The Moon Orb Beetle - a small creature on the brink of extinction unless we alter our treatment of its habitat, our Earth.
Through a collaboration with Danish jewelry designer Mads Z and Danish biologist Vicky Knudsen, my team and I were granted the opportunity to create a jewelry collection. While we were given the creative freedom to design pieces that would resonate with Mads Z's customers in both jewelry and branding, the task proved more challenging. We were presented with a unique challenge: to draw inspiration from an almost extinct Danish animal or a rare plant.
This project was a group project. My main responsibilities included branding, storytelling, and the lookbook. In addition, I contributed to design development, CAD prototypes, and rendering.
The Moon Orb Beetle
The initial stage of this project involved selecting our animal.
We were given the opportunity to choose from a variety of animals and plants.
My group and I instantly knew we wanted to focus on the tiny beetle known as the Moon Orb Beetle.
We chose this beetle because we observed numerous distinct details in its shell, and the curvature of its legs added a playful element that we envisioned as part of a jewellery collection.
Materials : Fine liner pen
Moodboards
To get our ideas flowing, we created mood boards before starting to sketch.
We wanted to focus on different textures, inspired by those found on the beetle.
At this stage, we had already started thinking about what the brand could become - something that feels like it’s from an adventure or taken out of a storybook.
Most importantly, nature had to be present in the visual branding.
Materials : Photoshop, InDesign
Sketches 001
To begin our sketches, we first needed to decide on the design drivers we wanted to work with.
We landed on the following:
Sustainability
Recycled Silver
Everyday Jewelry
Soft Forms
Maxi-Minimalistic
Polished/Bright Metal
MOON ORB Bettle
We worked with both 2D and 3D sketches to truly explore the different textures.Materials : Paper, pencil, fine liners, wax, aluminium foil
Sketches 002 & Final pieces
Once the first sketches were completed, we needed to select our final collection and recreate the pieces in Rhino.
For this project, we didn’t need to produce the jewellery physically, so the final presentation consisted of the designs made in Rhino and rendered in KeyShot.
We ended up with a collection entirely in 925 sterling silver, offering two finish options: polished or brushed.
Materials : Rhino, Keyshot
Lookbook & Storytelling
In this project, we focused heavily on storytelling.
We needed a lookbook that conveyed the story of the Moon Orb Beetle and our jewellery collection.
Our goal was to engage consumers in the world of the Moon Orb Beetle, which is why we presented the lookbook more like a story, something you can clearly see through the text on each page.
Materials : Photoshop, InDesign