Kendra Scott Jewelry Design
I designed the Anya earring in 2021 as part of a semester-long course at The University of Texas at Austin, where my team competed for the chance to have our design be sold by Kendra Scott. The earring won three rounds of competition, and was produced and sold by Kendra Scott. The Earring was renamed the “Tessa Gold Ear Jacket in Rock Crystal Illusion”. In May 2022, the earring was debuted at the official launch party at the flagship store in Austin, Texas. The earring was sold in Kendra Scott stores and is available on the official website.
The Earring
The Anya earring takes a classic Kendra Scott gem shape, the Tess, and revamps it in a modern way. The Tess gem shape is a favorite among long-term Kendra Scott clients, but has not been used as much recently due to the Elisa gem shape's rise in popularity. We saw this as an opportunity to breathe new life into the Tess shape.
In our research, we found that consumers are looking for pieces that are timeless, classic, and versatile – rather than trendy, statement jewelry. To achieve this aesthetic, I chose neutral colors and small gemstones, and added details with three small rhinestones that blend into the delicate chain.
One of the best features of this earring is that it is adjustable. The bottom half of the earring is attached to a hoop that can be easily slid on or off the earring post, so that the earring can be worn as a simple stud or as a dangle earring. This allows more versatility for how you style the earring. For example, you could transition the earring from day to night and wear the stud to work at the office and then add the dangle attachment when you get off at 5. You could also wear this earring for romantic special occasions or to simply add a little extra sparkle to an everyday outfit.
We know how important family is to Kendra Scott, so we wanted this piece to be appropriate for all ages, for moms and their daughters. To access a wide age range of customers, we opted for 14K gold plated over brass as our material in order to lower the price point and make our earring more accessible to younger generations with less disposable income.
The Competition
Through Kendra Scott’s connection with The University of Texas at Austin, I participated in a semester-long course where we competed for the chance to have our design produced and sold by Kendra Scott. I was placed in a small team of four students, each from a different major. Together we researched the Kendra Scott brand and market and created a capsule collection intended for the Kendra Scott customer base. Each team member designed one piece of jewelry (I designed both the Anya earring and the Zarina necklace since we were short one team member). We presented our capsule collection to a panel of Kendra Scott executives, who then selected the Anya earring as the winning design from our group.
The earring then went on to the second round of competition, which was determined by a poll that we promoted using social media marketing strategies. The earring then went on to another round of voting from existing Kendra Scott customers via the official Kendra Scott Instagram page in order to see how existing clients would react to the different competing designs. The Anya earring won both polls in May 2021 and became available to buy in May 2022. All proceeds from the earring will be donated to the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute to help support future student initiatives.
The Process
My teammates and I created the following presentations to document the entire production process, including research, design, creative direction, and our social media campaign.
Consumer & Brand Research
We conducted research on the Kendra Scott brand and consumer in a variety of ways. We interviewed Kendra Scott representatives and asked them about what kind of people came into the stores, what they were wearing, what they tended to buy and why, and what the representatives thought their consumers were really looking for. We also visited several store locations ourselves to research the in-person traffic as well as the atmosphere of the brand, including the store layout, interior design, marketing materials, and existing products and promotions.
We found that consumers value versatility and a classy, timeless design aesthetic. We learned that outside of the South, Kendra Scott clients prefer metal materials and smaller proportions, in contrast with the large, colorful jewelry that Kendra Scott has become known for here in Texas. One of Kendra Scott’s three pillars is family, which is clear when you look around the store and see mothers, daughters, and grandmothers all shopping together. The diverse ages of customers led us to choose a wide age range for our target market. This is further defined by our three target personas, which are later represented through our choice of casting models of various age groups.
Product Design
We took our findings from our research and translated them into a five-piece capsule collection. My team went through the inspiration and ideation process together, and then we each designed our own jewelry piece. Due to us having four team members, I designed both the Anya earring and the Zarina necklace. We took inspiration from the geometric shapes and lines of the Kendra Scott logo and products that reminded us of Middle Eastern architecture. We combined these bold shapes with a neutral color scheme, taking inspiration from the natural beauty of the gems. We further softened our design aesthetic by opting for very delicate chains and small gem sizes. From our research, we found that necklaces are the best sellers at Kendra Scott, and the representatives we interviewed attested to the popularity of layered necklaces in particular. This led us to make the decision to include three different necklaces in our capsule collection. We determined the price points based on existing Kendra Scott products and worked to cut costs in the designs where we could, because we knew that the more accessible a product’s price is, the more people will be interested when it is sold at the store. We presented this collection to a panel of Kendra Scott executives, and they selected my Anya earring as the chosen design for our team. The earring then went on to compete with the other team’s winning designs.
Photoshoot & Social Media Marketing
After the Anya earring was selected, we moved to the social media and product launch stages. We created this hypothetical social media marketing plan as an example of how we would promote the earring, were it to be sold at Kendra Scott. We were connected with the official computer-aided design team at Kendra Scott, who provided us with a beautiful CAD illustration of our earring. We met with our paired CAD designer once, going over every detail of the product including sizing, materials, and the closure in order to make sure there were no communication issues. In this meeting we learned that our original stone, the iridescent drusty, was not able to be manufactured double-sided. It was important to us that our gem be double-sided, as it would be clearly visible when it dangled down the wearer’s neck. This led us to change the stone type to a classic ivory pearl, instead of the iridescent drusty. I then took the provided CAD illustration and photoshopped it onto our promotional photos.
I acted as creative director of our photoshoot, casting models, selecting poses, props and angles, and editing the earring on the photos using Adobe Photoshop. We worked with UT student photographer Jeffery Sun, who took the photos and assisted us with adding filters and photo effects. It was important to us to cast diverse models to be inclusive and represent our target market. I contacted an agent from R Models Agency who was kind enough to agree to allow us to work with signed model Chase Huggins. We also contacted local influencer Noura Abdi, who agreed to model for us as well. As I mentioned previously, it was important for us to reach a wide age range of customers, so we cast our teammate's beautiful mother, Sherry Villanueva, as our third model. We all worked together, creating photos that could be used for a variety of purposes. We chose more product-centered photos for Facebook posts and more stylized photos for Instagram. We also included editorial style photos that could be used for magazine covers, promotional material, and more. To capture the friendly, feminine spirit of the Kendra Scott brand, we went for a happy, serene feeling with this photoshoot. We chose simple, summery clothes and natural makeup, as well as soft pink color grading and subtle blurry photo effects. We styled this earring with other Kendra Scott jewelry to show just how seamlessly the earring blends with existing Kendra Scott products.
