Design Competition

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VOGUE MAGAZINE

 

The Leopards and The Prince’s Trust

The Leopards are a like-minded group of British designers and jewellery professionals who have come together to celebrate the wonder, art and desire that jewellery inspires.

Brought together by a passion for their craft and the future of goldsmithing in the UK, The Leopards are partnering with The Prince’s Trust and The Goldsmiths’ Centre to offer a unique training experience to guide and encourage young people into the jewellery industry.

The Competition

Entrants are invited to design a piece of jewellery inspired by UK Architecture. Using the definition of architecture as “the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings” the design should be supported by preparatory work which links to the specific piece(s) of architecture that provided inspiration. 

  • The winners will all receive a valuable and unique insight into their design work and careers within the Jewellery Industry  by four of London’s most esteemed jewellers: Solange Azagury-Partridge, Theo Fennell, Shaun Leane and Stephen Webster as well as practical skills through The Goldsmiths’ Centre.  

    The Prize

    The Goldsmiths’ Centre is the UK’s leading charity for the professional training of goldsmiths. Founded by the Goldsmiths’ Company, one of the major Livery Companies of the City of London, our mission is to advance, maintain and develop art, craft, design and artisan skills related to goldsmithing.

    The chosen designers will have the opportunity to work with industry professionals and spend four days at The Goldsmiths’ Centre and experience the following: 

    Crafting Fashion Jewellery (x1 day)

    Working with the Centre's design tutor, participants would be given the opportunity to use every day and craft materials to create paper jewellery make models of their idea. The session is designed to allow participants to explore areas of form and function through their own creativity and develop a more in depth better understanding of the areas of consideration when designing and jewellery.

    Presentation Painting and Technical Drawing (x2 days)

    Utilising their completed practical work participants will be given the opportunity to complete both a presentation painting and a technical drawing of their pieces. This will provide the participants with an overview of different elements of the jewellery industry as well as helping create a versatile portfolio which will demonstrate a range of creative practices which will aid their potential future progression.

     Technical Session (x1 day) 

    Taking place in the Centre's state of the art training workshops participants will have the opportunity to create a basic ring allowing them to explore the properties and manipulation of materials and the sizing of jewellery. The piece of jewellery will be completed to a standard which would allow them to be worn and will be completed in silver. 

  • Please send us:

    Your design, inspired by UK Architecture, on paper, along with supportive preparatory work (initial sketches, images etc.)

    Alongside the design, please send an “About Me” paragraph of no more than 500 words, explaining your circumstances, any challenges you have overcome, why you have sought support from The Prince’s Trust, and what support you’ve received from the charity to date

    Please be sure to include your name, address, date of birth and contact email and phone number at the top of the page

    Please note:

    Entrants need to be aged 16-30 and have received some support from The Prince’s Trust.  

    A shortlist of candidates will be invited to London to present their concept to the Leopards panel. Up to six young designers will be chosen as winners.

    Competition deadline is Friday May 31st.

    Please send entries with designs and your “About Me” information to:

    Becky Inman, The Prince's Trust, Prince’s Trust House, 9 Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS or to becky.inman@princes-trust.org.uk

    By submitting a design, you agree to be bound by our Terms and Conditions.

  • The competition will run from March 25th to May 31st  2021;

    To enter the Competition, submit your design, with supporting preparatory work (showing how the design is inspired by UK Architecture), and your “About Me” paragraph, to the following address: Becky Inman, The Prince's Trust, Prince’s Trust House, 9 Eldon Street, London EC2M 7LS 

    Competition entries will be longlisted and the longlist judged by a panel including the Leopards, designated staff of the Trust and our designated partners at Vogue magazine, who will then go on to meet a shortlist before identifying up to six winning entries;

    By submitting an entry to the Competition, you accept that the decision of the judges as to the winners of the Competition will be final and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into with respect to this decision;

    By entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to do so. The Prince’s Trust may require you to provide proof that you are eligible to enter the competition;

    There is a limit of one entry to the competition per person;

    All designs entered into the competition must be the entrant’s own work;

    All entrants have the right to withdraw their entry prior to May 31st 2019 by emailing becky.inman@princes-trust.org.uk

    The Prince’s Trust will not accept:

    -Responsibility for Competition entries that are lost, mislaid, damaged or delayed in transit, regardless of cause, including, for example, as a result of any postal failure, equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer, hardware or software failure of any kind; or 

    -Proof of posting or transmission as proof of receipt of entry to the Competition. 

    The Prince’s Trust reserves the right to cancel, modify or supersede the competition at any time if, in its sole discretion, the competition is not capable of being conducted as specified;

    Entrants must be aged 16-30 on May 31st 2021;

    Designs must be received by The Prince’s Trust no later than May 31st 2019. All design entries received after this date will be automatically disqualified;

    Due to the volume of designs received, The Prince’s Trust cannot guarantee the return of unsuccessful designs to the entrant;

    Shortlisted entries may be featured in any or all of: The Prince’s Trust website, Vogue website or in Vogue magazine;

    The Goldsmith’s four day training experience will take place at 42 Britton St, Clerkenwell, London EC1M 5AD.

    Reasonable travel expenses associated with attending the training experience at Goldsmith’s will be covered by The Prince’s Trust.

    Rights and ownership of the winning designs will be granted to The Leopards although these will not be used for commercial gain by the Leopards.

    We will only process the information you provide to us for the purposes of the competition. As part of this process we will share the information you provide to us with our partners The Leopards and Goldsmith’s Centre (for the purposes of selecting a winner and administering the prize). By entering this competition you’re providing your permission for The Prince’s Trust to process and share the information that you provide to us i.e Name, address, date of birth, contact email and phone number. You can withdraw your consent for this processing at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer.  For further information on how the Prince’s Trust stores and processes your data please review our Data Privacy Statement which can be found on our website.

 

2021 Design Competition Winners

FUTURE STARS

Megan Brown

Emma Quinn

Claire Skelton

Noi McMillan

Jessica Arawitese

 

Our Mentees

 

Jessica Awaritefe

My time as a mentee at Stephen Webster was a gift. Prior to that, my skills were very basic and I had an idea of making jewellery but being in the work environment at Stephen Webster and seeing the day-to-day making gave me a lot more perspective, essentially opening me up to a whole new way of seeing.

Butterfly Jessica

“My experience gave me the chance to learn and be ready for when the opportunity for a job as an assistant maker came. I had pieces that had been made to a very high standard ready to show, an experience that I would not have gotten from college alone and insights to the beautiful world of Jewellery to share.” - JESSICA AWARITEFE

“Jessica has been a model Mentee. She was very clear that she wanted to pursue a career as a bench jewellery. She embraced all the skill learning disciplines require to become a top craftsperson. Once a week we met and talked about the current pieces she had been working on. Toward the completion of the time Jessica spent with us, she was becoming more confident with the tools and processes she had been practicing. Her enthusiasm was contagious and everyone enjoyed her being part of the team” - STEPHEN WEBSTER


Hannah Mccoy

I absolutely loved my time with The Leopards. I was so lucky to get to train with the country’s best jewellers and industry experts, it taught me so many things, gave me so much confidence and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I decided to start a company called Bexiaa London, named after my best friend Becky who died.


Alex Angel-Benscher

When I first came up for the idea of Vurchoo – a jewellery range which helps children all around the world off the streets and into education, I needed help with the first steps onto the ladder. This is where The Prince’s Trust became so important to me. They gave me awareness of the skills needed to succeed as well as mentorship/funding to start the brand.

“This helped me enormously to turn my life of a ‘stuck in a rut graffiti artist’, into an extremely happy dad of two, with a bright future of my own ahead. The mentorship continues to this day and how I met the Leopards, who have helped physically and inspirationally to create my biggest piece to date - ‘The World at Your Fingertips’ - using natural diamonds and a unique sky-blue topaz, inspired by how the work of the Prince’s Trust truly opens the world of possibility to so many and the profits of this ring will go back directly to The Prince’s Trust. ”

— ALEX ANGEL-BENSCHER