There are several factors that go into creating our accolade winning product designs; cutting-edge ideas, top-notch designer and proven production facilities. Style Dots has incorporated all three to produce trendy and highly desirable products year after year. We thought you’d like a behind-the-scenes look at how we go from great ideas to delivering fabulous fashion items to YOU!
Ideas Come From Many Sources
Style Dots knows that there is a broad range of personal tastes out there that our product has to appeal to; so broad that we can’t possibly come up with all the ideas ourselves! To help us collect all the ideas from the minds of our clients and Boutique Partners, we created a dedicated e-mail so that anyone can suggest a design idea they have for a product they would like to see Style Dots offer. Do you have an idea for a great Style Dots product? E-mail it to us at design@styledotshome.com
Pantone Colors of the Year are just one source of inspiration that is used to create beautiful and on-trend Style Dots Jewelry. Shown are the Fuchsia Glimmer and Fuchsia Botanical Statement Dots.
The Design Process
Most of our ideas are the result of research done by our Director of Design, Claire Bentley, of London, England. Claire is always working about six months ahead of the calendar so product will be ready in time for its launch. This means that she needs to be aware of the trends and any particular motifs that will appear in the up-and-coming fashion season, both in the United States and worldwide. This keeps our product line always exciting, fresh, and totally on-trend. She also attends industry trade shows and looks to the Pantone colors of the coming year to get design inspiration. Ideas are brainstormed; some are discarded and some move forward to the design stage.
Computer-aided design allows Claire to create precise drawings to insure that our products are made to exact specifications.
Claire takes the ideas that make it through the discernment process and creates a CAD – Computer-Aided Design – which is a computer generated drawing that shows the product to scale with all the relevant dimensions, metal and stone details along with any additional special instructions. Claire then discusses the designs with Style Dots’ founder Gina Smith and together they decide which product they would like to put in the catalog and which items they prefer to offer as exclusives.
Claire then sends the designs to carefully selected manufacturers. Each manufacturer has their own specialist skill base, so Claire decides which design goes to which manufacturer. Claire’s contribution to the design process then goes from creative to managerial as she connects with each manufacturer to discuss any technical issues, to negotiate prices and order quantities. Once an agreement is reached on these points, the designs then proceed to the sampling stage.
Meticulous attention to detail ensures a quality product that functions correctly and is also lovely to behold!
Once made, the samples are then shipped to Dot Central for further evaluation. When they arrive at the warehouse, all pieces are quality checked, measured and tested for how well they are made, if they hold a Dot properly, or, in the case of Dots, if they fit properly in our existing foundations. Only samples that pass this rigorous inspection are then approved for production. Once these products arrive at the warehouse, some are published in the catalog and on the website as part of our core product line, and others are reserved for special promotions throughout the year. From there, our wonderful Boutique Partners and fabulous clients take over, showing off our amazing products every time they go out, making Style Dots known far and wide!
And That’s Not All!
Working in product projections as well, Claire connects with Gina on issues such as stock management, order levels and product planning. This helps keep our out-of-stocks to a minimum and helps assure that product inventory remains as stable as possible. As if that were not enough, Claire, along with her team of two freelance graphic designers, manges all of the social media graphics for all of the Style Dots Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest posts, sales and monthly exclusives flyers, trackers, forms and other graphic content.
Our Director of Design, Claire Bentley is the driving force behind our first-rate designs and is responsible for keeping the Style Dots product line perfectly on-trend, in stock and ever appealing.
So, thank you if you’ve suggested a design, and pat yourself on the back if that design was accepted and produced for our line. Also be sure to remember our Director of Design Claire Bentley, and her whole team who all work so diligently to create a product line that appeals to a wide audience and is sure to please you and your clients for many years to come!