#Call4Entry - MJSA Calls for Entries to its 2014 Vision Awards - New Categories Announced

MJSA Calls for Entries to its 2014 Vision Awards

New categories include awards for the use of CAD/CAM technology and digital marketing expertise

Adam Neeley's 2013 Winner

MJSA, the association for jewelry makers and designers, has announced its Call for Entries for the 2014 MJSA Vision Awards. The deadline for submissions is later this year—April 17, and the contest winners will be celebrated at the 2015 MJSA Expo New York.

“We’ve expanded the MJSA Vision Awards so they honor not only outstanding jewelry design—including custom work—but also the remarkable work of jewelry brands in their use of digital marketing,” says David W. Cochran, MJSA president and CEO. “It also celebrates the innovative use of lasers and CAD/CAM, to showcase how jewelry designers are incorporating new technologies to better make and sell their creations.”

The MJSA Vision Awards, through the years, have celebrated the work of some of today’s most well-known jewelry artists, such as Todd Reed, Mark Schneider, Pamela Froman, Julia Behrends, Adam Neeley, and Gregoré Morin, along with countless other jewelry makers and designers successfully working in the field today.

The 2014 MJSA Vision Award categories include:
• Professional Design Excellence (1-3 years in business);

• Professional Design Excellence (4+ years in business);

• The Future of the Industry, sponsored by the MJSA Education Foundation;

• Custom Design Distinction (designs that met a client’s request), sponsored by Techform Advanced Casting;

• Laser Distinction (design that relied upon the use of a laser), sponsored by LaserStar Technologies Corp.;

• CAD/CAM Distinction (designs that were created with the use of CAD/CAM technologies), sponsored by EnvisionTEC;

• Digital Marketing Distinction (honors a business that has created a digital marketing program).

Ezra Satok-Wolman 2013 Winner - Palladium
 

All professional and distinction categories are open to independent or company-employed U.S. and international jewelry designers. The Future of the Industry Award is open to any student enrolled in an art, design, or jewelry-related program at a college, university, or proprietary technical school.

Winners will be selected by a distinguished panel of jewelry designers, manufacturers, and editors of leading jewelry trade publications. Judges will consider originality, presentation quality, effective use of materials, wearability, and the design’s perceived manufacturing and marketing potential.

All winning entries will be recognized in MJSA news releases delivered to the trade and consumer press; in MJSA Journal; in the MJSA Up to Date e-newsletter; and in a special section on the MJSA website, MJSA.org. They will also be shared via MJSA’s social media channels at LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. The winning entries will be featured in special ad pages in Instore and Metalsmith magazines (the competition's Media Sponsors).

Marc Schneider's 2013 Winner

All first-place Professional Design Excellence winners will be awarded a $500 Rio Grande gift certificate, and all second-place Professional Design Excellence winners will receive a full library of MJSA Press publications (value of up to $400) and be recognized in trade publication ads. All first-place Distinction winners will receive $750 cash awards, and their entries will be recognized in trade publication ads. The first-place Digital Marketing Distinction winner will have its digital efforts profiled as a "standard of excellence" case study, which will appear in the MJSA Technology Sourcebook (20,000 distribution to jewelry makers, designers, and retailers) and promoted by Media Sponsors Metalsmith and Instore magazines.

David Alvarado's "Cycle" Pendant - 2013 Winner

The first-place Future of the Industry winner will receive a $500 gift certificate from Rio Grande and a $1,000 scholarship from the MJSA Education Foundation, payable to any jewelry design, jewelry making, or other jewelry-related degree program at a U.S. college, university, or technical school. The second-place Future of the Industry winner will receive a $500 scholarship from the MJSA Education Foundation.

To learn more about the MJSA Vision Awards, see complete guidelines, and enter the contest, go tohttp://mjsa.org/events_and_programs/mjsa_vision_awards.