Jewellery and Silversmithing – Design for Industry – BA (Hons)

If you want to be a designer within the contemporary jewellery industry, our Jewellery and Silversmithing – Design for Industry degree course will help you succeed.

Focusing on new technology but building on existing traditional skills, you’ll receive the support, facilities and expertise to enhance your jewellery design potential.

Our graduates are highly successful and go on to work for prestigious names such as Tiffany & Co, Cartier and De Beers, as well as setting up their own successful design businesses.

What’s covered in the course?

This leading design course is a one-year top-up, shaping contemporary designers for the jewellery and silversmithing industry. Emphasising new technology, it builds on existing traditional skills to enhance your potential.

Whether you want to work as a designer within a company or as a creative entrepreneur, our dedicated staff will help you develop a successful career.

Live projects give you a chance to test your skills and creativity, and exhibit work with the chance to be awarded student prizes. You will create several products throughout the course to develop your portfolio.

You’ll use the latest CAD software packages and work towards a project to design, develop and launch a new product range.

Visits to trade fairs, exhibitions and companies give you an understanding of commercial manufacturing environments and help you decide which aspect of the jewellery trade you want to work in.

Our students benefit from outstanding industry links and you’ll also have the chance to enter awards and competitions to help you get noticed.

Graduate Clive Taylor won the gold award in ‘Technological Innovation’ at the Goldsmiths’ Craft and Design Council Awards ceremony for his elegant LED desk lamp. Made from sterling silver and operated by proximity sensors and a mobile phone app, it’s an example of our student innovations.  Clive now creates elegant functional objects incorporating traditional silversmithing and modern technology.

You’ll study at our internationally-renowned School of Jewellery, in the heart of Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter where much of today’s jewellery is still made. The historical facade of our Vittoria Street building conceals a contemporary environment including workshops, a specialist library, an atrium gallery and exhibition space.

Why Choose Us?

• Founded in 1890, our internationally-renowned School of Jewellery is the largest in Europe, located in the heart of Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter. An estimated 40 per cent of British jewellery is still made there today and you’ll gain contacts, inspiration and experience.

• You’ll have access to industry standard studio workshops with laser cutting, marking and welding, and a dedicated CAD facility. You also receive a laptop for the duration of your course, loaded with up-to-date, relevant CAD software.

• Sponsorship, support and strong collaborative links with industry will help you to develop an entrepreneurial outlook and an insight into the professional world.

• We have an excellent reputation for highly employable, creative graduates with an in-depth understanding of the latest technology and the manufacturing industry.

• Our nearby Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC) offers expertise in a range of industry-related techniques, including CAD and manufacturing, rapid prototyping, surface finishing, reverse engineering and project management.