The Jewellery and Gemstone Association of Africa (JGAA) has introduced Design Dynamic, a new competition inviting designers from across Africa and its diaspora to bring their creativity to the global stage. Announced on 24 October 2025 alongside GemGenève, Africa Jewellery Week™ and Digital Jewelry Week, the initiative links African designers with international mentors, ethical experts and industry leaders — part of the JGAA’s broader goal to build a dynamic African jewellery industry rooted in education and empowerment.
Founded by Zambian lawyer and strategist Longo Mulaisho-Zinsner, the JGAA connects training, ethics and entrepreneurship across the continent. Its new competition extends that mission to a global call, inviting Africans worldwide — and people of African heritage from the Afro-Brazilian, Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean diasporas — to translate identity and heritage into fine-jewellery design.
This year’s creative brief asks designers to draw inspiration from the colours, flight and symbolism of African birdlife, a theme that will culminate in the Africa Birdlife Collection (ABC). Each entry must feature gemstones mined in Africa, reflecting both the continent’s natural richness and its creative potential.
Participants can submit work in three categories: Hand Rendered Design, Computer Assisted Design (CAD) and The Art of Gouache — the latter reviving a traditional technique rarely showcased in modern competitions. The selected designs will be exhibited at GemGenève 2026, giving visitors a first look at the drawings and renderings. The completed jewels, produced in collaboration with mentors and craftspeople, will then be unveiled at GemGenève 2027 as part of a dedicated exhibition.
For Mulaisho-Zinsner, Design Dynamic is as much about visibility as it is about artistry. “Our vision is to see a truly dynamic African jewellery and gemstone industry — one that reflects the diversity, creativity and brilliance already alive within it,” she says. “Each open call reveals new voices and new ways of seeing Africa through design.”
The JGAA has already shown what such visibility can achieve. Earlier this year, The Jewellery Editor reported on Nsanshi Art, a Zambian collective of women jewellers supported by JGAA who travelled from Solwezi to exhibit at GemGenève 2025 — an initiative that demonstrated how training and exposure can turn local craftsmanship into international opportunity. Design Dynamic builds directly on that precedent, offering structure, mentorship and manufacturing support to a broader community of designers.
For GemGenève, the Swiss salon co-founded by Nadège Totah and Thomas Faerber, the competition continues the show’s long-standing commitment to education and inclusivity. “We are honoured to support the Design Dynamic competition and the next generation of creative voices in jewellery,” says Totah. “The Africa Birdlife Collection is a beautiful tribute to artistic freedom and imagination.”
Since its creation in 2018, GemGenève has become a platform for ideas that connect creativity with visibility. That collaborative spirit runs through Design Dynamic, which brings together African and international partners — from GemGenève and Jewellery Afrika to The Jewellery Editor, both acting as media partners.
With judging panels spanning six countries and an ethics committee including representatives from the World Gold Council and the Jeweler’s Vigilance Committee, the initiative carries the weight of a professional award rather than a symbolic campaign.
“This competition raises the profiles of both established and emerging African jewellery designers — their stories, their energy and their love for the continent,” says Jason Aarons, Editor-in-Chief of Jewellery Afrika, the project’s other media partner.
Across the global jewellery landscape, inclusivity is no longer a slogan but an emerging practice. Yet, as Mulaisho-Zinsner notes, visibility must be matched by structure — training, access to materials and networks that turn ideas into viable businesses. Design Dynamic aims to do precisely that, pairing artistic recognition with tangible support, from gemstone supply to business mentorship.
At The Jewellery Editor, we’ve followed the rise of African-based craftsmanship for more than a decade. As I write this, the pattern is clear: progress comes when the global industry listens and invests, not merely applauds. It’s from that perspective that my business partner, Maria Doulton, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Jewellery Editor, offers her view. “It opens the world of jewellery to wider participation,” she says. “By removing many of the structural barriers facing jewellers and artists in Africa, it allows new voices to be heard and shines a light on Africa’s potential for innovation and leadership in design.”
Entries are open until 1 March 2026 (midnight GMT), and participation is free of charge. Designers, jewellers, CAD specialists and visual artists are invited to submit their work through jgaa.africa.
Whether viewed as a competition, a mentorship platform or a quiet rebalancing of the industry’s narrative, Design Dynamic reflects a larger truth: that the future of jewellery will depend on how well it learns to see — and support — the creativity already alive across Africa.
