IED Istituto Europeo di Design

For more than fifty years, the Istituto Europeo di Design has been operating in the fields of education and research in the disciplines of design, fashion, visual communication and management.

The Jewelry Design Department at IED Milan fosters a complete and cross-disciplinary education in the contemporary jewelry field. The complex scenario is embraced by opening a dialogue between two apparently distant realities: an intimate and experimental approach and a company-oriented design, both fundamental for jewelry designers.

In this framework, the jewel artifact is considered as a multifaceted design object, constantly contaminated by different creative languages as well as by socio-cultural phenomena and occurrences. Thus, it is a means of communication, aimed at conveying both individual and collective meanings.

The IED approach - based on learning by doing and project culture - provides a balanced mixture of goldsmith skills, design methodology, and experimental research. Students are encouraged to combine tradition and innovation, considering themselves and their personal stories and experience as a precious and unique narrative resource, capable to build their future identity as designers.

During their path, they may profit from different design approaches under the guidance of a faculty of professionals, trained with specific skills in their areas of expertise. Furthermore, collaborations with galleries, international competitions, and events offer the possibility for students to take the first steps in the professional environment.

The school trains students to manage independently the making of a collection, providing them with knowledge and tools to handle the numerous aspects of the design process: concept phase, design, prototyping, production, as well as visual and strategy communication.

As a school with an international vocation, the Istituto Europeo di Design welcomes students with different nationalities and cultures to all its campuses. To date, the IED has trained students from about 100 different countries.

BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN JEWELRY DESIGN

The three-year BA degree course will suit you if you are deeply interested in jewelry, eager to learn a wide range of skills, and develop your individual creativity.

Since the first year, the curriculum provides a good balance between workshop activities, theoretical knowledge, and drawing, in order to provide students with the tools to evolve their personal design research.

The participants learn to manage the development of a project through various assignments of increasing complexity and different approaches. During the program, they design and produce original contemporary jewelry pieces that will contribute to the setting of their portfolio.

The peak of the study program is the major project, intended as well-structured and in-depth research applied to a jewelry collection. This project lasts an academic year and expresses the area of specialization and interest of the future designer. The process is enriched by the tutoring of renowned professionals, each one assigned according to the typology of the student’s field of research.