I will keep developing the course so get in touch if you wish.

David Hendley.

Check out our other online gift businesses

http://www.gifts-of-distinction.co.uk
Gifts of Distinction I Sterling Silver goodies for that very special gift – engraving is available.

http://www.david-louis.com
Lifestyle giftware for the home – designed by our lead designer David-Louis

http://www.flaskstore.com
A vast array of exceedingly well made hip flasks and all can be engraved for free.

http://www.tankardstore.com
A specialist web site focusing on an exquisite range of tankards for every occasion.

After several months of work, collaborating with local businesses, negotiating exhibition space, tapping local universities for help I am very pleased to announce the launch of the Made in the Jewellery Quarter Exhibition Feb ’12.

David-Louis.com and three other local businesses have teamed up to display to the public a selection of our wares during February 2012, the exhibition will be held in the Gallery Space known as Art at Artful inside Artful Expression and The David-Louis Project.

at 23 Warstone Lane, The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6JQ.

The exhibition will showcase designs by Cufflink Couture, LJ Millington, David-Louis and Alabaster & Wilson, between us we have approx. 300 years of jewellery and product design knoweledge so the show case will be varied and beautiful

We have also launched a website with full details of the exhibition which can be visited by going to

https://madeinthejewelleryquarter.wordpress.com/

At the moment I am experimenting with developing apps, I am unsure if this will be just for my own sites of if I will be offering this as a service but for now here is our bottle opener Android App, please do download it and let us know how it goes, if you like it.