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How to Choose Color in Your Jewelry Designs

By NYIAD Jewelry Mentor on June 23, 2015

The New York Institute of Art and Design offers an accredited, online jewelry making course and because we do, we like to provide free tips for interior designers. Enjoy!

How to Choose Color in Your Jewelry Designs

At the New York Institute of Art and Design, we work with a large number of jewelry design students. And one question comes up time and again: what colors should I use in my designs?

The answer is quite simple. Use whatever colors you want.

But if that’s all you tell someone, it doesn’t help much. So we tell our students to choose color based on one of three things:

  1. Choose based on meanings – different colors mean different things, and you want your designs to carry those same meanings. For example, the color red can represent passion, or warmth, or love. Green can represent freshness or newness. Yellow can represent peace and happiness.
  2. Choose based on moods – think about how you want people to feel when they wear something. Will the piece you’re designing make a statement? Will it make the person feel unique or special in some way? What outfits will it go with? The colors you use will impact when and how people will wear the jewelry, so choose based on how the end user will actually use it.
  3. Choose based on tastes – at the end of the day, it’s true that the colors you use depend entirely on you. It’s your choice, so do what feels right to you. Your personal tastes have as much to do with the choices you make as anything else. So work with colors that you like best.

Want to learn more? The New York Institute of Art and Design offers an online jewelry design course. Request your free course catalog today!