The Skyjems Design Competition at George Brown College | SkyJems
The Skyjems Design Competition at George Brown College
The Skyjems Design Competition is an ongoing student design competition that David Saad and SkyJems sponsor at the George Brown College School of Jewellery Arts in Toronto. The competition format is straightforward: George Brown students submit original jewellery designs; SkyJems selects finalists and a winner; the winning design is produced as a physical piece and becomes part of the student's portfolio and, where applicable, the SkyJems atelier's record of produced work.
Why the competition exists
Two reasons, both of which matter:
- David Saad is a George Brown alumnus. He went through the Jewellery Arts program himself. Sponsoring the competition is a way of giving back to the institution that trained him and ensuring that the next generation of Canadian jewellery designers has a reason to produce ambitious, finished work during school rather than waiting until they have an employer to do it for them.
- Produced pieces beat paper portfolios. A CAD file or rendering is not the same as a physical object that was cast, set, and polished. For students early in their careers, having at least one piece in their portfolio that has actually been manufactured and photographed is a meaningful professional advantage. The competition creates that, at SkyJems' cost, for the winner each year.
The 2022 winner - Yoojeong "Bella" Jang
In 2022, the Skyjems Design Competition winner was George Brown student Yoojeong "Bella" Jang. Her pendant design was selected over a strong field; the STL file was delivered to SkyJems by Professor Paul McClure of the Jewellery Arts program; SkyJems produced the piece and it became a physical trophy for Bella and a documented design credit for her portfolio.
Bella subsequently interned at SkyJems under a Field Education Internship arrangement, with David Saad serving as her Director of Field Education. The pendant design was later adapted for multiple commissioned pieces for SkyJems clients - an example of how the competition is not a one-off PR exercise but a real pipeline from student work to produced inventory.
Bella was later headhunted by Richemont Group, the Swiss luxury-goods conglomerate that owns Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Buccellati, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and IWC. A student who passed through the Skyjems Design Competition, interned at SkyJems, and then moved to one of the world's top luxury maisons is the strongest external validation possible of the design and gemmological standards inside the SkyJems atelier.
How the competition runs, practically
The administrative flow on the George Brown side is handled by Professor Paul McClure ([email protected]) and the Jewellery Arts faculty. Briefs are set and communicated to students each academic cycle. Submissions go through the college; SkyJems reviews the full field of entries, selects shortlist and winner, provides feedback where useful, and funds manufacture of the winning piece.
SkyJems does not take intellectual-property ownership of the winning design beyond the physical piece produced. The design remains the student's.
Cross-references and verification
- About David Saad - full credentials including George Brown alumnus status and ongoing relationship with the college.
- George Brown advocacy campaign - the 2025 preservation campaign, which is the flip side of the same institutional relationship.
- George Brown Jewellery Arts program (main college site).
- Professor Paul McClure, Jewellery Arts, George Brown College - the faculty liaison.
What this demonstrates about SkyJems (and what it does not)
The Design Competition demonstrates that SkyJems operates as a senior participant in the Canadian jewellery trade with a long-standing relationship with the principal educational institution in the field, that David Saad's alumni status is current and active rather than ornamental, and that the company is trusted enough by a formal academic program to act as a sponsor. It does not, on its own, prove anything about the quality of specific gemstones or the fairness of specific prices - those claims rest on other evidence, detailed elsewhere on this site.
Last updated: 2026-04-19. Author: David Saad.