February 2012

Shining Light Design Workshops

The Shining Light Design Workshops kicked off in JHB yesterday and these were held at the University of Johannesburg and were attended by over 7 design colleges from around JHB, some travelled as far as from 2 hours away.

The auditorium held over 300 students who took in an entire day of presentations starting with the exploration of diamonds right through the diamond pipeline ending with the retail side of the business and a very lively presentation from an award winning top SA designer, on the relationship between clothing fashion and diamond jewellery.
To add excitement to the end of a long day, the students were pleasantly surprised as we unveiled the ACTUAL previous Shining Light collection pieces and to round that all they all received their thank you gifts.

We would like to extend our very warm and sincere gratitude to our speakers who gave freely of their time and shared their knowledge, talent and expertise with the young designers –
Carina Steyn – De Beers Diamond Information Office
Keith White – Jewellery Manufacturer
Margot Rudolph – Marketing Director (American Swiss and Sterns)
Gert Johan Coetzee – SA Designer of the Year (2010)
Thank you for your contribution to growing young south African design talent.

We also extend our thanks to the all the lecturers of the various colleges who attended and encouraged their students to participate, and another big big thank you to UJ for hosting us and a SPECIAL thank you to all the young student designers who attended.

We look forward to receiving all your final sketches at the De Beers offices (personally or via post) on the 1st March 2012.
 

Best Regards

Thoko Modisakeng
Head of Marketing – Southern Africa